The speaker was recently asked to lead a Doctrine Q&A session, one of which was “How do we explain speaking in tongues in 1 Cor 14?” At that time, he only had time to state True Jesus Church’s position. The speaker thought to take this time to talk about speaking in tongues and prophesying.

Our understanding of tongues is very different from that of other churches. Some people believe that tongues have completely ceased. The charismatics believe that it’s just one of the many gifts of the Holy Spirit. We believe that it is the ONLY evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit. Of course our basis would be Acts of the Apostles. Very often their basis would be 1 Cor 12 and 14. They’d question us, “Acts of the Apostles is a historical book! How can you use a historical book to form your doctrine?” Our answer is that a historical book is also the word of God.

Acts tells us how the first Christians worshipped God. So if your explanation of 1 Cor goes against how the first Christians practise their faith, obviously the explanation must be wrong. The Bible cannot contradict itself. So how do we explain 1 Cor 12 and 14?

Let’s first turn to a few verses often cited by the charismatics in 1 Cor 12.
Let’s read v4-6
v4 tells us that there are diversities of gifts. Why does God give diverse gifts? v5-6 tells us it’s because there’re different ministries and activities in the church. Therefore not everyone has the same gift. And we should NEVER compare our gifts. Because here tells us that ALL gifts are given by the same Spirit.

What are some gifts of the Holy Spirit? They’re listed from v7 onwards.

Let’s read v10
Here tells us that different kinds of tongues and different interpretations of tongues are gifts of the Spirit.

We jump to v30
These are of course rhetorical questions. Paul asks, “Do all speak with tongues?” The expected answer is “Of course not. Not all speak with tongues.”
When he asked, “Do all interpret?” The expected answer is “Of course not. Not all interpret.”
Charismatics often hold on to these verses very tightly.

So how do we explain these verses?

Our position is that there’re different functions of tongues. The first function is evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit. This is general; EVERYONE must speak in tongues to have received the Holy Spirit. The second function is when one speaks in tongues to OTHERS in the church. Within the church, this gift must always be accompanied by the interpretation of tongues. Otherwise, this is not the gift of speaking in tongues. This is our position.

Of course the other party won’t let us off the hook so easily. They often bug us on this verse very tightly. They’ll say, “YOU’re the one who says speaking in tongues has different functions. But here just says speak in tongues. It’s no different from that in Acts of the Apostles.” Which is fair. Their statement is fair. Why fair? Because whenever THEY use Bible verses, we don’t let them off the hook so easily.

The speaker was in university for many many years (because he couldn’t find a job after PhD lol). He realised the campus crusaders came out every time on one of the afternoons. He always sat at the benches and they always targeted there so he realised a pattern. So he could only try this trick once a semester. He sat there. They’d come and open their very famous booklet on how to return to Christ; to say the sinner’s prayer. The speaker would let them speak for 5min. Then he would always turn to Acts 2:38. Very interestingly, it seems everyone hasn’t read Acts 2:38 before.
“What Bible version do you use?”
“Any version will do.”
“But other verses say this!”
“Ok other verses say this. But how do you explain Acts 2:38?”
The speaker has never met anyone able to explain Acts 2:38.

The speaker feels it’s fair for them to bite down on 1 Cor 12 because we also do that for Acts 2:38. But we too need to do our work in explaining 1 Cor 12.

v9 says “[for to one is given…]to another faith by the same Spirit”
Since everyone is supposed to have faith, if we were to say ALL should receive the gift of faith here, v9 won’t make much sense. Because Paul says SOME people are given the gift of faith. How about the rest? Don’t the rest need faith to be saved? Clearly the faith listed here is not the faith that everyone has. ALL of us must have faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, Paul says we are all sons of God THROUGH faith in Christ Jesus. But not everyone will have this gift of faith given by the Holy Spirit.

Pr Chin Aun Quek once said this, “Not everyone has the faith to pray to cast out demons. Some people are very afraid when they see or hear the demon possessed cry out.” In fact we encourage such people not to go near those who are demon possessed.

Faith can be a gift. In a similar line of reasoning, all of us must speak in tongues when we receive the Holy Spirit. But not all of us will speak in tongues to edify others within the church.

Of course we have to explain further from 1 Cor 14. Let’s take a closer look at 1 Cor 14.

Let’s read v2-4
Here Paul lists down the primary function of tongues and the primary function of prophecy. First, what is tongues? In v2, Paul tells us what tongues is in essence. “He who speaks in a tongues does not speak to men but to God. No one understands him. In the spirit, he speaks mysteries.” There’re some churches that believe tongues is just another language in the world.

There was a truthseeker who once came to church. He heard us speaking in tongues and was very adamant ours was not tongues.
“Yours doesn’t sound like any language in the world. Just sounds like rolling. I also speak in tongues.”
“What language do you speak?”
“Some Indian dialect.”

Paul tells us here that “no one understands him” (v2). It’s definitely NOT a language in this world since NO one understands him.

In fact, a couple of years ago there was a controversy in our church on this. Some said tongues should sound like a spoken language. Like English and Chinese. It has words and syllables. “How can rolling of tongues be a language?”

The speaker could never fully grasp that controversy. Because even if you insist tongues must be a language, in this modern era that we live in today, most of us know that language is actually very flexible. For example, morse code is a language.

If you’ve watched the Chinese affairs called Inferno Affairs, the police men communicated by tapping on the wood using morse code. That’s a language. All a language needs is a distinction of sounds. That’s what Paul says in v7 - distinction of sounds. THAT is a language.

The speaker could never fully grasp why they were so hung up our tongues isn’t a language. They couldn’t stand that it didn’t sound like English or Chinese.

Anyway, Paul says here it’s not spoken to human being. It’s purely spoken to God. No one understands it. That’s why the speaker thinks tongues is not like any language in the world.

“In the Spirit he speaks mysteries.” (v2)

That is tongues. What is prophesying? v3-4 tells us that prophesying isn’t just talking about the future. It’s anyone using the word of God to edify and comfort somebody.

The target audience is hence different.

Tongues is spoken to God. Prophesying is spoken to believers within the church.

The purpose is different. The purpose of tongues is to edify yourself. Prophesying is to edify the church.

In fact, just reading the first few verses here actually solidifies our position on tongue speaking.

The speaker has read many commentaries on 1 Cor 14. Their conclusion is sometimes that there’s no need for tongues in the church. But this is not the intention of Paul here! Paul’s intention is to CLARIFY what the intention of tongues is. Speaking to God. Edifying yourself.

Clearly, the apostolic church practised tongues speaking. They were speaking in tongues and edifying themselves. That was the primary function.

Paul is NOT attacking tongues speaking. He’s attacking the MISUSE of tongues.

How did the Corinthians misuse tongues? Let’s read v6. This was what Paul was against: speaking to other people in tongues. Instead of speaking a known language, they spoke to each other in tongues. Perhaps the Corinthians thought that if they spoke in tongues they’d appear more spiritual. Paul actually tells them that it’s meaningless, because you do not actually profit anyone. No one understands you!

Let’s read v7-10. Here Paul gives a very obvious and practical argument. In other words, if a language is not known, there is no communication. If there is no communication, there is no edification. You will be speaking to the air! In fact, Paul uses examples of if you’re foreign to the language, that language is foreign to you.

Many years ago when Pr Zhang Guo Qing was still the resident preacher in Singapore, he told his mother, “Your son has received the Holy Spirit!” His mother answered, “I don’t think so. He’s obviously speaking in Hakka! I can understand each word he’s saying.” Pr Zhang didn’t understand Hakka so he thought the speaker was speaking in tongues lol

This is also why we have interpreting in church otherwise some of us would be completely lost. The speaker understands how it feels to only understand one language. When he goes back to Sabah and an indigenous speaker is speaking, he has to completely rely on the English interpretation.

He tries to absorb their emotions to project it onto what the English interpreter says. One moment you understand, the next you don’t.

But interpreting is necessary. Otherwise people who don’t understand the language don’t understand.

So the speaker always admires the early church workers who preached in China. They learnt the dialects there to break down the language barrier. “You can’t understand me so I’ll learn your language.”

The speaker’s house has a 12 volume Hakka dictionary. This was many years ago when they were going to tear down the Telok Kurau Church. Dn Ho said to take whatever they wanted home. They found a Hakka-Chinese dictionary. The number of words were more than his Chinese dictionary. The introduction said (he thinks it was a German missionary) he went over there and collated this over 20 years. The speaker read a few pages and thought if he learnt the entire dictionary he can write Hakka poetry. The German missionary did not have the truth, but he had the spirit.

“If you cannot speak my lanaguge, I will speak your lanaguge.“

These missionaries were tearing down language barriers. On the other hand, the Corinthians were building language barriers. And it’s impossible to learn tongues. God must give the gift of interpreting for someone to interpret tongues.

So it’s very obvious Paul is attacking the misuse of tongues. He’s not attacking the primary function of tongues.

Today the misuse of speaking in tongues is not a problem in church. Are there any teachings we can apply here?

1. If you can’t concentrate in your prayers, the solution is not to stop praying in tongues but to pray with the spirit and understanding
   Firstly, for those who pray, we must pray with understanding. Let’s read v14-15. “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my understanding is unfruitful.” Why is this the case? Because when you’re praying in tongues, you also do not understand what you’re praying. Your mind can drift away. In fact, you don’t need to pray in tongues for your mind to drift away.

A preacher once said. There was a youth praying for the Holy Spirit. He looked like he was praying so hard. Everyone was thinking why God hadn’t given him the Holy Spirit. Finally he received and explained what he was doing. He had been playing ping pong in his mind. He looked like he was praying really hard but it was ping pong in his mind. Some people can pray very very long but their mind has gone around the whole world.

The solution is NOT to do away with tongues. Paul says the solution is to pray with the spirit and to pray with understanding.

There are different explanations about what praying with understanding means. Some people will think about the word of God even as they speak in tongues. Other people pray in their minds even as they’re speaking in tongues. There’re other people who verbalise what they want to say in prayer and then speak in tongues. Whatever the case, we need to engage the mind. We need to pray with understanding.

That is for prayers.

1. Speakers should speak words easy to understand
   Now for speakers, v9 says “you must speak words easy to understand”. Even if you speak a common language, sometimes one can use words that no one can understand.

The speaker is guilty of this sometimes. Someone wrote “I just read the most difficult to translate sermon!” It was the speaker’s. He thinks his motto should be ‘words easy to understand’.

But words easy to understand doesn’t necessarily mean the content is easy to understand.

Jesus spoke words very very easy to understand. But it wasn’t necessarily easy to understand what He was saying.

Paul also wrote letters easy to understand. But Peter says this some of the things he wrote was very difficult to understand.

So what we should do as sermon speakers is to tear down the barrier as much as possible. Speak words easy to understand. Also, we should also try to simplify things as well. Simplify as much as is possible. Sometimes it’s complex, not because the content is complex but because it’s very convoluted in our minds that we’re unable to simplify it. And therefore sometimes we have to put in the effort as well. Speak so that the listeners can understand.

1. Listeners should listen to judge
   How about the listeners? Let’s read v29. Here says “the others must judge”. The duty of listeners is to judge. This is also why speaking in tongues has no place in the church. If the listeners cannot judge, then it is meaningless! Our duty as listeners is not to sit and then listen. Or to sit and just agree. Our duty is also not just to sit and judge the speaker. “Don’t like the speaker. And so I won’t listen to what he says.” Our duty is also not just to listen and feel happy. Some people listen to sermons to feel happy. So if the speaker says something he’s unhappy with, he will shut off. But here says the duty of listeners is to JUDGE. Is this REALLY in accordance to the word of God? If it’s REALLY in accordance to the word of God, how is this applicable to me? In fact, ALL activities in the church MUST edify the members. In order to edify the members, there MUST be understanding.

And therefore v20 Paul also says “do not be children in understanding. But in understanding, be mature.” In fact, that is the purpose of all activities within the church. It should be DRIVING maturity and understanding.

These are 3 things that can be applied to everyday life.

1. When we pray, pray with understanding
2. Speakers should speak words easy to understand
3. Listeners should listen to judge

May the peace of God be with all of you.