Hodge on the words ‘my spirit’ in I Cor. 14:14
Comments Hodge: “What does Paul mean by saying [that] his ‘spirit’ prays? … This verse [I Cor. 14:14] and those which immediately follow, are the principal foundation of the theory that the speaker with tongues was in a state of ecstatic excitement in which his understanding was not exercised, so that he knew not what he said or did. How inconsistent this theory is with the facts of the case, has already been shown. This view of the passage, therefore, cannot be admitted….
“Each man has his own ‘spirit’…[and] his own spiritual gift. Compare [I Cor. 14] verse 12…. Paul means to say, that when a man prays in an unknown tongue, his spiritual ‘gift’ is indeed exercised…but others are not profited. The speaker with tongues…should not exercise his gift where it can do no good to others.”
