What It Means To Speak in Tongues: A Tentative Exposé

By Ogiri John Ogiri

This is piece is only a tentative exposé on what it means to speak in tongues. By this write-up, I don't intend to stir an unnecessary controversy in this area. My intention, however, is to explain an aspect of our Christian practice that, in my observation, is still a long walk away from being deeply understood by many Christians in the 21st century. This exposé is, by no means exhaustive.

The phrase "speaking in tongues" is one of the most beautiful gifts of the Holy Spirit. Its beauty, at least, lies in what it has achieved over the centuries in extending the frontier of Christ salvific message to other people and nations of the world. It has helped the Apostles with an ability to speak in tongues other than theirs, in being able to tell nations of the earth about the mighty works of God. But it is equally one of the most misunderstood spiritual gifts and so wrongly practised by many Christians today. It has got so bad nowadays that this beautiful gift made, particularly, manifest on the day of Pentecost by the Holy Spirit has become an instrument of spiritual confusion and noise-making in many churches. In a desperate bid to prove how holy they are, many Christians in many churches today take to mumbling and barking in a language that anyone in their assembly can barely understand and interpret. Sometimes, one wonders how those who need to hear the good news or the salvific message of Christ can hear and learn about the mighty works of God. Some swathe the elusive air, roll on the floor and even inflict injuries on their bodies all accompanied by funny utterances that reflect their own idea, concept and practice of tongue-speaking.  

But is that what it entails to "speak in tongues?" What is it then? Why was the spiritual gifts of speaking in tongues given to the Apostles before they launched into full evangelism?

To speak in a tongue is to speak in a language, not in an unintelligible, indiscernible language, but in other languages different from yours. By way of an example, let us say you speak Idoma as your sole language.( I chose Idoma because that's my mother tongue). You don't speak or understand any other language. When the spirit comes, you can be inspired to minister to Yoruba people. You don't understand what you're saying but they do because they can hear you speaking in their own native language. You have spoken in a tongue. Tongue is a metaphor for language. Even in French, tongue means "la langue" That was what happened as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles chapter two, verses one to eleven.  Remember that the disciples spoke Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. But they equally had the mandate to ensure that those in other climes, who neither spoke nor understood these languages, shared in the good news of Christ too. If they must take the salvific message of Christ to the end of the world as Christ himself had charged them and to be his witnesses in Jerusalem as well as to the end of the world, then they had to be equipped with the ability to speak in the different languages of the different people of the world to whom they were to minister. How could that be possible? This seemly intractable linguistic puzzle was resolved with the descent, on the Apostles, of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem when everyone from every nation had converged for an annual Jewish festival. By this,  the disciples were given the courage and new tongues- the power to speak in new languages, which enabled them to tell the people in whose languages they spoke, about the " mighty works of God" 

It, therefore means, based on the foregoing, that, speaking in tongues has got nothing to do with mumbling in a cacophony of meaningless utterances that has come to characterize our Christian religiosity today in our prayer gatherings. This we need to understand so that we use this beautiful gift for the purpose it was intended to achieve.

As the Church celebrates the feast of Pentecost today, I pray that God, in his son, through the Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our minds, fill our hearts and enkindle in us the fire of his love and understanding. Amen!

Happy Sunday!