Fr Matthew Reese

“If you in a tongue utter speech that is not intelligible, how will any one know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning; but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves; since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”
—1 Corinthians 14:9-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today’s Epistle gives us one of the earliest Christian commentaries on glossolalia, or speaking in tongues. Though by far the more famous of these is in the Acts of the Apostles (chapter 2:1-31) where we read:

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

But here, the significance seems to be that the people testify to God in languages that are not their own, and others begin to understand this testimony in languages which are not their own. The speech is still intelligible—in fact that miraculous intelligibility is entirely the point. Saint Peter, sensing the bafflement of the eleven, even insists “these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day!” Rather they are, in an extraordinary gift of the Spirit, fulfilling the prophecies of Joel and King David.

But in today’s letter, Saint Paul is addressing another phenomenon—the kind of ecstatic, individualized glossolalia that we might associate with the Pentecostal or Charismatic traditions. The faithful are speaking in tongues, but they are not intelligible, they are uttering “mysteries in the Spirit” which no one else can understand.

Paul does not condemn these ecstatic revelations—“for one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God”—nor does he question their sincerity.

But he points the Corinthians in a different direction.

Christian witness and Christian understanding must also come about in community, in a shared discernment of the work of the Spirit, in a building up of the Church. These manifestations of the Spirit may be less arresting, less ecstatic, but they are no less powerful.

To truly testify to God, we must be ready to listen, willing to be brave, desiring to be understood.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew