Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
1 Corinthians 14:13-19 ESV
Understanding these verses requires understanding the context. The Corinthians were divided (1 Corinthians 1:10-11), they were uninformed on being spiritual (1 Corinthians 12:1) and in 1 Corinthians 14:6-12, Paul compares their use of tongues to being like lifeless instrument.
In these verses, Paul confirms that tongues are only useful if one can interpret:
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
1 Corinthians 14:13-14 ESV
Some suggest that angelic tongues or ecstatic utterances is useful as a personal prayer language, but this seems to be contrary to that hypothesis. If you don’t understand what is being said, then pray that you might understand what is said, lest your mind be unfruitful. Wouldn’t it be better to pray in a language you understood? Paul writes:
What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?
1 Corinthians 14:15-16 ESV
There are two important consequences to these two verses:
pray with your mind for yourself
pray with your mind for others
It’s important that you understand what you pray, because otherwise you are unfruitful. But it’s also important because others may benefit from saying amen to your prayer. This doesn’t apply to church alone, but also at home. For as certainly as the second isn’t a concern when nobody is around, the first still is - will your mind not be unfruitful if you don’t know what you are saying?
A weak argument against this instruction is that speaking in heavenly tongues or ecstatic utterances elevates you to pray things that you couldn’t in your own language. The cited verse would be this:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Romans 8:26 ESV
However, the context for Romans 8 is not on speaking in tongues. Lest we believe that Paul also meant to say that mountains are speaking in tongues with their groaning. The spirit does indeed intercede for us and groan in anticipation of adoption, but angelic tongues and ecstatic utterances is not that groaning.
Lastly, Paul writes:
For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
1 Corinthians 14:17-19 ESV
Paul repeats his same point that tongues is useless for upbuilding, encouragement and consolation. Speaking in a language that others understood is so much more beneficial than even ten thousand words in a tongue.
Though, some take Paul’s exhortation to mean in a church only. But that argument is futile as it would be to say that outside of a church, the opposite would be true, that Paul would rather speak ten thousand words in a tongue than five words in his native language. This runs contrary to his point to pray with his mind also, but defies every sense of rationale.
To summarise, the meaning of 1 Corinthians 14:13-19 is that Paul would rather we pray with our minds, whether in church or at home, so that we ourselves and others may be built up with our understanding.
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