SGs - Tongues and Interpretations

What are These Gifts?

I'm sorry. I don't have a lot of patience for this issue. It is such a hot button that I don't even want to address it, but I will. This gift is listed last in every list it appears on. It isn't less important than the others, for the whole thrust of 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 is that all the different gifts really are equally important. It appears last because for some strange reason, everyone wants to make it preimmanent. Paul places it last on three lists because he doesn't want God's people to think it's first. It is funny how the calendar changes but some issues don't change. Today, you either love 'em or you hate 'em.

What is tongues? The first instance of speaking in tongues in the Bible is on the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit filled the twelve apostles along with 108 other Christians to evangelize to foreigners visiting Jerusalem. They didn't speak Aramaic, Hebrew, or Greek. Each disciple spoke the language of the person he was speaking to. To a Persian, the disciple spoke Persian. To a Dalmatian, he spoke that local dialect. The first instance of this gift is evangelistic. Within twenty or thirty years after Petecost, Paul had to write to this church and the Church to tell them their use (rather, misuse) of this gift was hurting worship of God, edification of the saints, and evangelism of the lost. Read chapter 14 for more on that.


Today?!?

Today, if you are willing to say tongues is still a practiced gift, it ought to be practiced evangelistically and not within the walls of the church building. You have tongues, eat an egg roll, chalupa, or spaghetti. That isn't sarcastic. Rescue the perishing!