If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels… (part 2)

Read Part 1 here.

I think we often forget that 1 Corinthians 12-14 is part of a larger letter that was addressed to an entire community of believers. We tend to take this passage and apply it (or at least large parts of it) to our personal faith expressions and not see it in its community context. Paul’s words here are to an entire community who had apparently written him with some questions they would like to have addressed (as well as some correction that Paul felt needed to happen). This is important to remember. Too much (I feel) of our talk about the subject of “miraculous” spiritual gifts has begun and centered around personal experiences. While experience should never be ignored, it cannot be the litmus test and compass by which we navigate this topic.

Paul’s first words in this passage steer us away from blindly following experience. The people of Corinth may have been familiar with ecstatic expressions of worship to various idols and gods that created the Roman pantheon.  As real as those experiences might be, there is something distinctly different about spiritual gifts incited by the one true God. No longer are we led about by mute idols. There is an active, living God that is at work in our community of faith, indeed in our very persons. When the Spirit of God is at work in the lives, hearts, and minds of people will bring out the confessional proclamation ”Jesus is Lord!” This confession is a litmus test of sorts, as well as ties together the individual and the community of faith. So, right from the start, we are faced with the communal nature and purpose of the various gifts the Spirit activates in each of us.

The metaphor of a body made of various parts strengthens this idea, as well as points out an important fact: we are not all the same. Not all are given the same spiritual gifts, and this is ok. In fact this is essential. To use Paul’s metaphor, we can’t all be a hand or an eye. The entire community suffers if we all are seeking the same gifts and functions. This is one of the reasons Paul then admonishes us all to seek love above all. If we are loving each other, there is not going to be a scramble to prove our spiritual prowess with spectacular displays of majestic power. When we love, we are patient, kind, not boastful and full of envy. A community that is in love functions with the harmony of a healthy body. Love is the reason behind the gifts, it is what will last into eternal life, and it is the greatest of the things that make up a believing life.

The community and the way of love: these form the back drop for the expression of spiritual gifts. With this context, are we surprised at Paul’s words:

Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, seek to abound in them in order to strengthen the church. (14.12)

The concept here is spiritual gifts are given by the Spirit for the purpose of building up a community of believers so that the confession “Jesus is Lord” is professed and proclaimed by all. Spiritual gifts are not a spectacular showcase of things to be amazed at. They are not designed to bring glory to an individual. Spiritual gifts have one (two-fold) purpose: to manifest the grace of God in the midst of his people and to grow us all up into the kingdom of God.

So then, what about tongues? I mean, how does an ecstatic utterance of prayer or doxology serve that purpose?

While I believe that in the proper expression, the gift of tongues has its place in the body, I think that some “experienced based theology” about the gift that needs to be addressed

First of all, we have to understand that tongues are not some divine seal, proving that the Spirit is working through an individual. Tongues are not proof of some divine authority. Neither are tongues proof of some sort of second blessing, an extra dose of salvation. Paul simply does not treat the gift this way in the passage.

Second, the gift of tongues is not a more intimate or direct communication with God. Every believer has the exact same access to God the Father through God the Son, empowered by God the Spirit. Since we have already seen Paul state quite plainly that not every one is given the same spiritual gifts, it would be wrong of us to assume every believer should have the gift of tongues. Since it is not for every believer, why would God give a more intimate or direct communication to some of his people? That doesn’t add up. Hebrews 9-10 makes it pretty clear that Jesus’ sacrifice alone makes way for our direct access to God.

Third (and perhaps the harshest), an expression of ecstatic utterance doesn’t automatically mean someone has the gift of tongues. A wide variety of religions and spiritual practices have a practice of ecstatic utterances. A miraculous sign (such as tongues) does not prove God is at work. Again, we look back to the litmus test: is the gift bringing out the confessional proclamation, “Jesus is Lord!”?

In the interest of honesty and full disclosure, I want to share my experience with the gift of tongues. I grew up around a strong Charismatic/Pentecostal influence. Speaking in tongues was always understood to be the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” and was thought to be a normative part of the Christian journey. My views on the gift have changed (I no longer equate it with the baptism of the Spirit, nor do I expect every Christian to have this gift), however it is still a part of my life with Jesus. One night in ’89 or so, I woke up at about 2am speaking in tongues. Ever since then, I have used this gift at various  times in my life for prayer, praying for others. In my personal experience, it has led me to praise and proclaim, “Jesus is Lord!”. Every time I have seen it used to build up the body of Christ, it has led to this confession. When I have seen it abused, it has been about personal glory, jockeying for authority, and/or harmful theology.

Yes, I believe the gift of tongues has an important role in the modern (or even post-modern) church… but I believe that every gift should be rightly expressed and lead us to proclaim to the world “Jesus is Lord!”

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels… (part 1)

A few days ago, Marc (@_MarcCortez), Julie (@InciteFaith) and my self got into a little discussion about speaking in tongues. I quickly decided that 140 characters was a bit too limited for my thoughts, so here’s a blog post about it. Strange how that works.

Julie’s original question (which I admit I kind of busted in on… but hey, twitter’s great for over hearing conversations you really want to jump in on) was simple enough,

“ Speaking in Tongues. For or against? Why? or Why Not?”

This question however opens a big ol’ can of worms for us theological types. Smart men have discussed, debated, decried, demonstrated and other “d” words the gift of tongues for many years now. To put it mildly, the spiritual gift of tongues is one of those crazy parts of the bible that is really hard to wrap our understanding around. People lots smarter than me have said much more than I will about the topic, but I did want to share my experiences and understanding about this in hopes for some good, open conversation about such a weird topic.

Before we go any further, I think that it is highly germane to this discussion to briefly discuss what the heck a spiritual gift is? I mean, are we talking like super powers that we get for believing in Jesus? Are these things everyone experiences? Are they just for the super spiritual/ultra crazy charismatic Christians? This in its self is a large topic worth many words in its own right. In order to not follow the rabbit trail too deep, lets say this for now: Spiritual gifts are a short hand way of talking about various ways that the Holy Spirit empowers all believers to manifest and display the grace of God for the common good of the community and the world. The Spirit of God does something in the person/heart/mind of a believer to creates a perfect storm of personality, abilities, and passion. The Spirit of God then supernaturally empowers and uses all of that to manifest his person and mission to the believer and the people in the believer’s life.

No matter how uncomfortable it makes us or how weird it seems, according to scripture, one of the ways the Spirit manifests the grace of God through some believers is the gift of “various tongues”… but what is the gift of tongues? Right from the get go, we encounter part of the controversy. the gift of tongues is either a) the supernatural ability to speak in an existing language that is currently unknown to the speaker (like if I suddenly busted out some Russian Jesus talk to some Russian dudes) or b) a language that has been divinely granted to the speaker for the sake of prayer, self edification, and possibly (if there is interpretation) teaching/exhortation.

Like I said, this is a weird topic. I mean, if we have such a hard time defining what this gift is, how can I even say if I think it is still an active gifts in the Church these days? How can I decide if we can’t even nail down what we are talking about?

The primary text for our discussion is 1 Corinthians 12-14. I do want to dive into this text in (relative) depth and find some biblical answers to help shape our thinking… but first, there is a nagging question I have. I really hope no one takes this the wrong way, but why does this even matter? I mean it’s not like we are talking about the nature of Christ or the trust worthiness of the Bible. This passage is relevantly small and obscure, and many churches don’t ever talk about it. Why should we spend time thinking about something that seems to only cause arguments and division, not to mention confusion.

To wrap up my first entry on this topic, I would like to say a few things to address this last question:

This topic, as weird as it is, matters because it involves who we are as the Church of God. If spiritual gifts are (as I mentioned above) given so that the community of believers is built up, and if tongues are a valid spiritual gift, we have to look at the implications for our Churches today. There are also many believers (myself included) who have had personal experiences with this gift. While we never want to build an understanding  solely off experience, experiences do shape how we understand things. Maybe there is a reason people still have these kind of experiences.

On the other hand, it may not matter. Truly, this could be nothing more than a theological exercise in thinking about weird,  things from the Bible… but it is in the Bible. That leads me to believe that there is a reason God has seen fit to record these words and pass them down to us. I think it is also important to remember that these words about tongues and spiritual gifts were not given to us apart from the larger context of God’s self-revelation and his story of redemption. These words are in the Bible. They are part of the Bible, which means they have a proper place in pointing us to Jesus and helping us to become like him and be a part of the Missio Dei.

I hope this conversation ultimately points us to Jesus. If it doesn’t, I have a feeling we are probably doing it wrong.