Sermon for Dalkeith Road Church of Christ October 2020
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1 Cor. 13:8-10 ESV).
“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears” (1 Cor. 13:8-10 NIV).
Love never fails; it never ends. It is eternal. This is not surprising because God is love and God is eternal. But some things do come to an end. What Paul does in verses 8-10 is contrast the eternal nature of love and the transitory and temporal nature of spiritual gifts. One day, let it be today, Jesus will return in glory and take us to be with him forever. In that state, love will remain important but spiritual gifts will not. Today I am going to contrast the importance of spiritual gifts in the present with the reason why spiritual gifts will pass away.
In 1 Cor 13:8 Paul says that prophecy, tongues and knowledge will pass away. He does not mean that only these gifts will cease and every other one will remain forever. They are representative spiritual gifts, chosen to make a particular point. Paul starts by saying that prophecies will cease. Paul taught the church that prophecy was a very helpful gift. In chapter 14 he spells out how significant it is.
“1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified” (1 Cor 14:1-5 NIV)
Prophecy is representative of all intelligible speech gifts, in contrast to speaking in tongues, which is not intelligible. Other speech gifts include revelation, teaching, word of wisdom, and word of knowledge. All these serve as some form of instruction for the church, although they are all different. Paul expected that when the church gathered together, people who prophesied (or used other intelligible speech gifts) would build up the congregation. The people would be encouraged and strengthened by the use of this gift. It is a good gift, given by the Holy Spirit for the church. Therefore, in 13:8 Paul was NOT saying that prophecies will pass away because they are useless and irrelevant.
Tongues appear in this short list of gifts in 13:8 because the Corinthians evidently thought speaking in tongues was the most important gift anyone could have. This is why there is so much attention given to its use in chapter 14. Many scholars think that the Corinthians had brought the practices of pagan religions into the church, particularly in the way they spoke in tongues in church. In some ancient pagan religions people spoke in ecstatic utterances in order to commune with the deity they worshipped. This was a very narcissistic way of behaving because no one else mattered at all while the person was engaging in this ecstatic utterance.
Paul corrected the abuses in the church regarding speaking in tongues in chapters 12 and 14. He did not say that it was a waste of time or that they should give it up. Indeed, he said, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you” (1 Cor 14:18). Yet, he told the church to use the gift in a way which built up others instead of just themselves. To make it beneficial to others they needed to interpret what they were saying so it became the equivalent of intelligible speech like prophecy (1 Cor 14:5, 13, 27).
The third gift on Paul’s list is knowledge. The Corinthians actually thought knowledge was more important than love. In chapter 8 Paul deals with the issue of food sacrificed to idols and how this affected some people in the church. It is clear that having superior knowledge to others was a matter of pride to some in the church. Paul wrote, “Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that ‘We all possess knowledge.’ But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God” (1 Cor. 8:1-3 NIV). This is probably why knowledge is on the list. The Corinthians needed to value love more than their own knowledge.
Now the point of 13:8 is that the gifts which the Corinthians prized so greatly are temporary. They will cease. In 13:9 Paul explains that these gifts are the partial not the complete or perfect. “For we know in part and we prophesy in part” (13:9). The knowledge that the church has is only partial knowledge of God. God has given us true knowledge of himself but there is more. What the people in church have to say about God is not complete because we cannot know everything about God in our current state. Being partial is not bad, but the fact that it is only partial points us towards something better.
God has given spiritual gifts to the church and these are good and worthwhile, but we need to understand that they are not everything. Because they are partial, they are not the goal of the Christian life. Having particular gifts does not mean we have “arrived” as Christians. The goal of the Christian life is not fully attainable in this present age. For that we must wait. This is the point of verse 10.
“When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.” What is this “perfect” thing? There are two schools of thought about what the perfect means. Many people believe that the perfect means the Bible. They claim that when the canon of Scripture, that is, the Bible, was completed, there was no more need for miraculous gifts like tongues, prophecy and supernatural knowledge. Since the Bible is complete, the supernatural gifts have passed away. Now, all we need is the Bible.
There are a couple of reasons why this idea is incorrect. First of all, there is no reason to believe that Paul had in mind the completion of the New Testament at this point in history. 1 Corinthians was written about 55 AD and the book of Revelation was likely written about 40 years later. The idea of a New Testament was probably in the mind of no one at that point. Secondly, within the context of chapter 13, saying that the Bible is the perfect thing is simply incorrect. A few verses further on Paul wrote, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12 ESV). The Bible is a wonderful book, but it is not the equivalent of seeing God face to face. That will not happen until Jesus returns.
If the perfect is not the completed Bible, then what does it mean? One problem with trying to understand this statement about the perfect is that the grammar implies that it is the perfect thing. It is not a person. Those who argue for the Bible being the perfect thing say it cannot be talking about Jesus. He is certainly perfect, but he is a person not a thing. But this problem is not really too big. When Jesus returns in glory everything will change. This world will no longer be as it is now. Sin will be no more. All the brokenness of the world will be transformed. The world itself will become perfected. God’s people, those who trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, will also be made perfect. This is the perfect thing, a perfect world that is ruled over by the perfect person, the Lord Jesus.
Let’s for a moment consider a world without sin and without death, a perfect world. In this world there is no sickness. No one gets coronavirus because there is no coronavirus. No one needs a hip replacement because there is no arthritis. No one has a mental illness because all sorrow and distress are undone. We don’t have any funerals to go to because no one ever dies. We don’t need to fix the house because there is no more decay in the world. There are no accidents, no pain, no grief, no sorrow. Because Jesus is right there with us all the time and we see him directly, we do not need to wait for his return. There is no need to encourage those whose loved ones have died, because we are reunited with all the Christians who have died. There is no more estrangement from people we love because all will be reconciled. There will be no reason to be sad.
This perfect world will happen only when Jesus returns for his church. He will bring with him the holy angels (Mark 8:38) and will transform us to be like him. Those who trust in him will be raised from the dead or transformed if we are still alive when he comes (1 Thess 4:16-17). Jesus is not a perfect thing but his return is what will bring about the perfect thing, that is, the transformation which makes the world and the people in it perfect. This is what will bring about the end of spiritual gifts.
So why will spiritual gifts cease or pass away when Jesus returns? The simple answer is that we won’t need them anymore. They serve a function in the church now. We need to have these gifts so that we can minister the love of God to a hurting world. We need to have spiritual gifts in the church in order to encourage one another while we see the day of Christ’s return approaching (Heb 10:25). But when that day has arrived, there will be no more chances for the lost world to turn to Jesus and the church won’t need encouraging anymore. Let’s consider this in relation to the list of spiritual gifts.
1 Corinthians 12 lists several spiritual gifts, so does Rom 12. If we put these lists together, we come up with a list like this: message of wisdom, message of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, service, teaching, encouraging, generous giving, leading, showing mercy, administration, helps. Let’s start with the more miraculous gifts. When the world is transformed and renewed, no one will ever get sick, have an accident, experience mental illness or die. There will be no need for anyone to use a gift of healing. There will be no need of a miracle to demonstrate that Jesus is Lord because everyone will know that. His glory and power will be evident to all. There will be no need to distinguish between spirits because no evil spirits will disrupt the glory of the new heavens and the new earth.
By the same token there will be no need of the less miraculous gifts either. Who will need a sermon in the glorious world to come? No one. We will know God fully and will have no need of instruction. No one will need to give generously because every need will be met. No one will be poor. There will be no need for encouragement because no one could get discouraged there. If we understand one use of prophecy to be exhorting people to obedience to God’s commands, then prophecy won’t be necessary after Jesus has returned. No one will be disobedient to God when there is no longer any sin.
What all this means for us is that although spiritual gifts are very important in the present, we should not get all hung up about which gift you have and which one I have as if they will somehow define our lives forever. They will not. They are temporary. Something greater than spiritual gifts is coming. The fact that spiritual gifts are still present means that there is still a world in need of repair. The church is not yet perfected to be fully like Jesus. The people in the church are not yet fully as they are meant to be and will be. The gifts are there so that we can help one another become like Christ. They are there so that we can minister Christ to the broken world of lost sinners. But when there is no longer a broken world, there will be no more need of gifts. Don’t take your identity from the gifts you have. Take your identity from Jesus himself. You belong to him.
Secondly, there is one thing which will never stop being important, regardless of whether we are still in this present evil age or the glorious age to come. Love never fails. It never ends. So it is really important to work at loving one another now. That will last. Use your spiritual gifts. Use your natural talents. Use your opportunities. But use them with love instead of for your own gratification. The gifts and talents and opportunities will pass away. They are just there so that you can effectively love others. Don’t imagine that your gifts and talents and opportunities are about you. They will cease and if you did not use them to love others and serve them then those things are wasted.
Lastly, the Corinthians thought of the gifts as an indication of heaven having reached earth. But in fact, when heaven does meet with earth (Rev 21:3-4) we won’t need the spiritual gifts anymore. Don’t be fooled that if you have a spiritual gift this makes you more like God. What makes us more like God is love, not the gifts he has given us. We can continue to love and grow in love forever. But we cannot continue to have those gifts. Understand the difference between this age, in which we have to live with sin and death, and the next age, in which there is only life, health and peace. Know that God has equipped us to show his love in this present evil age by giving spiritual gifts to us. But when he consummates the new age there will be no need of these gifts, but only love.