The Grace-Gifts of Tongues & Interpretation
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Tongues is just 1 of the Holy Spirit’s empowered Grace-Gifts IN us and THROUGH us to Minister TO others Energetically & Effectively
After reading all the detailed documentation from the BLOGS below, you will find that ONLY Paul talks about tongues and interpretation, and although some of this is written in the Greek imperative that simply expresses an “order or strong urging, request, or desire based on one’s own authority or perspective,” nowhere does Paul give any official, decreed, universally-binding entole commandment – there are only two in the New Covenant combined into one from the Godhead in 1 John 3:23 of “Definitively/wholly have trusting-relying-faith in My Son (a) and/coupled presently/ongoingly unconditionally-love one another,” which Jesus Himself gave us as His ‘completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, superior’ kainos New Commandment” (b). Nor does Paul “paraggello ‘give a fully-authorized charge‘ from not I, but the Lord” other than in 1 Corinthians 7:10 regarding not getting divorced. <Notes> a) the Father’s commandment/work Jesus faithfully preached to be saved: John 6:28-29, 12:49-50, b) John 13:34, 15:12.
In many places, Paul simply uses himself as an example to explain why he uses the imperative to urge them to do something, just as in 1 Corinthians 14:13-19 about the need in church-assemblies to interpret tongues that he personally is exuberantly interested in personally practicing. He thanks God he conversationally-prays and psalms (a) by the Spirit of/belonging-to him by-the-means-of tongues even more than them ALL – even if unintelligible to himself, as well as simply conversationally-praying and psalming by his own mind intelligibly. This genos ‘family, kind-of’ tongues personally “builds us up individually in their intimate knowing of God” and Jude 1:20-21 adds “building us up in The-Most-Holy-Faith, tereo ‘carefully watch/observe to safely-guard, care-for/attend-to, firmly-hold/stand-in/maintain-a-present-state,’ yourselves IN the Unconditional-Love of God.” The audience/purpose is to “give praise-thanksgiving to God thru hidden-mysteries.” <Notes> a) instrumental music with/without singing.
However, in the “whole church-assembly” Paul is more interested in an idiotes ‘uninformed’ Christian in their midst being able to say “Amen” to his/their praise-thanksgiving in tongues by understanding what is said through interpretation in order that they can also be built up through some form of instructive logos message from God, which we know from 1 Corinthians 14:6 was “a revelation (a), gnosis info-knowledge, prophecy (b), or teaching” and also from v. 12:8 was a “logos message of wisdom, logos message of gnosis info-knowledge.” <Notes> a) apokalupsis: unhiding/uncovering what is hidden, covered, secret, or mysterious, b) propheteia: ‘made clear or clarified as a priority from what is known beforehand’ as communication of revealed truth from God. This is supposed to be standard practice for us under the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 2:10, “for these things God has revealed to us dia thru-the-realizing-channel of The Spirit, for The Spirit presently/ongoingly ereunao ‘diligently-searches, examines’ ALL things, even the depths of God.”
We have to remember that Paul as Saul of Tarsus was a leading Pharisee teacher of the Old Testament and later as Paul called to the gospel logos message was an apostle, prophet, evangelist, and teacher per Acts 13:1, 1 Timothy 1:11, 2:7, 17, 2 Timothy 1:11; Ephesians 3:7. Instructing others is what he is personally all about!
We also know from 1 Corinthians 7:25 concerning virgins or sexual abstinence in marriage in v. 7:6 or the blessing of financially donating to help others in need in 2 Corinthians 8:8 that Paul often admits he is writing gnome ‘personal opinions or judgments based on experience’ or suggnome ‘concessions or permissions’ that are “absolutely-in-fact are NOT the Lord’s epitage ‘an authoritative instruction or order arranged upon something previous said, thus building on an argument to achieve a goal.’ Nothing about tongues or interpretation has this authority.
In fact, all of Paul’s writings on grace-gifts are simply prefaced by 1 Corinthians 12:1 “Absolutely-in-fact-NOT thelo ‘do I optimally-desire‘ you to presently/ongoingly agnoeo ‘to be ignorant or not experientially, relationally ginosko knowing.” He has this same “optimal-desire for them to presently/ongoingly ALL speak in tongues, but even more so to presently/ongoingly prophesy” in 1 Corinthians 14:5. The only other use of thelo “optimal desire” is HIS personally desire in 1 Corinthians 14:19 “in the church-assembly to speak 5 [intelligible] words from by-the-means-of the mind of/belonging in order that I might ALSO teach others,” which we’ve seen above is HIS natural bent from, HIS only basis for HIS “strong urgings.”
According to Paul about tongues & interpretation, unlike the individuals that receive all the other grace-gifts including the interpretation of tongues, are allos ‘of the same kind’ in that the gift’s purpose is entirely directed “to others,” the individuals receiving tongues are heteros ‘others of a different kind’ because the tongues are of [plural] genos ‘families-classes,” directed to 3 different audiences for 3 different purposes and thus with 3 different sets of ADVICE:
1) Tongues of conversational-prayer and psalming give eulogizing-praise-thanksgiving thru hidden-secret-mysteries spoken TO GOD, which Paul optimally-desires EVERYBODY to practice, just as he boasts that he does more than them ALL, in order to “build themselves up in their genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowing of God,” and Jude 1:20 adds to “tereo ‘carefully watch/observe to safely-guard, care-for/attend-to, firmly-hold/stand-in/maintain-a-present-state,’ yourselves in the Unconditional-Love of God.” There are many verses about prayerful-thanksgiving as being the explicit will of God for individual Christians and church-assemblies. In Ephesians 6:17-18 conversationally-praying by the Spirit, in tongues per 1 Corinthians 14:14-15, is the sword of the Spirit’s rhema words of God actually to be used in Spiritual Warfare to withstand the schemes of Satan, and rhema is always directly-spoken/heard from God IN THE PRESENT MOMENT that are the ONLY words that produce trusting-relying-faith, never come back void, that man can live on alone, and that are Spirit and zoe Genuine-Life according to Jesus. There is nothing about bible-study here!
Paul’s only ADVICE for conversational-prayer and psalming in tongues is to definitely DO it constantly with all perseverance!
2) If the WHOLE church is gathered and all are speaking in tongues at the same time, Paul believes that idiotes Christians ‘uninformed in the Spirit’s grace-gifts‘ OR apistos unbelievers coming into their church-assembly will likely say you are all crazy because you pragmatically can’t interpret everybody speaking tongues at once to get any benefit from the tongues. For that reason, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 at least prophecy has the advantage of being immediately understood, even if all in the church-assembly prophesy, and “the idiotes uninformed or apistos unbeliever will be convicted by ALL, the secrets of his heart disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.” Being an apostle, prophet, and evangelist this is the natural “optimal desire” of Paul.
Paul’s simple ADVICE in the church-assembly is to lovingly (giving all of Chapter 13 to this over-riding approach to all gifts) take turns speaking tongues and interpreting with the allos others-of-the-same-kind of Christians (the informed) presently/ongoingly diakrino ‘judging/critiquing back-and-forth thoroughly’ what is said so that ALL may ‘learn the key info through experience’ (this is not bible-study) and/coupled ALL presently/ongoingly be parakaleo ‘encouraged close-beside each other’ – a term for what the Holy Spirit does in us and how here thru us to others – so that every Christian can benefit, even the idiotes uninformed ones, from: a revelation, logos message of gnosis informational-knowledge, logos message of sophia wisdom, prophecy, or teaching. However, if the genos ‘family, kind of’ tongues is simply giving eulogizing-praise-thanksgiving (see #1 above), then at least the idiotes uninformed Christians can say AMEN (‘so be it’) – the unbelievers sure wouldn’t, so Paul doesn’t even mention them here.
Furthermore, Paul’s ADVICE if you have conversationally-prayed and neither you or anybody else says they have an interpretation, is to keep it a “hidden, secret mystery to God” for sigao means ‘hold onto, keep to oneself, keep concealed, not necessarily SILENT. But-then [I strongly urge] him presently/ongoing, actively to speak it TO himself and/coupled TO God (#1 above) – this simply means NOT loudly TO the ‘different audience, purpose, advice’ of “the whole church gathered.”
3) This last intended purpose & audience is presently/ongoingly “a proving/confirming/authenticating-sign directed TO the apistos unbelievers” after Paul loosely quotes Isaiah 28:11-12. Careful analysis of Isaiah 28 clearly indicates that God thru Isaiah was mocking the childlike gibberish of the “precept upon precept, line upon line” of the rabbinical method of knowing God and His will and their own criticism of direct prophetic knowledge. If you trace the pronouns carefully in the Hebrew and Greek LXX, it is clear that even though the prophets were criticized as simplistic and vague, the rabbinical ‘rote’ method of teaching was like the gibberish of babies to God and so that’s the way the phrase is written, like a kindergarten song. This is prophetic about the Jewish unbelievers of Christ’s day, God’s message prophetically spoken to them by Christ’s disciples in tongues on the Day of Pentecost that started God’s way of speaking in the entire Church Age. Some of the Jews even mocked them saying it was drunken gibberish – thus Paul’s reference to Isaiah 28. Romans 11:7-1 citing Psalms 69:22-23 ties right into all of this.
No ADVICE is given about interpretation for this genos ‘family, kind of’ tongues because God does it! This is what I do in some of my Drum Declarations in parks and other public spaces, which I will also add to the BLOGS below.
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“Building yourself up” is the reason Paul said in “Now I presently/ongoingly thelo optimally-desire YOU ALL to actively, presently/ongoingly speak in glossa tongues/languages” (a) and even boasts in their value to himself: “I thank God that I presently/ongoingly speak in glossa tongues/languages more than ALL of YOU” (b). No interpretation need there because God is the intended audience! This is “#1 audience-purpose” of God for personal building. <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 14:5, b) v. 14:18.
However, for the “#2 audience-purpose” of church-assembly in order to “build others up” the tongues need to be interpreted so everybody else can “say ‘Amen’ to your eulogeo ‘High-Praise blessing & thanksgiving’ to God” (a) or megaluno ‘making/declaring as great/conspicuous, magnifying, esteeming-highly, extolling, lauding, celebrating, giving glory/praise’ of God (b) or the megaleios ‘magnificent, excellent, splendid, wonderful things’ of God (c).<Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 14:16-17, b) Acts 10:46, c) Acts 2:11.
But others in this “#2 audience-purpose” can be “benefited” (a) by possibly other content in the tongues like: “a [singular] revelation or in/by/with [singular] gnosis info-knowledge or in/by/with [singular] prophecy or in/by/with [singular] didache teaching” (a), even “imparting a secret and/coupled hidden wisdom of God” (b) that are “spoken absolutely-in-fact-NOT taught of/belonging-to human logos messages of wisdom but-instead taught by-the-means-of [singular] Spirit” (c), “for truly to one [member of Christ’s Body] dia thru-the-realizing-channel-of The Spirit is given a logos-message of wisdom, now to allos ‘other-of-the-same-kind’ a logos-message of gnosis info-knowledge, kata down-from/according to the same [singular] Spirit” (d). <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 14:6, b) 1 Corinthians 2:7, c) 1 Corinthians 2:13, d) 1 Corinthians 12:8.
This fits in well with what “hekastos ‘EACH member viewed distinctly’ is to bring” to church-assemblies “when you may come together”: “a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation” (a). From other verses, the psalm, teaching, or revelation could be in tongues. The unique key to this #2 audience-purpose is the required interpretation. Elsewhere Paul says to “routinely laleo ‘conversationally-speaking’ to heautou ‘EACH OTHER reciprocally’ via psalms, hymns, and Spirit-kind-of odes (b), always with thanksgivings” (c) and “to routinely be teaching and noutheteo ‘gently reasoning thru warning, admonishment, exhortation, or counseling’ heautou ‘EACH OTHER reciprocally’ by-the-means-of psalms, hymns, and Spirit-kind-of odes (b), always with thanksgivings.” <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 14:26, b) psalms or hymn in tongues, c) Ephesians 5:19.
However, regarding this “#2 audience-purpose,” pragmatically and logistically it makes more sense not to rely so much on praying that you or someone else gets an interpretation of a tongue before being able to deliver it, so Paul favors prophecy more (a), even calling it a “proving-sign for believers. Indeed, Mark implies that those who don’t have trusting-relying-faith won’t even experience these grace-gifts, just as Jesus “did absolutely-in-fact-NOT do many [plural] dunamis ‘supernaturally enabling-powers’ in some cities because of their unbelief.” The Church Father Irenaeus around 180 AD confirmed the absence from faithless churches (b). Faithlessness quenches the Holy Spirit! <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 14:1, 22, 26, b) 1 Corinthians 14:5, 13, 22; Mark 16:17; Matthew 13:58.
Now “#3 audience-purpose” audiences of tongues is unbelievers and it so important that it’s a proving-sign to them. No interpretation is needed because God does it inside the audience!
Cessationists that believe the grace-gifts have ceased for one reason or another are clearly disobeying Paul’s imperatives, denying Church history, and impeding Body-Ministry and evangelism – see ??? Cessationism. Paul makes it crystal clear: “[I strongly urge you to] presently/ongoingly be-zealously-desiring to prophesy and/coupled to in-possibility-NOT presently/ongoingly forbid tongues” (a), and “[I strongly urge you to] presently/ongoingly be-zealously-desiring the Spirit-kind-of grace-gifts, de mallon ‘however even-better to prophecy” (b). Are you really going to try to oppose God? Wouldn’t it be better to partner with Him? <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 14:39, b) 1 Corinthians 14:1.
Please follow the BLOG Etiquette Guidelines for these The Grace-Gifts of Tongues & Interpretation BLOG Topics:
Video: 3-6-22 Catapult of “Greek Fire” into the Enemy’s Camp
BT1: Some of my experiences of praying in tongues
BT2: Application of tongues to music & drumming
BT3: Tongues are completely-different-in-kind “NEW” just as with many actions of God
BT6: How are tongues a sign for unbelievers?
See also Spirit-Baptism-BT2: Spirit-Baptism brings grace-gifts and signs & wonders
BT10: Tongues and Prophecy is all about the directly-spoken/heard rhema Words of Christ – Watch videos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5a, Part 5b, Part 6a, Part 6b, Part 7a, Part 7b, Part 8a, Part 8b, Part 9a, Part 9b, Part 10a, Part 10b
See also Prophetic rhema Word of God and God’s plan for ALL His servants to Prophesy
BT12: Tongues is according to the Will of God for our own benefit and others
BT13: Worship ‘psalming’ by tongues by the Spirit would be in God’s Will for every Christian
BT15: Reflection about Cessationism
More coming soon!
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