Pastor's Blog

Now then, in I Corinthians 14:39, there is a third one:

“Forbid not to speak with tongues.” What you have here is that forbidding is the wrong method of correction for abuse. I know that people make mistakes, but forbidding genuine utterances of the Spirit is not Pauline. I was in a large Assembly, but not the speaker, and a young girl stood up and gave an utterance in tongues. The pastor said to her, “Sit down, you. I don’t believe God gives gifts to high school kids.” That was an awful mistake. That girl had a genuine utterance of the Spirit, and just because the pastor did not believe that the Lord would use girls of high school age, he set her down to her great embarrassment. I would not be surprised if that girl never opened her mouth again. Forbid not to speak with tongues. I did not write this: it was Paul that wrote it.

Apparently what had happened was that they had excesses of the manifestation of speaking in tongues. We know that of course. Apparently some leaders tried to correct that by forbidding all speaking with tongues, but we can vex the Spirit by forbidding utterances in tongues. I would never do it, though I have suppressed speaking in tongues that disturbed the meetings, but I don’t think Paul is talking about that. I think he is talking about genuine utterances in the Spirit, presumably utterances that are to be interpreted.

Here I also give you a note, six different translations:

1) “Speak not against the gift of tongues” (Centenary).

2) “Do not hinder the speaking with tongues” (Berkeley.)

Many times in class over the years, students spoke in tongues and I knew they were making a mistake. I had never reproved in public, but kept still. Later on, I would take them to the side to talk to them and help them in the exercise of their gifts.

3) “Do not check speaking with tongues” (Weymouth).

4) “Do not interfere with tongues” (Knox).

5) “Do not prohibit speaking in unknown tongues” (Aramaic).

6) “Stop preventing others from speaking in ecstasy” (Williams)

Now there are people, I do not know about New Zealand, but in other countries, that have nothing to do of any kind with speaking with tongues. If anyone tries to give a message in tongues, they would suppress it immediately. Williams’ translation says, “Stop preventing others from speaking in tongues.”

So there again is one way in which we can vex the Spirit of God, trouble Him, disturb Him by clamping down on the free flowing of the Spirit of God.

In I Timothy 4:14, “Neglect not the gift that is in you.” We can have a gift, and the gift become dormant in our hearts, and the gift gradually fall into disuse. In fact, we can go so far as to deliberately stifle the gift in our own lives.