[Podcast] Unwrapping the Gift of Tongues

Unwrapped07

There is a lot of controversial teaching out there about the gift of tongues.  In fact, I think you can find teaching on both ends of the spectrum that the Scripture just doesn’t back up.  So, what is this gift, and how is it to work today?  You might be surprised at exactly what the Word does actually say about this important gift.


Life group discussion questions below.

If you are the group’s discussion leader, have everyone in the group open to this page on their mobile device.  Take turns reading verses and questions.  Give everyone a chance to contribute to the conversation.  Make sure you pray together, also!

Did you take your spiritual gifts test?  You can, and it only takes just a few minutes.  Just answer the questions at this link, and get your spiritual gift report.

Only a few of us at The Orchard test out with the gift of tongues or interpretation.  It was the lowest-scored gift.  Why do you think that is?

Do you have experience with churches that practice the gift of tongues on Sunday morning during their church service?  What was that like?

 

One local pastor I know says that all believers should speak in tongues.  He says this is true because “all spiritual gifts are available to all believers.”  What does scripture say about this claim?

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
Ephesians 1:3

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.  It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11

Paul goes on in that same passage to compare the Body of Christ to a human body, made up of many different parts, each having it’s own function.  He even goes so far as to say that it just wouldn’t work if all parts of the body had the same function.  He concludes with these questions:

Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not!
1 Corinthians 12:29-30

If this is what scripture says about the gift of tongues, why do you think some churches teach that all christians must speak in tongues?  How would you talk to a person who insists you aren’t a believer if you haven’t spoken in tongues?

So, my dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking in tongues. But be sure that everything is done properly and in order.
1 Corinthians 14:39-40

 

So, we are told not to “forbid speaking in tongues.” If this is true, why do you think some churches teach that christians should never speak in tongues?  How would you talk to a person who insists that tongues are over?

The gift of tongues can cause controversy, discomfort, and confusion, but in 1 Corinthians 14:33, we read, “for God is not a God of confusion but of peace…” If God has given the gift and He is not a God of confusion, where does the confusion come from?

Confusion should never be part of the Body of Christ.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Ephesians 4:11-16

What an incredible description!  “healthy, growing, and full of love.”  THAT should be our goal.  That is why Paul, in the middle of his discussion on the spiritual gifts stops to show us 1 Corinthians 13… The “more excellent way…”

Take a moment and read that more excellent way in 1 Corinthians 13 together.

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;* but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. 

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.