1 Corinthians 14:26-28

"What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God."

Everything done in a church service should have a purpose. The overarching purpose, not explicitly mentioned here, is the glory of God. However, the purpose drawn attention to in this chapter is for building up, the growth of the church—numerical growth of the church body through the conversion of unbelievers and the personal growth of individual believers as they understand more truth and walk more and more consistently with God.

In order for growth to occur, the various parts of a service must be orderly. That is not to say that churches should rigidly eradicate all vestiges of flexibility, as if flexibility were a problem. We are not directed to embrace rigid structure verses flexibility. However, Paul makes it clear that activities focused through the lens of church growth will be much more effective than a chaotic service.

The specific example is the exercise of the gift of tongues. The first century church was instructed to take turns in speaking in tongues—one speaker at a time. They were also limited to one to three people exercising the gift in a church service. This may have required some preferring of others and intentional restraint on the part of some church members. Also clearly all tongues speaking had to be interpreted. There is no instruction for how long or as to when in the service people should present "a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation." This lack of specifics probably indicates that there was room for flexibility here. But the flexibility existed within the confines of a spiritually beneficial, organized service.

Sadly, almost no Pentecostal or Charismatic groups today operate within these guidelines. Personally, I don’t believe that the gift is in operation at all. But if God were to give someone the gift of tongues, it would have to be exercised within the confines of biblical revelation so that the church would be built up and God glorified. And if this were clearly happening, I could not argue with a fellow believer.