I Cor 14:9 So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. 10There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without significance.
Notice, if nobody understands, you are speaking into the air.
Clearly these are languages in the world. Each one has significance. Words are spoken. Words have meaning.
I Cor 14:11 Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me.
Again, this is clearly a foreign language.
12Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.
What is said is to be for edification. His point is that if nobody understands, it can't be for edification.
13 Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. 14For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
What is the conclusion? To sing and pray with understanding. Know what you are saying.
16Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say "Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say? 17For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.
Nobody is edified and nobody can say amen when they don't understand what you are saying.
18I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; 19yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
5 words that people can understand are of more value that 10,000 that they cannot.
What is so hard to understand about this? Paul is describing that speaking words in a foreign language is of no value if nobody understands. Someone who claims to speak in tongues (unlearned but given directly from God), can easily be verified.
I Cor 14:28 But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church,
Simple instruction
I Cor 14:32And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
The so-called speaking in tongues that I've observed appeared spontaneous and as if the speaker had no control. That conflicts with this passage
I Cor 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace,
Speaking words in an unlearned foreign language is the New Testament's description of speaking in tongues. Everything spoken is to be for edification, and if nobody can understand, nobody can be edified, so keep quiet.
Has anyone who claims to be able to speak in tongues, ever had an occassion to use it? Have you ever been able to teach the gospel to someone who speaks a different language than you do?
So much has already been written, but God's word has already been confirmed according the the Hebrew writer and it does not need to be confirmed again. Tongues were for the infant church that did not have the printed word, but when it grew up and had the completed word, it put away that childish thing.
