1 Corinthians 14:13,14 - My mind is unfruitful

14:13

The one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. I have already said that interpretation seems to be a gift much in absence. There are a number of things that can be learnt from this. One is that the tongue which is a genuine gift of the Spirit is an actual language of some sort, otherwise it could not be interpreted. Secondly, we can ask God for the gift of interpretation.

14:14

We now learn more about the gift of tongues, and what we learn here is very important. When we pray in tongues our minds are unfruitful. Tongues is nonsense, not because it actually is no sense, but because our minds are not involved. This does not mean that we are not in control, ie we can choose whether or not to pray in tongues, but we should not expect our minds to make any sense of it. Just as a bit of empirical evidence on this. If I pray in tongues I actually have to say the words, even if very quietly, I cannot pray in tongues in my head. Whereas, I can say English words in my head without vocalising them at all. This is also a very useful aspect of praying in tongues. There are times when we are overwhelmed by events, when our minds are all over the place. In those times we can still pray in tongues, we pray in the Spirit. Now the fact that as far as we are concerned tongues is gibberish worries some people, it should not. We are to use our minds, as much of Scripture exhorts us to, indeed the next verse will do so, but we must not make an idol out of the mind. But what if someone, or even ourselves, actually are speaking gibberish, and it isn’t actually the Holy Spirit? Well sometimes that might be the case, so what? Many prayers in English, and not a few sermons, are complete gibberish! But we do not advocate not praying in English and not having sermons. We need a down to earth, practical approach to praying in tongues, as Paul has here in this chapter. It is a gift of the Spirit, it is a common one, it is useful in edifying the individual, but it is not magic and we should not make more of it than the Bible warrants. If you pray in tongues that is good, if you do not you can ask God for the gift, but do not get worked up about it if you do not have, or even never get the this particular gift.