When we come to the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we are beginning a section of this book that most people know about because chapters 12, 13, and 14 deal with this matter of tongues. In many people’s minds this is the chief question in 1 Corinthians. Now, a lot of people do not like tongues. What they are concerned about is the idea that if a person claims to be able to speak under the inspiration of the Holy spirit, what they say should carry full authority. This would undermine Scripture because it would not be the final and only authority in the church. Instead, the authority, at least in part, would be what a particular individual who claims to be speaking by the Holy Spirit might say or do.
That is a legitimate concern, but I must say I do not share that particular outlook. I think that restricts God unnecessarily. It puts God in a box. If we know anything about Him, we should know that He is not so restricted and will not be. Moreover, as I read these chapters, I find something quite different.
Paul gives a number of principles for dealing with the practice of tongues speaking in the church, which are meant to regulate it but not eliminate it. Now I do not think that means that everything that goes by the name of tongues speaking is actually of the Holy Spirit. I am extremely critical of much of what I hear. But it does mean that we must not be categorical in the way we handle this.
If you look at these chapters, especially chapters 12 and 14, you find that the first thing Paul says is that there are counterfeits, things that appear to be by the Spirit, at least the same miraculous type of things, but they are not by the Spirit of God. They are by the devil. He refers to the pagan background of these Christians at Corinth as proof. They knew things like that in their pagan culture. So, the very fact that those things are going on in the church is not in itself proof that the Holy Spirit is active. The second thing he says is that there are many gifts. Tongues speaking is just one of them. So he tells the Corinthians not to get the thing out of proportion. The third thing he says is that if tongues really is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and he believes it is like the other gifts, it is given for the same reason the other gifts are given, that is, for the edification, growth, and the building up of the church. If it functions to build up, that is of the Lord. But if it functions in a divisive way that tears down, that is not of the Lord.
He lists the gifts at the very end of this twelfth chapter, and every time he does that, whether here or elsewhere where he mentions tongues, he always puts tongues at the end of the list. That is a subtle way of communicating what he goes on to say as he gets to the very end of the chapter about desiring the better gifts. Paul is saying that if God gives you tongues, that is fine. It is a gift and should be used. But if you are concerned for anything, let your concern be for love, which is what he is going to talk about in chapter 13. In chapter 14 Paul talks about the dangers that are sometimes present. Disorder in the church is one. The lack of intellectual content is another. And when he gets to the very end he says, “Do not forbid speaking in tongues.”
