Interpretation

“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.

He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.”
1 Corinthians 12:10-11 NLT

Of all the spiritual gifts, “tongues” is arguably the most contentious, both to unbelievers and even other Christians. Some people question why such a gift is of any use. Others say that it can’t be valid because all the gifts died out at the end of the Apostolic age. Still others ridicule tongue-speaking Christians as being deluded and even possessed by an evil spirit. But those believers of a Pentecostal persuasion know the benefit of this gift today, putting it up there in a prime position with which they can worship and praise God. Today, in many churches, the gift of tongues will be heard, either in a public setting or on the lips of believers in their private devotions and prayers. 

There are three manifestations of the Holy Spirit gift we call “tongues”. The first is the gift of being able to speak in other world languages. On the day of Pentecost, we read what happened in that Upper Room in Jerusalem. Acts 2:2-4, “Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability”. In this very public setting, the Holy Spirit’s gift of tongues was indeed miraculous, granting the believers the ability to communicate with other Jews in their native language. We read in the next few verses, “At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!”” (Acts 2:5-11). There are two things to note about this gift of tongues: firstly, it was manifested as a valid language, such as English, French, Urdu, and so on, enabling communication between people who would otherwise have had no clue what each was saying. Secondly, the messages spoken in these languages communicated “the wonderful things God has done”, giving God the glory that He deserves.  

The second use of the gift of tongues is in a public setting, where believers have a gift of bringing a prophetic message in a language or tongue that would be incomprehensible unless someone had a gift of interpretation. The use of this manifestation of tongues seemed to be misunderstood in the Corinthian church, as we read in 1 Corinthians 14. In verse 9 of this chapter, Paul wrote, “It’s the same for you. If you speak to people in words they don’t understand, how will they know what you are saying? You might as well be talking into empty space”. In verse 13, Paul wrote, “So anyone who speaks in tongues should pray also for the ability to interpret what has been said”. Regarding the public use of tongues, Paul wrote, “So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. … ” (1 Corinthians 14:22a). 

The third use of the Holy Spirit’s gift of tongues is for personal edification. We read in 1 Corinthians 14:2, 4, “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. … A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church”. Speaking in tongues as part of a believer’s personal worship will edify them, being as it is a spirit-to-Spirit form of communication. The believer’s spirit talks to God through tongues that bypass the believer’s thought processes. Romans 8:26, “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words”. 

There are benefits, public and personal, in the Holy Spirit’s gift of tongues that many believers are missing out on. All believers have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, as we read in Acts 2:28, and that enables them, amongst other things, to speak in tongues. But the public manifestations of tongues are given to believers as one of the nine 1 Corinthians 12 gifts, to be used for the edification of the church. We thank God for His many gifts, for His love and kindness, and for equipping us for life in this outpost of His Kingdom on Planet Earth.

Dear Father God. We do indeed thank You for all the good things that You have provided for us. We worship and praise You today. Amen.