1 Corinthians 14:13,14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wherefore let him that speaketh in a tongue Unknown to the congregation to which he would address himself; pray that he may interpret That God would give him the gift also of expounding his discourse, in the common language of the place, a gift this distinct from the other. For if I pray, &c. The apostle, as he did at 1 Corinthians 14:6, transfers it to himself; in an unknown tongue; without making use of any explication; my spirit indeed prayeth By the influence of the Spirit of God, I understand the words myself; but my understanding is unfruitful Namely, to others; the knowledge I have is of no benefit to them; and I perform an action void of that prudence and good sense which ought always to govern persons in their addresses to God, and act so childish and foolish a part that the reason of a man may seem at that time to have deserted me. “This,” says Dr. Doddridge, “I think a more natural interpretation than that which supposes the apostle to suggest a thought which the Papists urge to palliate the absurdity of offering prayers in an unknown tongue, namely, ‘there may be some general good affections working where the person praying does not particularly understand what he says.' But this would make it almost impossible to conceive how the gift of tongues could be abused, if the person exercising it was under such an extraordinary impulse of the Spirit, as to utter sensible words which he did not himself understand; in which case a man must be, in the most extraordinary sense that can be conceived, the mere organ of the Holy Ghost himself.”