14:10. There are, for example, so many kinds of tongues in this world: and none is without voice.
14:11. If then I know not the power of the voice, I shall be to him to whom I speak a barbarian: and he that speaketh a barbarian to me.
14:12. So you also, forasmuch as you are zealous of spirits, seek to abound unto the edifying of the church.
Of spirits.... Of spiritual gifts.
14:13. And therefore he that speaketh by a tongue, let him pray that he may interpret.
14:14. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth: but my understanding is without fruit.
14:15. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the understanding, I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding.
14:16. Else, if thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that holdeth the place of the unlearned say, Amen, to thy blessing? Because he knoweth not what thou sayest.
Amen.... The unlearned, not knowing that you are then blessing, will not be qualified to join with you by saying Amen to your blessing. The use or abuse of strange tongues, of which the apostle here speaks, does not regard the public liturgy of the church, (in which strange tongues were never used,) but certain conferences of the faithful, ver. 26, etc., in which, meeting together, they discovered to one another their various miraculous gifts of the Spirit, common in those primitive times; amongst which the apostle prefers that of prophesying before that of speaking strange tongues, because it was more to the public edification. Where also not, that the Latin, used in our liturgy, is so far from being a strange or unknown tongue, that it is perhaps the best known tongue in the world.
14:17. For thou indeed givest thanks well: but the other is not edified.