Wednesday, June 12, 2013

What about tongues?

So you’ve made a new Christian friend. The two of you sit down for coffee. He asks you, “What do you believe about speaking in tongues?” Have you ever given that question any thought? What do you believe the Bible says about this topic?
Other than acknowledging that we all use our physical tongues to communicate while we speak verbally, you may not have given much thought to this topic. But understand that Christians have debated this issue for a long time. Even back in Paul’s day, the topic of Christians speaking in tongues was a contentious one (1 Corinthians 14).
We haven’t gotten any better in our day. There is still a lot of disagreement on this topic. Let me begin by saying that as I address this issue I am not professing to be the foremost scholar on this topic. I also don’t believe I understand everything there is to understand on this issue. I am simply a student of the Word in a perpetual state of learning and growing.
The first time we see an occurrence of people speaking in tongues is early in the second chapter of Acts. The 120 who were gathered at the end of Acts 1 were all in one place and the Spirit of God came into that meeting with both physical and spiritual phenomena (Acts 2:2-3).  It says in Acts 2:4, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (NIV)
That word translated “tongues” in this verse is the Greek word “glossa” (pronounced glow-sah). Variants of this term occur over 50 times in our New Testament. It is translated to refer to the tongue in a literal sense; as a bodily organ (Revelation 16:10) or to any particular language or people group that speak a language (1 Corinthians 13:1) or to the spiritual gift of communicating in another language at the direction of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:2).
The correct translation for Acts 2:4 is the spiritual gift of communicating in another language at the direction of the Spirit. This is confirmed because of the context (Acts 2:6). The miraculous nature of this gift was that it was more than ecstatic utterances or babbling or gibberish…it was ordinary individuals speaking a known language that they had never studied or been trained to speak.
What is practiced today in many modern church buildings across this country is in no way an example of the gift of tongues that we see in Acts 2. And yet, there are those in Christendom who would declare that you are not actually a Christian if you do not practice “tongues” all the while never actually having done so (in a biblical sense) in their own life. For most “tongue-speaking” churches in America are merely practicing ecstatic utterances or babbling or gibberish.
This is to say nothing of the fact that even the Apostle Paul acknowledged that tongues is an inferior spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 14:5). Paul even emphatically states that not every Christian was given the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:28-31). So for any man or institution to claim that every believer in Christ must utilize this gift are teaching the direct opposite of what God’s Word states.
There are also many who conclude that tongues has ceased to be used by God in the modern age. They base this off of what Paul said toward the end of 1 Corinthians 13. In that passage Paul says:
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:8-12, NIV)
So Paul says that when “perfection” comes tongues will be stilled. What is the “perfection” Paul is speaking of in this passage? The Greek word translated perfect is the word “teleios” (pronounced te-lay-ahs). Variants of this word occur 20 times in the New Testament.
Some would say that the “teleios” in 1 Corinthians 13 is referring to the completed canon of Scripture. Once that came together the church no longer needed these other minor gifts like tongues and spiritual healing. Some would say that it is linked back to the apostles and the “laying on of hands” to impart these kinds of spiritual gifts like tongues. Once the apostles died, there was no one left to impart the gifts, so they just naturally died out.
This, in my opinion, does a great disservice to the context of 1 Corinthians. For starters, no where in the New Testament does “teleios” ever refer to a document or an inanimate object like the canon of Scripture. It is more than just a stretch to make that word apply in such a way, it is poor scholarism. Second, to apply “teleios” to the laying on of the apostles hands again makes no sense contextually.
Of the 20 uses, “teleios” is used to describe a matured spiritual state. Jesus used it this way (Matthew 5:48; 19:21). Paul used the term elsewhere this way (Philippians 3:12; Colossians 1:28). It is used by the author of Hebrews to refer to Jesus (Hebrews 2:10; 5:9; 7:28).
I believe this definition of “teleios” best fits the context of 1 Corinthians 13 as well. When you examine how Paul addresses the issue of tongues with the church in Corinth in his first letter, it is very clear that it was a problem in that church. The way the gift was being used (or abused) was creating controversy and Paul goes out of his way to point out that tongues is a lesser gift.
When we mature in Christ we do not need that kind of a spiritual pacifier. We mature when we begin to love like Christ loved.
I do not want to say unequivocally that tongues do not exist. I know that what is claimed as tongues in many American churches is not a biblical practice. But I can see how God can still utilize such a gift on the mission field. Tongues was a contentious issue in Paul’s day and it still is in ours. Let’s simply abide in what we know…God’s Word and not anything else.