• John Piper defines speaking in tongues as “ecstatic and divine utterances where your heart is so full of the Holy Spirit that he looses your tongue in praise to God.” I love that definition. It’s a beautiful gift that strengthens your bond with the Lord. But it's more of a personal, intimate practice, between the person holding the gift and God. It works It works more to edify the specific individual, and less to edify the body. It also requires interpretation, at least publicly. When someone is speaking in tongues publicly and there’s no one present to translate or interpret it, it can cause much confusion among those who hear it
• Paul’s problem isn’t with the gift of tongues itself; his problem is with the MISUSE of it, the self-indulgent flaunting of it in public, without interpretation . . . those that used it to show-off, to impress.
• Reflection Question: What are some ways spiritual gifts are misused or abused? How can misusing our gifts damage the body instead of build it up as intended, do more harm than good?
• When we misuse our gifts (or lack love in using them), we’re clanging symbols, babble, just noise, which is a nuisance, it’s annoying, which can repel people from Christ instead of compelling them toward him. But when we use our gifts rightly, the way they were intended (with love, and with full dependence on the Spirit), we’re a harmonious hymn. We make God known and edify the body. Using our gifts wrongly results in noise, using them rightly results in SONG.
• The Bible is complete and sufficient, no future prophecy carries the divine weight like the Bible does; these are God’s breathed words. That being said, prophecy still exists today. What we see more often today is perhaps a bit less “predictive” but still powerful, “God-given revelations,” that work to build up the church and provide encouragement and consolation (reassurance, strength) to believers.
• Those that experience prophecy (both the giver and receiver) usually can't deny God's presence. Things that feel like coincidences, are often more likely God’s providence, his prophetic power at work! Paul says with prophecy, our hearts our exposed, we experience conviction and clarity, we’re affected by it, certain that “God is really among us.”
• However, prophecy must be weighed by others. It must be tested. Paul makes this clear in 1 Thessalonians 5: 19-20. He says, “Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.” Because prophecy today is not the authoritative, infallible word of God, it needs to be tested by (measured against) Scripture (because true prophecy would never conflict with God’s holy Word), and it may even need to be evaluated by wise, pastoral counsel.
• So with both of these gifts, we don’t just go out and about flaunting them with abandon, they both require restraint and discernment (and often silence) and a complete dependence on the Spirit.
• Paul’s primary concern was establishing peaceful order. He doesn’t want our worship or our church experiences to be chaotic and confusing, because God is not a God of confusion but a God of PEACE. And this instruction applies to everyone, both men and women.
• Just because you have one of these valuable speech gifts, doesn’t mean you use them every chance you get. Sometimes the more loving thing to do, the more edifying thing to do, is to keep silent, because it keeps better order, it’s more peaceful. If the goal is ultimately for us to use our spiritual gifts to make God known to others and build up the body of Christ, then we are to pursue love and peace and order, we should earnestly desire to rightly exercise the gifts given to us, to fully rely on the Spirit’s guidance.