1Cor 13:8-13 - Stop in the Name of Love

8-13 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. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 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. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Here is a passage often used by cessationists to make the point that the gifts of tongues and knowledge were temporary, and restricted to the Apostolic age. The coming "perfect" is taken to be the completed canon of scripture - so that, once the New Testament is brought forth then the sign gifts disappear. Even as a cessationist I have problems with such an interpretation.

The context is still the motivation for worship and service in the body of Christ. In saying that love never ends Paul is pointing to the eternal, and in mentioning tongues and knowledge he is pointing to the temporal. We are to have an eternal perspective. Our treasure is in heaven to where we look for the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He is our treasure, and what is wrought in Him through the love He bore us, and in the faith He gives us to believe in that love so much that it overflows us here in this veil of tears - these things are eternal. Naturally then, by comparison, all the merely earthly things such as languages and (human) knowledge are destined - no, are ordained - to pass away. Stick with the things that really matter for eternity. Put such things first and all other things will fall into their rightful place.

We are destined to be fully conformed to the image of Christ when we are glorified. Right now we are myopic, sin darkened, heavenly foetuses almost utterly without comprehension of what we shall be. We bumble along, moved by the Spirit, sanctified in the Word - shepherded like dumb sheep towards the final fold that only the True Shepherd really knows. In the eternal by and by our eyes will be gloriously opened to things we never dreamed of and wonders we only caught the faintest scent of during our whole woe-filled, meandering pitiful excuse for lives here and now. We shall see Christ as He truly is - Lord, Author, Creator, Redeemer, Friend, Glorious, Holy, Righteous, Truth and Love and we shall see how everything from the farthest sun to the smallest insect was made by Him and for Him and through Him. We shall comprehend the depths of our depravity and the heights of His grace and mercy and love such that our feeble inklings now will seem but faint wisps of vapour on a far horizon. And this new, dawning apprehension and appreciation of Jesus Christ will expand and grow in us eternally, for in Him are infinite riches and we ourselves shall ever be finite recipients of His never-ending self-revelation.

"So now" or "and now" or "but now" can all be inferred from the Greek expression preceding faith, hope and love in verse 13. Whichever it is, I believe that Paul is still emphasising those graces that will abide not only now, but also eternally. They are graces attendant upon those who have eternal life. It is not as if we are marching to the inexorable end of our earthly lives to wait and see if we shall attain to eternity with God; no, but we who belong to Him have eternal life in the here and now, from the moment we receive Him Who is life itself. Eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ His Son. We don’t wait until we die to know Him - we know Him now and also forevermore. Admittedly our knowledge is flimsy and is only the first step in an infinite journey, but it is the same Life now as it will be eternally.

There is a sense in which faith and hope will be as obsolete as these other temporal things when we are glorified with Him - for faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, so that when we see Him face to face faith is not needed. But there is also some merit to the idea that we shall live eternally by the faith of the Son of God and by faith in the Son of God. I speak not of saving faith, but of that sort of trust that enables, nay engenders in us, eternal peace, joy and contentment in Him. Safe forevermore, with no more tears, no more pain and suffering, no more death. We shall have unshakeable, unimaginable, unfathomable faith that rests and trust God for eternity - a faith that grows unendingly with the knowledge of Him.

Some might think that we have, or that we must have this sort of faith now. To such I say that we do not know ourselves if we think we can do any more than begin to scratch the surface of all that God was doing in Christ in the incarnation and the crucifixion. Our appreciation of these things only begins in the here and now - but the wonder of it stretches to infinity.

And shall we also hope in God for eternity? In some sense, yes. We shall never lack the confident expectation that God will remain faithful to all that He has promised. In eternity our hope will be perfected in perfect resting upon the promises of God - not the least of which is our betrothal to His Son - a joining made by a God who hates divorce, and who will never be the cause of separation; a God who fitted us to be the bride and ensured our perfect suitability and our heartfelt acceptance; a God Whose word is written in the heavens and in our hearts also.

This leads us to the undisputed eternal grace of love. Which quality of God conceived the purpose of creating and saving the bride of Christ? It was the eternal love that is found in God alone. Remember - God is love. Not some love, not a bunch, not a big bunch - it is not quantitative in that sense. God simply is love. All love finds its origin in Him. His love is so unfathomable that it generates outwards towards undeserving creatures absolutely independent of anything in them. He loves the unlovely. While we were yet sinners (rebels, God-haters), Christ died for the ungodly. God paid for His bride with a price we cannot calculate - a price that ransomed we who believe from His fierce and abiding wrath, a wrath which still abides on the rest of mankind.

But this love of God is so rich and free towards those who are in Christ that the fruit of the actions that it has brought forth according to the definite plan of God is a redeemed people conformed to the image of His Son - accepted in Him and for His sake - changed by grace from hateful, proud, evildoers into the very persons that God purposed us to be in Christ before the foundation of the world. It is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful in our sight.

So - see the fruit of God’s love in Christ to usward is love for Him and for the church, and also for all mankind - for His sake. And this is what Paul is driving at, I think, by putting the petty jealousies, cliques, boasting and self-promotion of some in the Corinthian church up against the eternal picture of God’s graces in the overarching plan of redemption - Paul is giving perspective to people. In another letter to the same church Paul will remind them that we are all vessels of God’s glory - not our own {2Co 4:7}, as in this letter; he has already given sound reason why all boasting is excluded {1Cor 4:7}.