“⁶But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? ⁷Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? ⁸For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? ⁹So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. ¹⁰There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning. ¹¹If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me. ¹²So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.”

Paul spoke in tongues (1 Cor. 14:18), but using himself as an example to the Corinthians, he gives no evidence of using it for a “private prayer language” (as some today believe tongues to be). In ministering to them, he confined himself to that which was intelligible. What good would it be to speak Chinese to Spanish speakers? How would that build them up?

Whatever else we might say about tongues, the gift was to be used for clear communication of spiritual truth. To use it in any other way is compared to “lifeless things,” musical instruments played with no discernable tones or melody, a bugle that makes no discernable pattern of sound for communicating in battle—and, finally, it is compared to “speaking into the air.” In other words, tongues used for anything other than clear communication is nothing more than hot air. If a verbal utterance does not have a discernible meaning, then it is not a true language in any sense of the word. Thus Paul concludes that to speak in a language no one knows would make him like a “barbarian,” or in modern vernacular, a babbling idiot.

We find it incomprehensible that anyone today would espouse the uttering of random words and sounds and noises, and claim that to be the genuine tongues that Paul writes about. But if a group of Mandarin language speakers wandered into a church of English speakers and one of the English speakers who did not previously know or understand the Mandarin language began to preach in Mandarin so that the visitors understood in their own language—that would truly be miraculous, a genuine experience of the spiritual gift of tongues. And it would be immediately verifiable. Indeed, the church at Corinth, being close to a major seaport, would have had opportunities exactly like this, with outreach to foreign language speakers from around the Mediterranean area.

Lord, help me to communicate Your truths to others in ways they understand.