1 Corinthians 14:18,19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I thank my God, &c. As if he had said, I do not speak thus of foreign languages because I myself am deficient in them, for I must say, to the glory of that Being from whom all my gifts and talents are derived, I speak with tongues more than you all More than the whole society taken together. “The apostle had this great variety of languages given him by inspiration, that he might be able immediately to preach the gospel to all nations, without spending time in learning their languages. But it must be remembered that the knowledge of so many languages miraculously communicated, was a knowledge for common use, such as enabled the apostle to deliver the doctrines of the gospel clearly and properly; and not such a knowledge of these languages as prevented him in speaking and writing from mixing foreign idioms with them, especially the idioms of his mother tongue. An attention to such trifles was below the grandeur and importance of the work in which the apostle was engaged, and tended to no solid use; these foreign idioms being often more expressive and emphatical than the correspondent classical phrases.” Macknight. Yet in the church, &c. Yet so far am I from being vain of this gift, that in the church I had rather speak were it only five plain words with my understanding In a rational manner, so as not only to understand myself, but to be understood by others; than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue However sublime and elegant that discourse might be: yea, I had rather be entirely silent in an assembly, than take up their time, and prostitute the extraordinary gifts of God to such a vain and foolish purpose.