Day 205: From mind to heart – 1 Corinthians 14 vs 18 – 25
18-20 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
21-22 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.
23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24-25 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. 1 Corinthians 14:18-25 English Standard Version
Verses 18-20 show that Paul wasn’t against the gift of speaking in an unknown language which many of the Christians at Corinth had received at that time, but he didn't want them to use it in a childish manner. And he was speaking as someone who himself had that gift in abundance. What was his big concern that he expresses in vs 23?
If everyone was babbling away in a strange language with no-one understanding what others were saying, and an unconverted person came in to the meeting and also couldn't understand anything being said, the obvious conclusion they would make was that every one had lost their mind! Contrast that to the possible outcome vs 24-25 describe where, as God's truth was powerfully made known, an outsider might come under deep conviction of sin and be saved. Surely that’s what we should most long to see as the gospel is made known at our meetings.
But doesn't this contradict what Paul had written in vs 21-22? He says there that tongues were a sign for unbelievers. How does that tie in?
The background to his comment is what we read in Isaiah 28:9-12. The Israelites were objecting to the message of God's prophet Isaiah and saying: “Who does the Lord think we are? Why does he speak to us like this? Are we little children, just recently weaned? He tells us everything over and over one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!” So Isaiah responded and said: “Well then - with foreign lips and strange tongues, God will speak to this people to whom He said, 'This is the resting place, let the weary rest' and, 'This is the place of repose' - but they would not listen!”.
Isaiah was referring to the day when Jerusalem would be invaded by foreign nations, people whose language most of the Jews wouldn't understand, and that day would be a sign to them that God's message and promise of rest had been in their midst – but they had rejected it. And that's what happened in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost too. The tongues of fire and of speech that accompanied the arrival of God's Spirit upon the Church were a sign to the unbelieving nation who had rejected the message of God's rest that Christ had brought, and had crucified him instead.
Christians differ on whether the gift of tongues passed away with the apostles, or whether it is still active today. But what we can all agree and place priority on is the powerful proclaiming of God's word in a language that all can understand. We need to speak to the mind, not the emotions, if we would truly reach the heart. Emotions can be fickle – but truth is something people can build on. This is why missionaries have laboured hard, and even laid down their lives, to bring God's word to nations and people groups of the world in their own language. So let's take Paul's admonition to heart: “Don't be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil - but in your thinking be mature.”