Love and the Things That Pass Away

In 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, the Apostle Paul speaks of love and the gifts of the Spirit that will pass away. Which ones are those, and when will that happen? An examination of the biblical text.

Some years ago, there was a terrible cable car accident at Mottarone, a mountain in Italy. A cable snapped and the emergency brake failed, causing the train to race into the valley at 120 km/h (75 mph). Fourteen people died as a result. A five-year-old Israeli boy was the only survivor, with several broken bones. Doctors believe that his father’s strong embrace protected the boy.—Love embraces. Jesus gave His own body up to die to save our lives. He stretched out his arms on the Cross, to embrace the world with His love.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, the so-called “love chapter,” that “love never ends” (v. 8). Also, “but the greatest of these is love” (v. 13). Consequently, he begins the next chapter with this request: “Pursue love.” Love is the defining element. It must frame, embrace, everything. It should be the starting point and goal of all our actions.

Love must be the foundation, as well as the roof. Love is the only thing that gives value to all our actions. “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Cor 16:14).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “A life is worth as much as the love in it.” And Andy Rooney stated, “I’ve learned … that love, not time, heals all wounds.” The Church Father Augustine gave the advice: “If you keep silent, keep silent by love; if you speak, speak by love; if you correct, correct by love; if you pardon, pardon by love.” And John MacArthur wrote, “Paul, however, is not speaking of love’s successes or failures, but of its lastingness, its permanence as a divine quality. Love never fails in the sense that it outlasts any failures.”

WHAT PASSES AWAY

In contrast with love, Paul mentions three things that will cease:

Prophecy – “As for prophecies, they will pass away.” This specifically refers to prophetic speech. The Old Testament prophets prophesied, and there were also prophets for a time at the beginning of the New Testament (Acts 21:1ff.).

Languages (tongues) – “…As for tongues, they will cease.” Speaking in tongues was primarily a sign for Israel. That’s why Paul quotes Isaiah 28:11 in 1 Corinthians 14:21: “In the Law it is written, ‘By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.’” We can assume that this sign was limited to the time when Israel was still the focus of preaching.

Knowledge – “…As for knowledge, it will pass away.” This probably isn’t referring to growth in knowledge of the Word. Rather, it relates to prophecy and speaking in tongues. That’s why 1 Corinthians 12:8 speaks of the “utterance of knowledge.” It was a gift that had a revelatory character. The NIV translates it as “a message of knowledge.”

These gifts belonged to the infancy of the Church Age.

Paul also speaks of the fact that “tongues” (languages) will cease on their own. Interestingly, speaking in tongues isn’t even mentioned in the later Epistles. It expired on its own. Prophecy and knowledge, on the other hand, would “pass away.” In contrast to speaking in tongues, the gifts of prophecy and knowledge existed through the Apostolic letters and into the last book of the Bible, Revelation. They would only cease at the consummation: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1 Cor 13:9-10). Bit by bit, things fell into place until perfection was achieved.

But what is the perfect? That’s the big question.

To arrive at an answer, I’ve leaned on the thoughts of Benedict Peters, who is a Greek language scholar. He explains that the Greek word for “perfect,” teleios, appears 17 times in the New Testament. One example is in Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Where do we recognize the perfect will of God? In God’s Word!

There are two different words in Greek for “perfect” and “completed”: teleios for “perfect,” and teleia for “completion” or “consummation.” First Corinthians 13:9 is concerned with something that needs to be brought to consummation, or completion. It’s comparable to what Paul writes in Colossians 1:25, in which he makes the Word of God fully known. He has deep insights for the church, “of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known.”

Benedict Peters writes: “Interpreting it somewhat freely, Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 13:8-9, ‘For now we only know partially, and we only prophesy partially; but when complete knowledge and prophecy have come, then partial knowledge and prophecy will be done away with.’”

During the time in which the Apostle was speaking, little was understood—just fragments, until the perfect was to come.

Everything points to the fact that “the perfect” means the fullness of the Word of God. As Benedict Peters writes at the end of his remarks: “Paul wants to tell the Corinthians that all knowledge and prophecy will still occur in part […] until perfection, the complete revelation of God has come and been written down […].”

So, the expression, “For we know in part” refers to the time when God was adding to the Bible bit by bit. It’s no accident that nothing more may be added or removed from the end of Revelation. The Word is finished and has no more need of piecemeal prophecies.

Today, our task is to increase in knowledge of the Word and to proclaim the Word. But we no longer need new knowledge of future revelations. Everything we need is available. Paul uses the examples of childhood and a mirror to illustrate.

Regarding childhood, he writes: “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” (1 Cor 13:11).

At that time, the Church was still in its infancy. It depended on a patchwork of instructions from the Apostles. A child is dependent and needs direct instruction, guidance, and correction from parents and teachers. When the child is grown, he knows what to do without direct correction. As the Church matures, the patchwork of instructions also ceases, since it now possesses the complete Bible.

With regard to the mirror, Paul writes: “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” (v. 12).

In those days, mirrors weren’t as clear as ours today, which resulted in blurrier reflections. That blurriness also describes how the knowledge of God was understood in Paul’s day. But when the Word of God is present in its entirety, the haziness ceases, and we see the face of God through His Word.

An example of this is found in the Old Testament: “The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire” (Deut 5:4). Israel couldn’t see God, and yet His speech to them is portrayed as equivalent to “face to face.” And in Ezekiel 20:35, the Lord said, “And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.”

We see “the face of God” through the perfect Word. Paul also reinforces this concept with the following words: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18).

How do we look unveiled into the face of the glory of the Lord today? Through the Spirit, who dwells in us and sets the Word of God before us like a mirror.

WHAT REMAINS

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13).

Here is the sequence of events that Paul reveals:

• Love is the greatest.

• Speaking in tongues ceases on its own, even before the appearance of the complete Word of God.

• Prophecy and knowledge will be done away with when the perfect has come.

• Faith, hope, and love will remain after that, until Jesus Christ appears.

• At the Rapture, faith and hope will stop. Then we transition from believing to seeing: “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?” (Rom 8:24).

• But love will remain forever.

Everything must give way to love.—I sometimes wonder whether we truly recognize love’s great value. Why does so little of it shine through in our Christianity? Why do we “embrace” so infrequently; instead, using our arms to push away?

When we consider the Seven Wonders of the World, specific things come to mind: the pyramids of Egypt, Babylon’s Hanging Gardens, the Grand Canyon, the Great Wall of China, the Panama Canal… But in a report on the subject, one child is said to have written, “My Seven Wonders of the World are 1. touch, 2. taste, 3. seeing, 4. hearing, 5. laughter, 6. singing, and 7. love.”

In a sermon, evangelist Theo Lehmann told of how he read through the entire Bible during a protracted hospital stay. In doing so, he rediscovered how the Bible is a pure love story: the story of God’s love for humanity. People ignore it, but God remains faithful to His love. They give Him the cold shoulder, and He pursues them like a lover. Theo Lehmann mentioned all the ways God came up with to demonstrate His love. For example, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Isa 49:16).

In ancient Israel, when a boy fell in love with a girl, he’d write the name of his great love on his palm. When he was sitting or walking along, he would open his hand and look at his beloved’s name. The sun would shine in his heart, and he could daydream of his love. In this way, she was before his eyes vividly.

The greatest proof of God’s love was the gift of His Son. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). This is a clear challenge for us, which John (the “Apostle of love”) summarizes: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).

Midnight Call - 07/2025