I originally wrote this as a discussion for a bible study group i was part of a couple of years ago it was posted on my old blog which i never used much but there was some comments on it if you would like to view them feel free to email me and i will send you a link to it. These are my own thoughts and they may well be wrong and they most certainly don’t reflect the opinion of anyone with any sort of authority. I also changed a couple of the colours i used to make it readable.

For Those of you not in the Adelaide Uni ES small group on 12 tues this is a email i wrote for them outlining some things in 1 Corinthians 14

Hey Guys as i said i would in tuesdays bible
study im pulling apart 1 Corinthians 14 (about speaking in tounges) for
you. I dont have a up to date email list of you guys so if ive missed
anyone feel free to forward it on to them or anyone else who you may
think is intrested and if you get this and you havent been coming to
the small group feel free to read and comment as you wish. Because i am
a total nerd for the ease of discussion i have made a blog and put this
up on it so instead of replying to this email go to

1 Corinthians 14

Prayer Language

1-3Go
after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does.
Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to
proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of
tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing
intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in
everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can
grow and be strong and experience his presence with you. Here Paul starts off by outlining what is essentially
his common theme throughout the chapter in encouraging the Corinthians
to use the private language of tongues or prayer language in personal
prayer times as it builds your personal relationship with him. But he
encourages them to instead use everyday speech which in the niv is also
refured to as prophesies. Paul then continues on expalining in more
detail and empisising more of it.

4-5The
one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot
out of it, but proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common
language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all
of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don’t stop
with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It’s more
important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in
language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s
presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is
someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all. I think in this part Paul makes it clear that being
able to pray in tongues isnt neccesery for being a christian in the niv
he says “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues,
but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is
greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that
the church may be edified.” here he says
that neather are compulsory although he encourages us to be able to do
both and i agree with Paul here as i know that you cant force someone
to start praying in tongues for the first time i believe that once you
have received ability to pray in tongues you can call upon it whenever
you choose although i dont believe that you should force someone to
pray in front of a group because thats not from the heart i also
believe that like any prayer it doesnt have to be prayed out aloud it
can be prayed under the breath. I beleive that prophersy is the same
ive experienced meetings where people have tryed to push other people
to prophesie and it just hasnt worked and at the same time i know there
have been situations where i have prophesied over people i know this
because there have been people ive never met before and ive realy felt
on my heart that god has something he wants to say to them often it
seems random or bizar and often personaly for me it comes in the form
of a picture but from talking to the peopel ive prophesied over after
they have told me that its exactly what they needed to here. I also
regualy go camping with a group of christian guys from all around the
place and i have seen over time that some of the stuff ive prophesied
over them has come true.

6-8Think,
friends: If I come to you and all I do is pray privately to God in a
way only he can understand, what are you going to get out of that? If I
don’t address you plainly with some insight or truth or proclamation or
teaching, what help am I to you? If musical instruments—flutes, say, or
harps—aren’t played so that each note is distinct and in tune, how will
anyone be able to catch the melody and enjoy the music? If the trumpet
call can’t be distinguished, will anyone show up for the battle?

9-12So
if you speak in a way no one can understand, what’s the point of
opening your mouth? There are many languages in the world and they all
mean something to someone. But if I don’t understand the language, it’s
not going to do me much good. It’s no different with you. Since you’re
so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don’t you concentrate
on doing what helps everyone in the church?

13-17So,
when you pray in your private prayer language, don’t hoard the
experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring
others into that intimacy. If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my
mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted. So what’s the
solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually
free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and
mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind.
If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one
else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has
no idea what’s going on know when to say “Amen”? Your blessing might be
beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it.

18-19I’m
grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for
praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I
enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I’m in a
church assembled for worship, I’d rather say five words that everyone
can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to
others like gibberish. Here Paul continues to
emphisise where the use of praying in tongues should be used but the
bit i want to pick up on is how Paul describes the fact that praying in
tongues leads to wonderful intimacies with god. I was wondering through
the botanic gardens the other day spending time with god as i do often
and i was thinking about this and god gave me a picture that describes
these intimacies it was that just having a relationship was god was
like just walking around on all the bitumen sealed paths you see alot
of cool stuff and all and you still have a good experiance but praying
in tongues is like also walking down the small dirt paths you see so
much more you would have otherwise missed and i believe like that
praying in tongues enables you to be in a much stronger deeper
relationship and alows you to see things you wouldnt have other wise
seen

20-25To
be perfectly frank, I’m getting exasperated with your infantile
thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult
head? It’s all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a
simple no is all that’s needed there. But there’s far more to saying
yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save
you from falling into gullibility. It’s written in Scripture that God
said,


In strange tongues
and from the mouths of strangers

So
where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands?
It doesn’t help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to
gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the
heart of believers and doesn’t get in the way of unbelievers. If you
come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in
on you as you’re all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other
and to them, won’t they assume you’ve taken leave of your senses and
get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders
walk in on a service where people are speaking out God’s truth, the
plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their
hearts. Before you know it, they’re going to be on their faces before
God, recognizing that God is among you.

26-33So
here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of
you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a
hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.
If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three’s the limit, and then
only if someone is present who can interpret what you’re saying.
Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or
three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking
it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each
speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all
learn from each other. If you choose to speak, you’re also responsible
for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn’t
stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all
the churches—no exceptions. I like what Paul
says in the last part of this verse “God
doesnt stir up confusion, he brings harmony” I
beleive that this is such a good indication of whether god is working
in something or not. there are times in the middle of worship in our
church when a large amount of the congregation break out into tongues
and this genraly has a real peace about it so i know its from god i
think it also comes down to the 2 different types of speaking in
tongues i was talking about at the start i believe the type that Paul
is talking about in the verses above is the type is like a word of
prophesy where as the type that im talking about going on in my church
is each person individually singing a song of praise to god and this
isnt juct done in tongues often people sing songs of praise in english
as well.

34-36Wives
must not disrupt worship, talking when they should be listening, asking
questions that could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at
home. God’s Book of the law guides our manners and customs here. Wives
have no license to use the time of worship for unwarranted speaking. Do
you—both women and men—imagine that you’re a sacred oracle determining
what’s right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?

Im
gonna leave the last couple of verses other then to say i disagree with
them in both the message and NIV but i think thats a completly
different topic that i don’t know enough about to comment on other then
some of the best sermons ive heard preached have been by women and the
youth pastor at our church is female so im not sure how much that has
effect i believe god can move through whoever he wants and like most
things in the new testament gender and race doesnt matter its also
intresting to note that when Paul is writing this it is the only time
in the chapter Paul refers to the books of law in the old testament
again if someone else has more knowlage in this area feel free to
comment

37-38If
any one of you thinks God has something for you to say or has inspired
you to do something, pay close attention to what I have written. This
is the way the Master wants it. If you won’t play by these rules, God
can’t use you. Sorry.

39-40Three
things, then, to sum this up: When you speak forth God’s truth, speak
your heart out. Don’t tell people how they should or shouldn’t pray
when they’re praying in tongues that you don’t understand. Be courteous
and considerate in everything.

I think Paul sums up well in the last few
verses and i dont have much to add to that So ill just wrap it up by
again saying feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts here at id love
to know what other people think about this area as i come from a fairly
different background to alot of you. and one other thing before i go i
may as well plug some of the other stuff ive written for those of you
who havent procrastinated enough reading this it can all be found at

and also on the blog i just
set up for this

Simon