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Thayer Thursday – Tongues as a “sign” for unbelievers??

Every Wednesday morning we have a staff meeting here at the church. It usually includes a Bible study. This past Wednesday was especially interesting. Our study was about speaking in tongues (a confusing and often misunderstood topic).

We focused on Paul’s teaching about it in 1 Corinthians 14. Considering this week’s sermon is on sharing our faith, I never anticipated writing today’s “thoughts” on Paul’s discussion about speaking in tongues.

However, after researching a great question from a staff member about this passage, I found an amazing picture of evangelism that Paul paints for the Corinthians – one that has relevance to this week’s sermon. The question during the staff meeting was about 1 Corinthians 14:22-24. The NIV reads:

 22 Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24 But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, 25 as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

After reading this in the staff meeting, somebody asked: “Why does Paul say that tongues are a sign for the unbelievers and prophesy is a sign for believers – yet when an unbeliever enters the church and finds everybody speaking in tongues he’ll be repelled but if he hears people prophesying he’ll accept God? How can what’s not a sign for him move him to follow God but what is a sign for him push him away?”

Well, as we often say around here “Context is Everything!” In this case, the preceding verse and its Old Testament context inform our understanding of Paul’s seemingly cryptic writing.

Right before these verses, in 1 Corinthians 14:21, Paul quotes Isaiah 28:11 & 12. In this passage Isaiah says that God is going to send foreigners to speak His message to the leaders of Jerusalem in languages they could not understand.

This was to be a “sign” of judgment.

The leaders stopped listening to God, so God was going to stop speaking in a way they could get. It was a live action parable. God shows them their deaf ears by returning the favor.

When we read 1 Corinthians 14:22, we immediately think of the “sign” as being positive. This is completely understandable given our context and other portions of scripture.

However, Paul is not using “sign” here as a positive; he’s using it in the same way Isaiah used it in the passage he quoted in vs. 21.

It’s a “sign” of judgment!

In other words Paul is saying: “when outsiders step in and hear only what they can’t understand, they’ll see it as a sign of judgment against them – that they can’t get what God is giving.” Their natural reaction to this “sign”? Rejection. They’ll simply say everybody’s out of their minds (vs. 23) and leave. Why would somebody accept something that’s a sign of their being rejected from the start?

BUT, Paul says, if these outsiders enter and see the gift of prophecy[1] happening; if they witness a “sign” of judgment or exhortation for the believers (vs. 22), this will have the opposite effect on them. They will hear believers being challenged and their reaction will be one of conviction rather than rejection.

The Corinthian church becomes the live-action parable for the unbelievers. It opens their eyes to the secrets of their hearts – causing them to worship God and know that the God of the Corinthians is legitimate.

So, what does this have to do with evangelism?

Everything!

Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthian church is compelling as we think about this week’s sermon. How we act in this community of believers has a profound impact on how people view the Gospel.

If we preclude people from hearing the Gospel through our actions – if we fail to present the Gospel with Grace as Paul admonishes the Colossians in 4:5-6, we shut people’s ears to the very message we want them to hear.

Yet when we respond to God’s challenges in our lives and allow other people to hear His challenge and see our reactions, it opens their ears and reveals to them their own heart.

As Talbot said in this week’s sermon: “When we earn an ear, we can touch a heart.”

Chris Thayer


[1] “Prophecy” is typically understood as “future telling” to modern readers. However, this is not what Paul has in mind. Sometimes, God would use prophets to warn people of things to come – but it’s almost always in the context of warning people that they’re heading down the wrong path and always to point people to Him and how He wants them to live. Prophets were like God’s prosecuting attorneys, warning people and telling them what God wanted of them.

Posted by on October 10, 2013.

Categories: Biblical Theology, Blog, Ministry, New Testament, Thayer Thursday, Theological issues

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