The Gift of Tongues

Today I read 1 Corinthians 14 which is mostly about the gift of speaking in tongues. Now, having served a mission, I have come to realize that there are at least two, if not more, manifestations of the gift of speaking in tongues. There is the gift of learning new languages that most missionaries called to speak a foreign language are blessed with, and then there is the gift of speaking spontaneously in an unfamiliar language, which is what Paul addresses here. In the Latter-day Saint community, you almost never hear of the latter happening anymore.

In the early days of the Church, you used to hear about people speaking in unfamiliar languages all the time. I believe it was Brigham Young who once stood up to say a prayer and it came out in what Joseph later declared was the Adamic language, or the pure language of Adam and Eve. There are lots of stories from the days of Joseph Smith where people spoke in languages unknown to them. Paul teaches in this chapter that when such an occurrence happens, it is to glorify and edify God, because it does nothing for the speaker or the hearers because they cannot understand it. If such gifts come without the interpretation of tongues, then it is only to edify God.

And truly, Paul is right. What good would speaking in a foreign language be if no one, not even the speaker, could understand what he is saying? You might be able to feel the Spirit, but you would have no idea why because you would not be able to understand what you are saying without the interpretation of it. And this is perhaps the greatest reason you don't hear about this happening anymore in the church, I would imagine. They might help build faith a little bit, but Paul teaches they are more for those who are outside of the faith as opposed to those who are already baptized.

Now, the much more common aspect of the gift of tongues would be what thousands of missionaries discover every year. The Lord helps them to learn new languages quickly. I have always found it easier than some to learn a new language, but I will freely admit that the Lord helped me to learn my mission language of Mandarin Chinese at a much faster rate than I ever would have alone. It would have been almost impossible for me to have picked it up as fast and quickly as I did without His help. I know this because every single time someone wants to learn how to say something in Chinese, they cannot pronounce the sounds correctly. They just can't do it. It is very, very hard for a speaker of a Western language, like English, to get used to speaking the sounds in Chinese. I saw missionary after missionary pick it up like they were a blank slate and learn to say those same sounds with ease. That is gift of tongues in my opinion.

And unlike the random speaking in a foreign language, the gift of tongues as evidenced in missionaries, is given to edify both the Saints and those not of the LDS faith alike. I can't tell you the number of times I got into a house just because I was a white man speaking Chinese, with some degree of fluency. What usually impressed them was my lack of an accent. There was a couple of times when I would speak and they couldn't see me, such as on a phone call, that they thought I was from China or Taiwan. Those instances always made me feel really good!

So the gift of tongues has not gone away, it has changed to better suit the needs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today. It is manifested to thousands upon thousands of missionaries each and every year, month, week perhaps even day! And they use it in the work of the Master furthering the work and allowing everyone to hear the Gospel in their own tongue. Truly it is a wonderful thing to be given the gift of tongues to help those who have not yet heard the Gospel to hear it in their own language. Heavenly Father loves all His people very much and wants them all to have an opportunity to fully understand His Gospel. He really is no respecter of persons. Until tomorrow.