QUESTION: Does 1 Corinthians 13:1 teach that there are two kinds of tongues; one of foreign languages; the other a heavenly language?

ANSWER: No! 1 Corinthians 13:1 does not indicate that there are two kinds of tongues which Christians are to, or may, employ. He is simply saying that even though (if) he had the ability to speak all of the tongues known to men and angels, without love it would avail him nothing. The emphasis here is not on languages, but upon love! There appears here to be, however, an allusion to what he heard in 2 Corinthians 12:4, where he says that he was caught up into paradise and heard words that were unlawful for him to utter (the same would be true of any person). He may, then, in I Corinthians 13:1, be referring to, not what he supposed to be the language of angels, but what he actually heard; a higher, more eloquent, heavenly language. Thus, even though he, too, had the ability to speak with this eloquent language of angels that he had heard with his own ears, as well as the languages of men, the result and effect would be as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal, if unaccompanied with love.