Speaking in tongues is mysterious and controversial - we can't even agree if it is something that continues today or was just a feature of the early church. And the vast majority of us have not even been in the same room with someone who is speaking in tongues, much less experienced it firsthand.
But it seems too prevalent in the New Testament to simply sweep it under the rug.
(That doesn't stop us.)
When we brush it aside, though, we miss out on some portion of the experience of being a Christian.
I was reading 1 Corinthians 14 this morning and there Paul narrows his discussion of "spiritual gifts" to just two: speaking in tongues and prophesying (another "mysterious" concept!).
Paul draws a basic contrast between the two: speaking in tongues edifies only the speaker while prophesying edifies the church. Nobody beside the speaker understands what is being expressed in tongues (unless the speaker or someone else interprets for the crowd) but the one who prophesies brings something to the entire congregation:
- Revelation
- Knowledge
- Prophecy (as narrowly defined)
- A Word of Instruction
And Paul tells the whole congregation that each of them should "eagerly desire" this gift of prophecy!
The larger point is that EVERYONE is to speak words of edification to the Body, not just the pastor.
That's something we miss if we skip over passages regarding speaking in tongues!
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