Welcome back to the series on tongues speaking. Today is another day that the Lord has made and we must be glad and give glory to Him. We continue the series from where we left it yesterday. I do not intend to belabor what I said previously but for proper understanding, I would like to summarize what we discussed in our first meeting.
- We learnt that tongues mean languages (Glossa)Gk
- Also, we learnt that tongues are not learnt. They come by the enabling of the Spirit.
- The hearers of true tongues must understand in their own dialect or must be interpreted for edification
- I also said that Paul did not write this chapter to commend the church but rather to rebuke them on their wrong usage and to correct them. This point is validated by most of the chapters prior to chapter 14.
We paused on verse 6 and we will resume today's exposition from there.
"6 But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? 7 Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? 8 For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? 9 also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. (1 Corinthians 14:6-9, NASB)".
Here we see the apostle Paul giving the reason why prophecy has superiority over tongues in the church meeting. He puts it in a rhetorical question " how would that help you? "(NLT). To undertake any action in the church that does not build up one another is a breach of service and all such activities must be stopped. God's intention for these myriad spiritual gifts is not for self promotion, self edification or for the institution of ranks. "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7, NASB)". I strongly believe this is the reason why he suggested love to them in chapter 12:31 and 13. These Corinthian people were more interested in the showy gifts. They thought that those who had these showy gifts were somehow more spiritual than those who did not have them. And Paul corrected them in chapter 14:1 that they should let love be their highest goal. Fellow Christian, with all thy getting, get love. Love is the greatest of all gifts. Love "is not selfish (1 Corinthians 13:59,HCSB) ". If love is not selfish, then it must be the antidote to this whole issue of self edification.
Paul presses on with his argument by asking "what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?". In a nutshell, he is trying to tell them that "tongues" does not edify but prophecy, revelation, knowledge and teaching do. But tongues only edify when it is interpreted in which case we would all be unjust to give credit to the tongues speaker instead of the interpreter. We will come across this soon as we continue downwards.But I wish you can see what I am seeing here. Paul is trying to push it into their brains that the ultimate goal of all their performance is edification of the church and nothing else. And if any of us desires God's gift, we must be ready to use it God's way. They way we worship Him matters. See what happened to the sons of Aaron, the Bible says that they offered strange fire though their intention was to offer an acceptable sacrifice to God. God smote them for their disobedience (Leviticus 10:1-2,).
So let us mind the way we approach thing concerning God. He has instructions as to how anything must be done in order to please Him. He then goes on to use an instrument as an illustration of this. That even lifeless instruments must be played in a certain way in order to make meaning to the listener. I remember when I started learning piano, my tutor 
10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. (1 Corinthians 14:10-11, ESV).
Paul is here telling us all that tongues are languages spoken by men. And all of them have meaning. But my fellow friend would ask. What about 1 Corinthians 13:1 ? Did not Paul mention tongues of angels? Let us all take a look at it again. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." As I have said earlier about Paul's usage of irony in this book. This is a typical example of irony. Is Paul saying that the languages of angels are unknown unto men? Absolutely not. But if you take a search throughout the scripture there is no instance that you will hear angels speaking in languages foreign to the hearers. They are always languages of men ( judges 6:12, Luke 1:28). The point that angelic languages are unknown to men can not be justified with scriptures. He then goes on to explain to them in verses 11 that if they continue in their way of using spiritual gifts, they would be creating divisions in the church. That is, the one who does not understand a tongue is going to be a foreigner to the speaker. But Paul had already rebuked them on their divisions in chapter one and three. Clearly, Paul is not commending them on how they used their gift but rather correcting them.
Thanks for your time today too. God bless you very much for following this series.
Watch out for part 3
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