“So anyone who speaks in tongues should pray also for the ability to interpret what has been said. For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying.”
1 Corinthians 14:13-14 NLT
In the last part of 1 Corinthians 12:10, we find that Paul wrote, “ … Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said”. The problem with tongues was addressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:2, “For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious”. It appears that at the Corinthian church’s public meetings, there was much tongue-speaking, and nobody had a clue what anyone else was saying, and Paul spent much of 1 Corinthians 14 saying why that was less than useful for the believers. But the Holy Spirit had all that in hand, and one of the gifts He supplied was the ability to interpret what a message in tongues was really saying.
In my early years as a Christian, I attended a Pentecostal church where one man gave a message in tongues at every Sunday morning meeting. Fortunately, there was a lady there who had the gift of interpretation, and the church was able to hear what the message really meant. At the time, I was confused about why this was necessary, since I thought a prophetic message everyone could understand would have been more helpful. So why the need for a message in tongues? But we can never put God in a box of our own understanding; instead, we must be open to the Holy Spirit’s gifts.
“You will receive power when
the Holy Spirit comes upon you“
In Acts 2, on that memorable Day of Pentecost, we read that “all the believers were meeting together in one place”. There were 120 of them present, and I’m sure they weren’t there enjoying a social occasion for Hebrew dancing or joining together for a fellowship meal. Instead, they were there praying, because they remembered what Jesus had said: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you …” (Acts 1:8a). The miraculous manifestations of tongues of fire, rushing winds, and sounds from Heaven were followed by: “And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability” (Acts 2:4). But these “other languages” didn’t need any interpretation because the messages in tongues were in languages that foreign visitors to Jerusalem could understand, because they were given in their native languages.
In our churches, a message in tongues using a real, understandable language would not need an interpretation. Although such a tongue is not so common today, such a message is still given on occasion. But in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul was writing about messages in tongues, given in a language no one could understand because they were in the Heavenly language, uniquely given by the Holy Spirit to the person giving the message. Such a message would not be able to be translated because no one, not even the person speaking it, would have been able to discern words and sentences within it. In these days of AI and Google Translate, speaking out the message to the computer in front of them would have been pointless because there was no recognisable language involved. However, now we come to the Holy Spirit’s gift of interpretation, a supernatural manifestation that reveals the meaning of an utterance spoken in other tongues. It is not a translation of words, but an interpretation inspired by the Holy Spirit to communicate God’s message to the hearers.
So in our church services today, we pray that the Holy Spirit would have the freedom to give the gifts for the benefit of the believers meeting there, and that there would be believers present who will have the courage to use the gifts in any way that God desires.
Father God. You have given Your children good gifts, for which we are deeply thankful. We take these from You with our open hands, reverently and faithfully, and aware that by using these we can build up the church of which You have made us a part. We thank You for Your grace and love. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 