“1Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. 3But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. 4One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.”
Love exalted does not repudiate the importance of spiritual gifts. We are to “desire” them “earnestly”—these are weighty words. Specifically, we are to go after prophesy and to “not forbid to speak in tongues” (1 Cor. 14:39). Pretty clear, right? However, the intervening verses make clear that Paul’s teaching is multi-layered and nuanced. He censures the unbiblicaluse of tongues, and by extension anything wrongly claiming to be biblical “tongues.” There are many counterfeits today, both in cultic practices around the world and also in some Christian circles.
Genuine biblical tongues is the supernatural ability to speak in a human language previously unknown to the speaker—this cannot be easily counterfeited with gibberish. The tongues evidenced on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4–11) show the disciples speaking to at least fifteen culturally different groups, who heard the gospel in their own languages. There is no reason to believe the nature of tongues changed by the time Paul wrote to the Corinthians. This gift is not an otherworldly language, supposedly an “angelic” language (as some assert from a faulty interpretation of 1 Cor. 13:1). Every time Scripture records angels speaking, they use the language of their listeners, a human language.
The true gift of tongues (i.e. languages) was tremendously useful in the rapid spread of the gospel at the changing of the dispensations. Especially in Corinth, situated at a major international seaport, tongues would have been useful to reach a steady stream of unsaved sailors, merchants, and travelers.
In verse 2, Paul does notmake an affirmative statement praising the Corinthians, but rather a terse statement about their abuse of tongues. This is similar to when he wrote earlier, “for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk” (1 Cor. 11:21). Paul did not commend them for how they practiced the Lord’s Supper. Neither does he commend them for their using tongues to supposedly speak to God, without using the mind (“for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mystery”). The Corinthians used tongues to build up (“edify”) themselves. In light of love, that is precisely what was wrong.
Lord, You gifted me so that I would be a gift to others. Help me keep this clear.
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