Hodge on I Corinthians 14:13
Paul’s argument here, comments Charles Hodge, “was designed to show how useless it is to speak in a language which no one present understands.” Apparently anticipating the (Neo-)Pentecostalistic misinterpretation of I Cor. 14:13f, Hodge here rightly rejects “the assumption that the gift of tongues was exercised only in prayer and praise; in other words, that it consisted in an ecstatic but unintelligible and unintelligent pouring out of the heart to God…. This whole assumption is not only gratuitous, but contrary to Scripture!
“The gift of tongues was, according to Acts 2:5-11, exercised in declaring the ‘wonderful works of God.’ It is also apparent from what is said in this chapter, [I Cor. 14] vs. 22-25 and v. 27, that the gift in question was not confined to acts of devotion” in private, but was also being exercised especially in public worship! See I Cor. 14:4-6,9,11,13,16-17,19,21,23,27-28.
