Intro to spiritual gifts and speaking in tongues

Question

Can you explain the context of 1 Corinthians 14:2? Many people use it as a basis and foundation for whatever tongues and mysteries they want to talk about. How should we understand this Scripture?

Answer

“For the one speaking in a tongue does not speak to people but to God, for no one understands; he is speaking mysteries by the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 14:2

The context of 1 Corinthians 14:2 is 1 Corinthians 12-14. These three chapters deal with Paul’s answer to their question about the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, also known as “spiritual gifts.”

In chapter 12, Paul explained what they are and where they come from. They are the Holy Spirit at work in a Christian’s life based on how the Holy Spirit decides that person can best minister to the Body of Christ. Most of these actions/gifts are listed, but the chapter primarily describes how a body is supposed to function. At the end of the chapter, Paul explained that there is a priority within the gifts and ranked them in order of importance to the global church. Apostles were the most important; tongues and interpretation of tongues were the least important. Further, he wrote that these gifts are distributed so that no one person has all the gifts, and no individual gift is given to everyone.

In chapter 13, he picked up on his previous comment that there is a better way to serve the Body of Christ than with spiritual gifts, and that is simply by love. In the first three verses, he used hyperbole to say that even if certain supernatural things were true (even though they were not), they would be meaningless if he did not do them with love. His point was that the same was true with spiritual gifts. Following the famous “love section” in verses 4–7, Paul noted that specific gifts (the ones that the Corinthians focused on) were temporary and would end. Prophecy and knowledge provided only partial revelation for the church and would be stopped when the final revelation for the church was completed. Tongues would slowly end on their own when their function was fulfilled. Both of these things happened by the end of the first century. Paul finished the chapter with one more emphatic statement about love.

In chapter 14, Paul addressed the Corinthians’ favorite gifts: prophecy and tongues. He showed that prophecy was essential, far more important than tongues, because prophecy added to the Body while tongues benefited only the speaker. Additionally, prophecy was meant for the church, while tongues were a sign for unbelievers, not believers. He repeatedly told them to seek prophecy (the second in the priority list of chapter 12). However, rather than dismissing tongues altogether, he permitted them but did not give them much importance at all. He listed specific rules that must be followed if tongues were allowed to occur during a church worship service, most of which are violated regularly in today’s so-called “tongues speaking.” Finally, Paul said that genuine prophets and spiritually mature people would agree that this was from Jesus, and those who disagreed should have no authority in the church.

Verse 2 fits with verses 13–19, where a person spoke or prayed in an unknown language “with his spirit.” The “spirit” in verse 2 is not the Holy Spirit but the person’s inner spirit, just as in the later verses. Those who claim that speaking in tongues means speaking mysteries from the Holy Spirit are mishandling the text in two ways. First, they misunderstand what spirit Paul meant. Second, they misunderstand that tongues is not a revelatory gift but a praise gift. In 13:11, Paul linked speaking in tongues to speaking as a child. They were a gift for the immature and not something necessary or desired by the spiritually mature.