>> Jen: Hey, faithful listeners. Welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. We're going to be going into the gift of speaking in Tongues today and what you should and should not do with the gift of speaking in tongues. Stay tuned for all of that. All right, guys, so Advent is literally around the corner. It's on Sunday, and if you don't have the Advent devotional for teenage girls yet, you're going to want to get it specifically if you have a teenage
daughter. I would imagine most of you listening on here are not teenage girls, but if you know a teenage girl, you should grab one up. It is still my favorite thing that I've written to this day. It's a very fun devotional and I led it at my church for the teenage girls last year, and I think they really liked it. And I'm actually going to be doing it again this year. So you should definitely check out the book if you have teenage daughters specifically.
But let's go ahead and read First uh, Corinthians 14. Today we're going to be introducing the gift of speaking in tongues. And If I'm being 100% honest, guys, I still don't really understand the whole thing about speaking in tongues, probably because I don't have the gift, but also because it is a very mysterious gift. So let's get into it. I'll be reading verses 1 through 12 from the web version. Once again, this is first uh, 1 Corinthians
14. Follow after love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in other languages speaks not to men, but to God, uh, for no one understands but in spirit. He speaks mysteries, but he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification, exhortation, and consolation. He who speaks in another language edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the assembly. Now I desire to have all of you speak with other languages, but rather that you would
prophesy. For he is greater who prophesies than he who speaks with other languages, unless he interprets that the assembly may be built up. But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would it profit you unless I spoke to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching. even things without life giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, If they didn't give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be
known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war? So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand. How Would it be known what is spoken for you would be speaking into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without meaning. If then I don't know the meaning of the language, I would be to him who speaks a foreigner, and he who speaks would be a
foreigner to me. So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the assembly. This entire chapter is talking primarily about speaking in tongues, mainly because the Corinthian church that Paul was writing to really had a thing for speaking in tongues. They liked the idea of it. They thought it was a really cool spiritual gift, and everybody there wanted to speak in tongues.
But before we get into First uh, Corinthians 14, let's review what a spiritual gift is real quick again, because in the last chapter we talked about love, not spiritual gifts. So a spiritual gift is a gift that you receive after you become a Christian. It is given to you by the Holy Spirit. It is very different from a talent. Talent is something that you were born with, is something that you're just kind of naturally good at, or
potentially you learned over time to be good at. But a spiritual gift is different in the fact that you can never attain a spiritual gift unless you become a Christian. So, for example, the gift of, let's just say, um, faith, which would kind of correlate with martyrdom or being able to endure under persecution, uh, basically that is not a gift that comes naturally to you as a non saved individual. You're not going to have the gift of faith under pressure until you become
a Christian. And the same goes for all of the other spiritual gifts. They aren't something that you can learn or something that you were innately born with. They are something given to you by the Holy Spirit for the edification of both you and also the church. So that is what a spiritual gift is. It is different from a talent. So first uh, 1 Corinthians 14 now goes
into the spiritual gifts. But don't forget that, you know, when Paul first wrote this letter, there weren't chapter breakdowns and there weren't verse numbers, so everything flowed together very well. So we're coming out of First uh, Corinthians 13, which was the chapter talking all about love and how love is the best possible thing you can attain. Not any spiritual gift, but love, because love is going to last forever, whereas spiritual gifts are actually going to go away at some point.
Love never fails, is what Paul says. So he starts 1st uh, Corinthians 14 by saying, Follow after love and then earnestly desire spiritual gifts. So he starts 1st uh, Corinthians 14 with a very strong verb, which is follow or pursue in the Greek. So above everything else, we are supposed to be pursuing after love, literally chasing it. Achieving love is the first priority of every single Christian, or it should be,
rather. And, uh, love is very hard to achieve, because when we talked about first uh, 1 Corinthians 13, we talked about what love is. And it is very, very difficult to love the way Scripture requires us to love, which is why Paul tells us to pursue after it, to chase it down and really focus, first and foremost, loving our neighbor instead of trying to attain a, uh, spiritual gift. But we can earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but those are secondary. Love is first. Spiritual gifts are
secondary. So first uh, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 1 says, follow after love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. So now Paul says, you guys have it all wrong. Yes, the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues is really cool, but prophecy is actually better. He says, for he who speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God, uh. For no one understands. But in
the Spirit, he speaks mysteries. So I had to research a little bit about the gift of speaking in tongues, because I don't have it. I do not have the gift of speaking in tongues, so I don't understand it super well. So the way I can understand the gift of speaking in tongues is that there's two forms of it. The first form is the prayer form, and the second form is when you're able to speak somebody else's language kind of miraculously in order to minister to that
person or evangelize to that person. Say you're a missionary in a different country. You don't know the language of the people yet, but yet you're able to speak their language kind of miraculously when somebody needs to hear the Gospel. So it seems that there are two forms of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. He who speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God, uh, for no one understands. But in the Spirit, he speaks mysteries.
So that definitely sounds like somebody can be speaking in tongues just to God, uh. We know that the angels have their own language. That was in first uh, 1 Corinthians 13, very first verse. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I don't have love, I'm like a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. So Scripture certainly implies that angels have their own language. So it could be when you're speaking in Tongues just to God, uh. It could be
the angelic tongue. Even though I did, uh, a bunch of research on the gift of tongues, I still have quite a few questions about the gift, because it really is a very mysterious gift, which is exactly how Paul words it. Here it says, no one understands but in the Spirit. The person speaking in tongues speaks in mysteries. He speaks mysteries. So it's a very mysterious
gift, the gift of speaking in tongues. And possibly nobody can really understand the depth of it, but it's something that really only edifies us when it's in our prayer life. And how does it edify us? Well, if you have the gift of speaking in tongues in your prayer life, you'll feel like you want to pray and you'll want to actually spend time communicating with God, uh in that way. So it's kind of like a gift of communicating with God, uh is sort of what it seems like. So going back to verse
two. For he who speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God, uh. For no one understands but in the Spirit he speaks Mysteries, verse 3. But he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification, exhortation and consolation. So there we go. That is why Paul desires for every Christian to be able to prophesy over speaking in tongues. Because prophecy actually edifies the church and encourages the church. Because when you prophesy, you are
hearing a word from God, uh. I think a lot of people kind of misunderstand what prophecy is. Most people think it's like, um, end time revelations, uh, what's going to happen in the future, some sort of terrible thing that's going to take place. But no, prophecy just means a word from God, uh. And it could be a very encouraging word from God, uh. So it's not all doom and gloom the way some people perceive it to be. But prophecy will edify and
build up the church. Because if you have a specific word from God, uh for somebody, that's going to be a very encouraging thing for whoever hears that, then verse four. But he who speaks in another language edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the assembly. So there you go. Speaking in tongues in your prayer life is a very edifying thing because you can feel very
close to Christ in those moments. Now, that being said, though, does that mean that the gift of speaking in tongues is like a special gift and God, uh gives that to his special children who he likes the most and who he wants to have the most fellowship with? No, because I think every single spiritual gift has an edifying sense to it. For example, I do not have the gift of speaking in tongues. But I do have the gift of discernment. And there have been times where the Holy
Spirit. I just knew the Holy Spirit was talking to me about something. And when I feel the Holy Spirit talking to me about something and giving me that gift of discernment, that is a very edifying thing for me personally. So I don't think that any spiritual gift is God, uh, like picking and choosing favorites, but more so giving us spiritual gifts because He knows who we are the best and what spiritual gift fits us the
best, if that makes sense. But Paul does desire that all of us have the gift of being able to speak with other languages. That's what he says. Now, I do desire to have all of you speak with other languages, but rather that you would all prophesy. So remember who he's talking to here. He's talking to the Corinthian Church, who was really big on speaking in tongues. They all wanted to speak in tongues. And Paul says,
yes, that's a great gift. I hope you all can speak in tongues, but rather, I hope you could all prophesy, because then at least you wouldn't just be edifying yourself, you would be encouraging other people in the assembly. For he is greater who prophesies than he who speaks with other languages, unless he interprets that the assembly may be built up. So that's another spiritual gift thrown in the mix here,
which is the gift of interpretation. Some people have the gift of speaking in tongues, but cannot interpret what they are saying. They don't know. It's a mystery to them. But other people have been given
the gift of interpretation. They can just start interpreting exactly what the person speaking in tongues is saying, and then that actually becomes a very edifying thing to the church, which is what Paul's going to talk about later, but only if there is a person speaking in tongues and another person actually interpreting what is being said. But before we move on, I want to clarify verse five a little bit. Paul says he is greater who prophesies than he who speaks with other
languages. You might be like, well, Jen, doesn't that defeat your whole point with what you just said about speaking in tongues, that God, uh doesn't just give the gift of tongues to his special people. Clearly, some people are special if God, uh gives them the gift of, uh, prophesying. Because Paul says that that person is greater than the person who speaks with other languages. Well, no, because you gotta look at the context of this. Paul is talking about unifying the church in this
entire chapter. That is, uh, literally what this chapter is about is the gift of speaking in tongues, but more broadly, the unity of the Church. So when it comes to the unity of the Church, prophecy is the better gift. But when it comes to personal prayer, life to God, uh, or let's say, evangelizing in a foreign country where you don't know the language, the gift of speaking in tongues is greater in that moment. So it depends on the
context of what Paul is talking about here. So the person being blessed with the gift of prophecy is not better than the person blessed with the gift of speaking in tongues and vice versa. It's just one gift is better utilized in a different space than the other gift. Verse 6. But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you unless I speak to you either by the way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophesying or of
teaching? If Paul were to come to the Corinthian Church speaking English because, uh, back in these days, the Church would have spoken Latin or Greek. The Church wouldn't have spoken English. So if Paul comes speaking English to the Corinthian Church, they'd be like, what is this foreigner talking about? We don't get it. Paul's like, what's the use in speaking other languages to the church? Because nobody's going to understand and disregarding
tongues for a second. This is also, I think, an argument for speaking very cohesively when you are presenting the gospel message and not using a lot of Christianese. Or I might get in trouble for this. Um, a Bible Version that people can't understand. I m love the King James Version. I grew up on the King James Version. I can understand the King James Version because I grew up in the IFB church. I understand the King James Version. But the majority of people in America do not understand
the King James Version. They don't because it is a practically a different language at this point. It is in such Old English that people just don't speak that way anymore and they can't understand it. Which is why I try to use a version of the Bible that you guys can actually understand. The World English Bible is a little bit older, and unfortunately, most of the public domain versions of
Scripture are kind of in older English. But the World English Bible, the web, is the most modern public domain version of scripture that I could find. If I were to read out, uh, of the amp every single day, because that's a copyrighted version of Scripture, I could potentially get in trouble, which is why I use the web
version every day. But the point Here in scripture is when you're speaking the gospel message to people, you have to be understood in order for the people to really grasp what you are saying and want the gospel message for themselves. You have to make knowledge acceptable. Verse 7. Even things without life giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they didn't give a distinction in the sounds, how
would it be known what is piped or harped? So he's like, look, even musical instruments have a cohesive song that they are producing because if you just started strumming notes on a guitar. >> Jen: It would sound like crap. >> Jen: I had a friend years ago who I used to work with in the salon and she was in the dating. >> Jen: Game and she was trying to find people to date and she found this guy who she was dating for, um, just a second. >> Jen: She didn't really like him.
>> Jen: She was telling me that he was a musician. And what was really funny is both. >> Jen: Me and her were musicians. >> Jen: Uh, and so she understood a lot about music and she, she's like, Jen, you just gotta listen to his YouTube channel. You just gotta listen to it. And we weren't trying to be, be, we weren't trying to be mean spirited, but we were cracking up listening to his YouTube channel because he did not know music at all. And my friend was like, he's just choosing notes to play.
He's just choosing, you can't just choose a random note to start playing and singing. So we were just, we were laughing about that. >> Jen: But that's true. You can't just choose random notes and start playing. Like if somebody didn't know piano and sat down and just chose random notes on the piano, it wouldn't sound good. There has to be some sort of form to it. And that's Paul's entire point with, um, speaking in tongues as well. He's using an analogy of music to prove
his point of speaking in tongues. There has to be cohesiveness, not just with your words, but also even with musical instruments that don't have any words. Then he says if a trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war. So even the trumpet player who sounds the battle cry in war has to make a particular sound on that trumpet for people to be able to understand that they are about to go to war.
So if everybody is coming to the church just babbling and speaking incohesively in tongues, nobody is going to understand what's going on. It's going to sound crazy. So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand, how would it be known what is spoken for, you would be speaking into the air. Nobody's going to understand you if you're not speaking in a language that they can understand and, uh, in a cohesive way in
that language as well. There are, it may be so many kinds of languages in the world and none of them is without meaning. If then I don't know the meaning of the language, I would be to him who speaks a foreigner, and he who speaks to me would be a foreigner. So also you, since you are zealous for the spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the
assembly. So that's a pretty hard case against speaking in tongues in church made by Paul himself, who actually could speak in tongues, which he says later on in this chapter. So should we be speaking in tongues in the church? We can. There's going to be something laid out for how to go about speaking in tongues in the church, but it must be with an interpreter. It can't just be everybody, like screaming something out all at the same time. Scripture is clearly against that because that is not
unifying the church. The most important thing for the church is unity. When Jesus was on earth the last few moments before he was crucified, he was really driving home the point of unity. He was praying for unity for his disciples. He was praying for unity for you And I, like Jesus, prayed for literally all of believers for all of time. And he asked for unity for every single one of them. Jesus himself knew the importance of unity. And the church has to be unified. And that's
Paul's entire point here. Seek things that are going to unify the church, not things that are going to disunify the church. If you have ever talked to somebody who was once in a charismatic church, but now is not, a lot of times they will tell you that they felt a lot of peer pressure to begin speaking in tongues. And that was how they started speaking in tongues in the first place was actually due to peer pressure. That's a very disunifying
thing. If your peers feel like they are not being included in the worship service because they don't have the same gifting that you have, that's a disunifying thing. The church must be unified. Everyone using their various spiritual gifts, whether it's the gift of speaking in tongues, whether it's the gift of prophecy, whether it's the gift of interpretation or administration or pastoring or teaching, wisdom, knowledge. I can't
think of all of them. Discernment. Everyone has to use their gifts together in unity. And that is how you're really going to have a strong church when people from different walks of life come together, using the gifts of the Holy Spirit to build up and to truly edify the church. Wow, that was a really fun chapter to talk about. I'm looking forward to delving into first uh, 1 Corinthians 14 a little bit more because there's a lot to say in this
chapter. It's a very long chapter. And it, uh, really hits home some of the things that many churches nowadays struggle, uh, with specifically disunity. And also many churches nowadays, specifically Pentecostal and charismatic churches, really are into the gift of speaking in tongues, the same way that the Corinthian Church was as well. And Scripture is going to have a lot more words about speaking in tongues in church and the things that you should not do in a church service. So
you're going to want to stay tuned for that. But, friends and faithful listeners, I haven't decided if I'm going to do an episode on Thanksgiving, or not yet. I have done them in the past, but, uh, they're not usually, um, really listened to because everybody's doing, you know, holiday things. So I haven't decided yet. I might do one, I might not. We'll see. Anyway, faithful listeners, I hope you have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your Tuesday. Don't forget that
Advent is on Sunday. And if you have a teenage daughter, you're gonna want to get her an adventure devotional, specifically the one that I wrote, Adore, the Teen Girl's Guide to Advent. You can find that listed in the description of this episode or on Amazon. If you type in Jen Kokel. You will find all of my books that I have listed on Amazon and you can grab those up, especially the Adore one. Before Christmas. Faithful listeners, have a wonderful,
wonderful rest of your day. I will see you all bright and early tomorrow morning for an episode from First Kings. Happy listening and God, uh Bless.