I Knew a Hypocrite Who Speaks in Tongues

14. I knew someone who went to a certain church and spoke in tongues, and that person turned out to be a really terrible hypocrite.

As for spiritual depth, it is, sad to say, true that someone who speaks in tongues could be as shallow as anyone in any other church. This, however, does not negate the declaration in Acts that tongues is the evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit. Some people are fakers. Others could backslide. The fact that someone has experienced the new birth doesn’t ensure that they will always be perfect.

Look at Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They were apparently true believers in the original church, who would have been baptized in the name of Jesus and who would have spoken in tongues. But in the process of time, they became greedy and held back a portion of the money they received from the sale of their property. They told Peter a lie about it and God struck them dead, not for keeping the money– the money was theirs–but for telling the lie.

Jesus said there would be some weeds among the wheat. And just because one person fails to keep the faith, doesn’t mean the faith is wrong. The gospel of the apostles is not dependent upon the actions of any man. The truth will still be the truth even if some people fail to live up to it, even if nobody lives up to it.