But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching?
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 6. If I come to you, speaking with tongues in this manner, what shall I profit you, unless in revelation, and so forth that is, unless I reveal, and expound to you the meaning, by some other gift, as in knowledge, in prophecy, in doctrine? To speak tongues only without interpreting, is no ways instructive. He that speaks to me, what I understand not, is no better than a barbarian to me, (so the Greeks called those that spoke not their language.) He amplifies this inconvenience of not being understood, by the example of instruments, pipes, harps, trumpets, which would not move persons to different affections, nor excite them to different actions, unless the sound, and manner they were played upon, were different; seek, then, and endeavour to make use of the gifts of the Spirit, to the edification of the Church, or of the hearers. Witham.
The word for “brothers” here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”