Truth Unites - Should All Christians Pray in Tongues?

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Gavin Ortlund explores whether all Christians should speak in tongues, examining key biblical passages on spiritual gifts and the work of the Holy Spirit today.Truth Unites (https://truthunites.org) exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth.Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites, Visiting Professor of Historical Theology at Phoenix Seminary, and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.SUPPORT:Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunitesFOLLOW:Website: https://truthunites.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truth.unites/X: https://x.com/gavinortlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/

Should all Christians speak in tongues? This is actually a difficult question, and we can envision how difficult it is by looking at two different verses. In 1st Corinthians 12 to 14, I'll put these up on screen. On the one hand, Paul asks, do all speak in tongues? And the implied answer to that is no. The whole theme of chapter 12 of 1st Corinthians is there are different gifts for different parts of the body of Christ.

We'll return to that later. But then just two chapters later, and I'll leave this up on screen so you can see these in juxtaposition, Paul says, well, I want you all to speak in tongues. Throughout chapter 14 of 1st Corinthians, Paul does prioritize prophecy over tongues, these two different gifts, and he does forbid untranslated speaking in tongues in public assemblies, but he's not against the proper use of tongues. Not only does he say, I want you all to speak in tongues, he also says, verse 18, I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you, and then his concluding remark is don't forbid speaking in tongues, even if he's giving more urgency to seeking prophecy there. So how do we resolve this

apparent tension? Well, one way we can get clarity here is to say speaking in tongues is not expected of every Christian, but neither is it forbidden to any particular Christian. In other words, and this is my pastoral burden I'm going to try to push forward in this video, don't pressure people to speak in tongues like everybody has to, but also don't shame people for seeking the gift of tongues. For maximal clarity, we'll put it on screen. An expectation for all, no, but available to any yes. So here what I'm wanting to do is to push against two attitudes. On the one hand, there can be an elitism, more common on the more charismatic side of things where the mentality, the thinking is, oh, so-and-so doesn't speak in tongues, there must be something wrong with them.

We want to push against that. On the other side, more on the cessationist side of things, there can be an undue suspicion where they can come across like, oh, you're interested in tongues. Oh, there must be something wrong with you for that. And the healthier posture that I want to encourage in this video is no pressure, no pride, no suspicion, no looking down into anybody else. But seek the gifts of God with an open heart as he is leading you in your life. Now, as is already probably clear here, I'm a continuationist. That means I believe the New Testament spiritual gifts, all of them, are for the church age, just the apostolic age. I won't address that here because I've made that argument elsewhere. I'll

link in the video description to these two videos, and you can see my case for that there, if that's something you're interested in. For this video, I'm wanting to narrow in on this more particular question. Suppose you do believe in speaking in tongues. What do you do about it? Should you? Should you practice tongues? Now, I want to be clear. Christians disagree about this. This is not a matter of heresy versus orthodoxy. Let's love one another. Let's show the courtesy of Christ to one another as we wrestle with this. This matters, but we want to do so in a spirit of love for other Christians where we differ and seek the truth of scripture together. So doing that here now as best we can, let me develop these two points. The second one will be maybe the more surprising where we'll get

the pastoral pushing things forward if we can. And I pray the Holy Spirit speaks to you and ministers to you as we think about this topic. It's wonderful to step away from the chaos of the world and go to your prayer closet and have intimacy with God. Number one, we should not expect all Christians to speak in tongues. Now, in some circles, especially classical Pentecostal circles, speaking in tongues has often functioned as one part of what is called Second Blessing Theology. And that phrase refers to the idea that after conversion, there's a distinct subsequent work of grace and empowerment for Christians that is often described as baptism in the whole. Holy Spirit, and speaking in tongues is commonly regarded as the initial physical evidence of that

experience. I'll put up an example of this theology on screen from the assemblies of God tradition, and this raises a pastoral concern, and that is, well, should speaking in tongues be expected as this normative sign for this particular post-conversion status? And one of the worries will be here, this can end up dividing the body of Christ into these two different classes. Those those who have been baptized into the spirit, evidenced by tongues, and those who haven't, because they don't speak in tongues. Now, look, I love Pentecostals. Some of the godliest Christians I've ever met are Pentecostals, so I'm not trying to take a shot here.

And in different Pentecostal traditions, this gets teased out differently, and I'm sure the intention is not to divide the body of Christ, but I think this is a fair concern to bring up here. And the reason is, going back to 1 Corinthians 12 for a moment, Paul writes in verse 13, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Now, if we think about that language for a moment, the language here assumes that all Christians have been baptized into the Holy Spirit because spirit baptism is coincident here with entrance into the body of Christ. I'll leave this scripture up, I'll put it back up.

Think about these words at the beginning. In one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. The language here suggests that baptism in the spirit is one aspect of conversion when we come to Christ for the first time and become a member of his body, not a subsequent experience. Now, some people say, but what about Pentecost? You know, the disciples were already following Jesus before they were baptized in the spirit. And that's true. In Acts chapter 1, Jesus promises to them in not many days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. and that's a reference to what happens in the next chapter on the day of Pentecost.

But this is a unique event in redemptive history. Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 actually ushers in a new era of God's work in history. And this is why Peter interprets this event as the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy about the last days. This new long-awaited epic of redemptive history, we can call it the last days or the final days, is initiated on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. So the fact that spirit baptism happens after conversion for the apostles doesn't necessarily mean that's an ongoing paradigm for everybody else who comes after this unique pivotal event that initiates a new era

in which God's Holy Spirit is poured out more copiously and is sort of democratized to all Christians in this powerful way. Think of a metaphor, you know, if you're a citizen of a country, in the year 500 AD, and in 505, the king of this country establishes a law that says all citizens of this country will receive a royal stipend on January 1st of every single year. And then you have a child who's born in 510 AD. Now the child is going to just associate being a citizen, getting a stipend, that's just all going to flow together for them, because they're born after this pivotal changing event. And they won't remember a time when those two things were separate, as you will,

when you think back in like 503, when you didn't get the stipend yet. Pentecost is like that decisive change in redemptive history. Now, one thing I want to say is we can affirm the experience that many have, whether Pentecostals or even other traditions have different theologies that affirm some kind of particular subsequent experience after conversion. We can affirm much of the experience that may be referenced here. and we should absolutely seek post-conversion experiences of the Holy Spirit. But what I'm suggesting is we should refrain from calling that baptism in the Holy Spirit,

in the technical sense of that, and even more the pastoral pressing point here is we should avoid requiring one particular experience, like speaking in tongues, as the evidence of that. And again, this is where 1 Corinthians 12 can be so helpful for us with these rhetorical questions that Paul asks, which have the implied answer, no, since Paul is emphasizing different parts of the body will have different gifts. And the underlying rationale for that is that there will always be a temptation to fail to appreciate the diversity of giftings in the body of Christ and even to look down on

other parts. You know, this is why Paul is saying throughout 1st Corinthians 12, this chapter is so helpful for the church today, where people are saying, you know, one part is saying, oh, I don't need that part of the body. And I have to tell you, I think in online Christian discourse, between different Christian traditions, but other things as well, we need to remember this. We need to distinguish error from sheer difference. We should criticize error, but we should appreciate difference. And whenever we're giving a criticism of error, we always need to have enough humility to ask, well, you know, am I sure about this? Or maybe there's different giftings where I'm tempted to despise something that looks different from me. And in relation to tongues,

I've just seen this issue be so divisive before. Let's remember. all pride, all pressure, all judgment from this as much as we can. If you just pray to God in your own known language, great. That does not mean anything is wrong with you. There's nothing second rate about that. Let's give freedom for different expressions of gifting in the body of Christ. However, I think there is a danger in the other direction. And I want to make this point. Some will disagree with this. At a certain point, in your, along the pathway, you realize I've offended enough people that I'm just going to be honest and seek the truth and try to commend what I think is right, and then let the chips fall where they may. And you all are so gracious to me.

My regular viewers give me so much grace. When you disagree with me, but you say, you know, we can disagree. That's why I'm always trying to do triage. We really need that to have unity in the gospel. So some of you will disagree with me about this, but I'm sharing from my own experiences and my own theology and what I think could encourage some folks here. And that is, we should not forbid tongues for anyone. Now, I am attempting in saying that to take Paul's language in 1st Corinthians 14 at sheer face value, because that's the summative claim, don't forbid it, and also the expression of value for this gift that Paul gives as we saw in verse 5. Before I press this point, though, let me give a clarification. I am envisioning a legitimate and biblical

expression of speaking in tongues here, and there are so many abuses. For example, I take tongues to be a real language, whether human or angelic, it is not just spiritual gibberish. It's a language. It's a rational language that you do not yourself know. I talk more about the nature of tongues in my prior videos that I referenced. And that means it is a genuinely supernatural occurrence. Now, for more on that, Wes Huff talked about this in his podcast with Michaela Peterson. I'll link to that, check that out for more information on that particular point. But that's one way we can fall away from the biblical teaching, I think. Another is we have to remember Paul's prohibition in 1st Corinthians 14 against public untranslated

tongues. I am amazed and grieved at how often this instruction is flouted, even though it's the whole point of that chapter. Paul says very clearly, if there is no one to interpret in the public assembly, then just speak to yourself. and God don't speak to the rest of the gathered group. And just to make a somewhat obvious but I think necessary pastoral point here, the motivation for speaking in tongues is not so that others will be impressed by how spiritual you are. You know, this is a good question to test our hearts on this. If you speak in tongues and no one for your entire life, maybe even your spouse, doesn't

even know about that. Will you be just as happy at what God is doing in your life? your motivation should be first before God. Now, I would say, let's clarify this. From my study of the New Testament, I would say there could be two motivations that could be at play for why someone might seek the gift of speaking in tongues.

First, in a missions context, you might be motivated for the gift of tongues so that others will hear the gospel. This is very obvious from Acts 2, right? I mean, this is what happens, where the response, I'll put this up on screen, three times Luke says this, that the non-Christians who are present are listening and they're saying, wow, this is amazing. I can understand what they're saying. They're praising God and they're talking

in my language. So it's very clear that these are real human languages there in Acts chapter two. And another biblical text in this regard may be 1st Corinthians 1422, where Paul quotes from the book of Isaiah and then says that tongues is a sign for unbelievers. So sometimes God gives the gift of tongues for missional and evangelistic purposes. And that's a wonderful motivation. And I believe God does this. Look, we never want to put God in a box. I've heard so many stories of this kind of thing happening. We're in a mission's context in some way or another, God supernaturally enables someone to communicate the gospel. And in all kinds of different ways. I'll tell you stories in another time. So that could be a legitimate motivation. However, I do not believe that that exhausts the purpose of tongues

in the New Testament. Because elsewhere, you see that Tongues happens without any apparent evangelistic or missions purpose. Acts 10 with Cornelius, Acts 19, maybe Acts 8 would be examples, but where I'll just make the point most clearly, because I think it's the clearest in the text would be in 1st Corinthians 14, Tongues also is described as prayer unto God, which is different from it being assigned for unbelievers. So we don't want to take one of these purposes. and set them over and against the other, when they both seem to be present in the New Testament, and even just in 1st Corinthians 14.

For example, verse 2, Paul says, one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God. So now he's not contradicting himself when he just said they're a sign for unbelievers. He's giving two different purposes for tongues here. And that is why Paul can even reference, it's not speaking in tongues. He can call it to pray in a tongue,

as you can see on screen in verse 14. So communicating the gospel in a mission's context is not the only possible motivation. Let me describe another possible motivation. And this is what I want to push forward in this video and just encourage with sobriety, with humility before God, with humility and trembling before the text of Scripture. I believe a legitimate motivation for speaking in tongues is simply intimacy with God. Get in your prayer closet and just seek God. and I believe that's valid.

Now, let me emphasize the motivation here with all these caveats in that I'll put it like this, and we'll go to Matthew 6 with this. I'm trying to pastor people, you know, if God's put a deep thirst in your heart for intimacy with God and you're interested in this spiritual gift, one great step would be to simply go into your prayer closet, close the door, and bring in your heart all that desperation with you. get down on your knees and then seek God with all your heart. You know, we're doing a book club on proslogion. That first paragraph of Anselm's book, the proslogion, talks about wholehearted pursuit

of God privately like this. There's nothing more wonderful. Some of you might struggle with depression, with addiction, with all these things, and you're going to find relief in that place of private, earnest, desperate prayer unto God that you can't find anywhere else in your life, nothing else, no sense. self-help book can do for you what the Holy Spirit can do. He can truly break the chains. Now you don't have to pray in tongues to have that. Again, we're taking all the pressure off the table. But I'm trying to say, if you want to seek this gift, biblically with the right

motivation, I believe it's legitimate to go ask the Lord. And this is with the right motivation. We want to remember our Lord's warning in Matthew 6, but not just take it as a warning, but take it as a promise. Our Lord says to us, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. This is almost like an analog to 1st Corinthians 14 here. He says, where they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others, purely I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you.

That passage is not just a warning. It's also an opportunity. It's saying, who cares about the street corners? You can have God. God will reward you. Go be quiet. Don't tell anybody about it. Just go into your prayer closet, seek God, and see what he will do. And I'm wanting to encourage us to be eager and enthusiastic about spiritual gifts. On the one hand, the gifts of the spirit are so dynamic and they're so powerful and amazing

that it's easy to be undiscerning, to get swept up into it, you know, get caught up in the emotions, and we see so many abuses in relation to this topic, whether in the church in Corinth or in the church today. However, there is a danger on the other side. And that's being too suspicious and aloof, too cynical, just, you know, too unenthusiastic, and we can end up quenching the spirit. Let me put up the warning about quenching the spirit from 1st, Thesslonians 5. What I want to draw attention to is two things. Number one, this passage is said to Christians.

It's not just non-Christians, it's Christians who can quench the spirit. Think about that. You know, this is scary to think about this. To quench means to extinguish or to cool something that's warm. We don't want to quench the spirit. And the second thing, though, not only as I said to Christians, it's said in the context of prophecies. So as much as I want to push against abuses, I also want to encourage you when it comes

to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, go for it. Be biblical, be humble, and lean in and pray. and if you and if in appropriate ways you have some trusted brothers or sisters you can come and lay hands on you you know that's what i that's what happened with me just ask people to pray for you but go to god and see what he has for you we don't want to be so cautious about the work of the holy spirit that we come we become more focused on pushing against things than being clear about what we're for and i'd like to just encourage you that the the power of the holy spirit in your life is one of the sweetest experiences you will ever have. There are no words to describe the peace and the joy of God, the Holy Spirit,

dwelling richly within you. And again, you can be a cessationist and agree with that and believe that. And if your conscience is such that you don't feel seeking tongues is where God is leading you or so forth, or maybe it's not even a matter of conscience, fine. But all of us believe in the gifts of the Spirit. Some of them, at least. So, you know, the basic point here is baseline Christianity that we should seek the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, and that comes in other, among other ways, through spiritual gifts. And the Holy Spirit is like the wind in your sails for the Christian life. Too many Christians are afraid of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not spooky. The Holy Spirit is safe and kind and good. He gives you joy. This is why Jesus calls him your helper. And if you want more about that and what

it's like to pray to the Holy Spirit and a theological case for that, you can see this video. That'll be the last one linked in the video description. But I'm just saying here, if you feel God stirring on your heart and you desire the gift of speaking in tongues, I would say go to your prayer closet and seek God with an open heart and ask him for this. So that's what I'm trying to say here is, you know, because honestly, in the place of desperate faith, you just never know what God is going to do. But I'm trying to put it in two directions like this, to leave the door open for those who want to seek God, but also let's take all pride off the table, all suspicion and all pressure. off the table. And in the meantime, let's keep wrestling with this topic. Let me know what you think in the

comments. Thanks for watching everybody.