Two instances of tongues-speaking as different in character.

Another difference between Acts and Corinthians is the relationship between tongues and unbelievers. The tongues of Acts 2 are an evangelistic tool that opens the door for unbelievers to come to Christ. However, in 1 Corinthians 14 Paul discourages the use of tongues in worship because of the potentially negative impact they might have on an unbeliever in their assembly (14:23). This contrast between Acts 2 and 1 Corinthians 14 pushes us toward seeing the two instances of tongues-speaking as different in character.

Finally, the tongues of 1 Corinthians 14 are clearly ecstatic rather than a matter of thought, meaning that the tongues speaker at Corinth did not use his or her mind when speaking in them (14:14). They seemed to be having religious experiences in which they uttered unrecognizable sounds that they perhaps interpreted to be the “tongues of angels” (13:1). These were non-rational experiences that by-passed their minds and their thinking. A non-believer might have compared them to the frenzies of the Dionysian festivals or the mysteries of Eleusis, a town about fourteen miles northeast of Corinth. The word the NIV translates as “out of your mind” in 14:23 (mainomai) may refer to these kinds of religious experiences.

Tongues is apparently a phenomenon that has occurred in many different religions in the history of the world. You could argue that the non-Christian incidences are counterfeit experiences. But a more likely suggestion is that certain human brains are “wired” in this way while others are not. This possibility leads us to wonder whether at times some spiritual gifts are instances of God magnifying aspects of who we are naturally rather than God gifting us completely “from scratch.” Is the gift of faith God magnifying some aspect of us that was already there before we came to Christ? Is the gift of leadership the magnification of certain gifts that we had even before God sanctified them as His own?

Kenneth Schenck, 1 & 2 Corinthians: A Commentary for Bible Students (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2006), 191–192.