EXPOSITION OF I CORINTHIANS 13 – PART 9
March 12, 2010
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I Corinthians 13:8-10 –Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. [9] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. [10] But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
I covered verses 8 through 10 in Part
8. I will now repeat the last paragraph of Part 8, which is as follows: The first “that” in I Corinthians 13:10 refers to the New Testament as we know it today, while the second “that” refers to spiritual gifts, which have either faded away or been put
away since they are no longer needed to edify the local church.
The contextual subject I Corinthians 13 is love, and “that” is the book of God’s love, the fully completed and all sufficient New Testament. The word used for “perfect” is “teleion,” which means “complete or perfect,” and the New Testament is both.
With that in mind, let us take a look at verse 11 in its proper context.
I Corinthians 13:11 – When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Paul uses the actions of a child as it grows to maturity to compare with the things it considered important when it was very young.
The early New Testament churches were like small children with growing pains while they grew in faith, hope, and love, with the ultimate goal in each
church being the love of one another as the love of God. The spiritual gifts, as great as they were, and as much as they accomplished, were not to be compared with the major instrument of love, the inspired epistles being written and spoken to them by the Apostles.
As these epistles were copied and recopied over and over again, they eventually were collected and, over a period of time after the Council of Carthage in about 400 A.D., gradually became available to the churches in what we would call a loose bound document.
I suspect the spiritual gifts of knowledge and prophecy may have continued in some churches that did not have such a document until as late as 500 A.D., but by the dark ages even these two gifts had apparently disappeared from use in the churches. They revived again in the 18th Century in the very earliest stages of the “shakers”-Irvingites – Pentecostal – charismatic era. There is no gray area in this issue, either they are still in the local church or they are not – I am not angry at those who believe they are, but I definitely believe they gradually phased out when the New Testament was available to the churches in its most elemental form, and are no longer needed in the church to build it up in faith, hope
and love. They were inspired gifts from the Spirit, but through Paul the Spirit compares them to the things of the joy we experienced as children when we found some new thing, but tells the reader the day was coming when the gifts would be “put away” or “fade away” like our fascination did with the things of our youth.
I Corinthians 13:11,12 – When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. [12] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also
I am known.
The “glass” to which Paul refers was brass polished to a high sheen, such that a human face could be seen in it, but the image, compared to our mirrors today, would seem very blurred because it did not reflect a perfect image of the face, in that it
was lacking in detail. The Spirit saved us to transform us into a new image, into the image of his Son who indwells us, and the ultimate transformation of a mature child of God is manifested by a mature love for the brethren.
John 13:34,35 – A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. [35] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
The many spiritual gifts in the early churches were a wonderful blessing from God, and the inspired epistles were even more magnificent, but they were not the full revelation of God, and when one looked into these two great blessings, not all the details necessary to focus the love of God into a clear picture were available. It was only when the perfect book, the perfect law of liberty, was available, that one could clearly see the things which could produce the changes necessary to let the love of God shine out of him.
James 1:23-25 – For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: [24] For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. [25] But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
The greatest blessing a saved man can receive from God is the transformation of his soul into a mature, loving soul, who manifests God’s love.
Romans 12:2 – And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.