“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:22-23

The inspired apostle Peter disclosed the fact that Christians have purified their souls in obeying the truth (1 Peter 1:22).  This implies that their souls at a previous time were not pure, but at the point of obeying the truth had been purified.

Among the false teachings of the first-century Gnostics who troubled the church, was the concept that sins in the body do not affect the soul.  The truth, however, is that man’s soul is involved in sin and becomes defiled.  When my inward man decides to go against the law of God, then I sin (1 John 3:4).  It is not merely the body that is involved in sin, but the soul as well.  For instance, when a person commits the sin of fornication, it begins in the heart (Matthew 15:19), it involves the body (1 Corinthians 6:15-18), and repentance is required so that the “spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5).  While certainly the body is involved in sins, the soul can sin (Ezekiel 18:20).  That the word “soul” is sometimes used as a synecdoche in the Scriptures to refer to the whole person does not remove the fact that the part of man known as the soul is involved when sin is committed. Consider this question in the book of James: “Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?” (James 4:5).  Sin defiles the soul.

How, then, did Christians purify their souls which had been defiled by sin?  The answer in 1 Peter 1:22 is, “in obeying the truth through the Spirit.”  Truth must first be known if it is to be of any benefit.  In John 8:32, Jesus said, “and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  This freedom is freedom from the bondage of sin (John 8:34-36).  Jesus later prayed for His disciples to be set apart from the bondage of this sinful world when He petitioned the Father in John 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Purification does not come to those who merely acknowledge truth without acting on it; it comes to those who obey the truth.  It is obedience of the truth that is the means of purification.

The Christians to whom Peter wrote obeyed the truth through the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the revealer of God’s truth, who gave the words of truth to the first-century apostles and prophets (John 14:26; 16:13-15); these words of truth are preserved for us in the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 2:13; 14:37; 2 Timothy 3:16-17).  This is the incorruptible seed, the ever-living word of God, mentioned in the next verse (1 Peter 1:23).  Jesus said in John 6:63, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”  The word of God is living and able to pierce the depths of our souls (Hebrews 4:12).

Will you allow the word of God to enter your heart and move you to obey the truth so that your soul may be purified?

-Mark Day

When one reads the New Testament it is clear that there existed in the first-century church a miraculous spiritual gift that involved the ability to speak in different languages without previous study.  Jesus promised that one of the signs accompanying those who believed in Him would be “they shall speak in new tongues” (Mark 16:17).  This promise came to fruition on the day of Pentecost when the twelve received the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4).  The apostles, men of Galilee, spoke in the native languages of those gathered; thus, it is evident that the gift of tongues was not speaking languages altogether unknown to humanity, but simply new and unknown to the speaker (Acts 2:6-8).

The gift of tongues was present at Peter’s preaching to Cornelius’ family and friends as a sign that God opened the door to the Gentiles to receive the Gospel (Acts 10:46).  In Acts 19:6, when the men who had been baptized under John’s baptism learned from Paul that it was no longer valid, they were baptized in the name of the Lord, Paul laid his hands on them, and they spoke with tongues.

The church at Corinth was started by the apostle Paul (Acts 18).  Corinth received miraculous gifts that were the signs of an apostle laying his hands on them (2 Corinthians 12:12).  In fact, they came behind in no spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 1:7).  However, those at Corinth abused their spiritual gifts to the dividing of the church.  For three chapters Paul addresses this abuse of spiritual gifts  (1 Corinthians 12-14).  In 1 Corinthians 12:28, he ranks the importance of the various gifts saying, “first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles….”  The gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues are the last two items on the list.  The gift of tongues was a showy gift that the Corinthians had abused.  Paul sets them straight as to its relative importance and how it should be discharged with an interpreter in 1 Corinthians 14.

The purpose of the miraculous gifts of the first-century church has been fulfilled.  The gift of tongues was one of several listed in the closing verse of Mark as having the purpose of confirming the word (Mark 16:20).  New revelation from God is always accompanied with miraculous signs to show His approval of the message (Hebrews 2:3-4).  When the revelation of the New Testament was complete, the purpose of the miraculous gifts had been fulfilled.  The New Testament predicts the cessation of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, including tongues, saying “…tongues, they shall cease” (1 Corinthians 13:8).

The New Testament is complete, lacking nothing; it is called “the perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25).  The faith has been delivered once and for all (Jude 3).  We have all we need for life and godliness revealed in the word of God (2 Peter 1:3).  The gift of tongues, as recorded in the New Testament, no longer exists today.  Those today who utter gibberish in ecstatic frenzies of emotional excitement are not displaying the gift of tongues as the New Testament defines it.  It is an error to confuse these dramatic displays going on today in religious meetings with the miraculous ability to speak actual languages recorded in the New Testament.

–Mark Day