The Greatest of These  pt.6	    1 Co.13:8-13 	tape 153	9-22-2002
(greatest-virtue-06-2002 – Part 06 – Love is Eternal)

8 Love never falls (in defeat).  But if there are prophecies, they will be abolished.  If tongues, they will stop themselves.  If knowledge, it will be abolished.
9 for in part we know and in part we prophesy
10 but when the perfect comes the from part will be abolished.
11 When I was a child, I was speaking as a child, I was thinking as a child, I was reasoning as a child, when I became a man I abolished the things of a child.
12 for we see now through a mirror in an obscure image but then face to face  Now we know from part but then we will really know as we are known
13 and now remains faith, hope and love - these three but greatest of these is love.

Summary:

Love never falls.  Gifts will be abolished when maturity comes (gifts are only for childhood)
Our knowledge of God now is indirect & limited, but at maturity will be face to face

The argument: the purpose of gifts is to bring about deeper relational knowledge of God – they are a crutch needed during this childhood.  But when we know Him face to face we won’t need help from each other to know Him - all that will remain is faith in God, hope in God and love for God, and the greatest of those is love.

8 Love never falls   
The word usually means “to collapse.”  It means to fall in the sense of the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Communism.  To be destroyed or brought to an end. 

“Fails” is an OK translation if you understand it in that sense.  But the word “fails” could be misunderstood.  It’s not saying that love always comes through for you or that love never lets you down – that’s not the idea.

It’s more the idea that love is never destroyed or brought to an end.  

But if there are prophecies, they will be abolished.  
This word translated abolished appears four times in vv.8-10.  It’s a common word in the NT, but very hard to translate.  Reputable translations have translated this Greek word with 80 different English words in different contexts (Morris 48).

The word means something like “to render inoperative.”  

There will come a time when prophets will have to be given another task in the Kingdom, because their job will be eliminated.  If you are a prophet, you are like the people who work at Rocky Flats.  Your job is temporary, and you’re going to have to find new work eventually, because your position will be phased out.

That will never happen with love.  Love will never be rendered inoperative.  

If tongues, they will stop themselves.  
It is striking that Paul picks a different word for the cessation of tongues.  The other two are passive verbs (prophecy and knowledge will be abolished by something).  

This verb is middle voice, which generally speaks of reciprocal action – to stop oneself.  

That’s not a hard and fast rule – just a general one. 

More significant than the tense is the choice of the word itself.  Some say it is for stylistic reasons – Paul didn’t want to overuse the word “abolished.”  But he didn’t hesitate to use that word four times in this paragraph, and in a bit of an awkward way the 4th time.

He’s not shy about reusing the word, so I think it’s significant that he uses a different word for the cessation of tongues.

What is the significance?  It’s hard to say.  Most likely it’s this:
Prophecy was present during the period of the revealing of the NT, and it will return during the Tribulation.  And even now, even though the gift isn’t present (or common), written prophecy is preserved for us.

So when the consummation of all things comes, it will bring an end to prophecy and the gift of knowledge.  But it won’t bring an end to tongues, because they will stop on their own prior to that.

That seems to me to be the best explanation of the text, and it also seems to match what we observe.  Tongues did cease in the first century.  The church fathers all agreed on that.

And it didn’t appear again until Montanus, who thought he was the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the church age it has been practiced by all kinds of cults and many false religions, but not by the Church until the 1900s when the Pentecostal movement began.

Tongues have never enjoyed majority acceptance by the church since the Apostolic age.

And the tongues that goes on now in the Pentecostal movement is nothing like the true gift we see in Scripture, and very much like the counterfeit gift that is observed in cults and false religions.

On top of that, you can read the book of Revelation front to back, you can search all the end times prophecies of the OT, you can read Jesus’ words, you can examine everything that is said about the Millenium, and you won’t find any references to anyone speaking in tongues in this age or the end times.

If knowledge, it will be abolished.
This is likely talking about the gift of the word of knowledge (the ability to articulate and teach doctrine – including both insight into truth and rhetorical ability). 

Or it could be introducing another gift – just knowledge.  A special ability to understand spiritual truths. 

In each case Paul says if, perhaps because depending on when and where the reader may be, these may or may not be present.

9 for in part we know and in part we prophesy

Every kind of knowledge we have is partial now.  

“All these gifts you strive after and use as the measure of greatness.  All these people you idolize – There’re just temps.”  

If what you do revolves around love, you have real job security in the Kingdom.  But if all you do is speak in tongues or prophesy or teach or miracles, or evangelism, etc, you’re just a temp.

Your position will soon be abolished. 
10 but when the perfect comes the in part will be abolished.

the perfect
The word means “maturity” or “goal” or both.  Probabaly the best translation here would be “consummation.” 

When the final consummation comes, and everything reaches its ultimate goal, there will be no more “in part” – obviously.  

When you finally arrive at your goal, there is no more “on the way.”  
When something is finally complete, there is no more “almost done”

Barth: Because the sun rises, all the lights are put out. 

This life is like the night time, and we use our spiritual gifts like lamps in the house at night – to shed light in the darkness.  

But when the sun comes up and you are out in your front yard in the full light of day, you don’t bring a lamp out there and turn it on.  Even the brightest lamp would be nothing but a superfluous, strange oddity out there.

We are living in a time when the end has not yet come, but it has started.  Beginning with Christ’s first coming, the age to come has been inaugurated and has broken in to this present age. 

That means we are in the house, fighting about the lamps, and instead maybe we should give some energy to opening the shades, because the sun has already broken the plane of the horizon, and soon the lamps will be obsolete. 

There is nothing wrong with us using them now – that’s appropriate.  But if we focus on them without any focus on their purpose, what is the point?

11 When I was a child, 
I was speaking as a child (tongues)
I was thinking as a child   (prophecy)
I was reasoning as a child (knowledge)

when I became a man I abolished the things of a child.

There are things you go through in childhood that have no other purpose than to get you through childhood.  

For example, playing pretend is no doubt an important part of a child’s development, but it has no lasting value.  Once it’s served its purpose of helping develop the child’s imagination, it’s no longer of any significance.  

This is an amazing line of argument.  

It is worthwhile to distinguish in your mind between things that are eternal and things that are for this life only – even in the case of good things that are for this life only, like the spiritual gifts.

So much of what goes wrong in our thinking stems from the fact that we always think this life is the main event.  But this life is just the childhood.  

When we evaluate a person’s life, we say, “He grew up, then went to college, then in his life he accomplished x,y and z.”  When we appraise our lives, we tend to think primarily of our adult lives.

Your existence in this world is just your childhood.  Don’t get too upset about not understanding everything, or not being able to achieve everything you desire…

I went through my whole childhood and never preached a sermon.  That doesn’t mean my childhood was a waste.

All through my childhood I was never married, never had kids, never drove a car, never owned a home, never went to a pro sporting event, never traveled overseas…never even went to Chilies.  

But that doesn’t mean my childhood was wasted in any sense.  As an adult I’ve done all those things (except for the pro sporting event).

The crucial thing that I did accomplish as a child was I matured into an adult.  That process was comprised of a lot of things that didn’t seem all that spectacular and have no relevance now.

When I was an infant I just made a lot of meaningless noises and moved my arms and legs in random movements all the time (like Emma, Katlin and Lilian).  That growth process didn’t really seem all that earth-shattering in importance…

I ate a lot of bowls of cereal, ran around, played, rode my bike, went to school, made lots of mistakes, etc.  

But all that was absolutely vital for everything I’m doing now as an adult.  

If you are discouraged with what you are accomplishing in this life – if you are hitting your midlife crisis and you’re wondering how significant your contribution is, remind yourself that you aren’t anywhere close to midlife.

If you want to evaluate your life and your impact through the first half of your life, first wait until adulthood – wait until you are in heaven, and then half way through eternity you can evaluate and see if you want to have a midlife crisis. 

But it’s really not appropriate to have a midlife crisis in the middle of your childhood.

12 for we see now with a mirror in an obscure image

The word obscure (or poor, or dimly, or dark) literally means “riddle.”  What we see now is puzzling.  It’s a riddle.  

We know some truth about God, but our knowledge of it is obscured.  

The mirrors in those days were made from polished metal, so they didn’t get anywhere near as clear an image as we get with mirrors.  (Paul talks about mirrors to the Corinthians because they were famous for making fine mirrors).

And even with our mirrors, left and right are reversed, the image is limited to the frame of the window, there is some distortion, distance is obscured…but most of all, the great limitation of a mirror is that you see things only indirectly.

And that is probably the main point here.  Something seen with a mirror is seen indirectly rather than face to face, and there are a more examples of mirrors in ancient times being used to illustrate indirectness than to illustrate distortion. (Thiselton) 

If there is a wall between you and God, and so you are looking at Him around a corner with a piece of polished brass, that’s fine.  But once the wall is removed, what is the point of the mirror?

In our day a similar illustration would be to compare looking at a photograph and looking being with a person.  When it comes to relational knowledge, having a photograph is nothing like being with the person.

but then face to face  Now we know from part but then we will really know as we are known

Here we see the underlying thought that has been driving Paul’s thinking from the beginning of ch.12.  The purpose of everything is personal knowledge of God.

And this is where what seems like a scattered argument begins to come together.

The basic function of the gifts has to do with knowledge of God – not just information about God, but actually knowing Him.

The idea of knowing Him face to face, like He knows us, is really the key to understanding the argument of ch.13.

The point isn’t that we will have the same degree of knowledge – obviously we won’t be omniscient.  The point is that we will have the same kind of knowledge.

The word knowledge is used here in the relational sense, which is very common in Scripture (Adam knew Eve and she became pregnant, God says “You only have I known – Amos 3:2).  It refers to an intimate, personal relationship.

God knows you directly.  You know Him indirectly.  You know Him through reports about Him, teaching about Him, indirect interactions with Him, explanations of Him – you know Him only by looking at an image of him around a corner reflecting off a piece of polished brass.

You don’t know Him the way He knows you – through direct, personal experience.  

But the time is coming when we will know Him that way – face to face.

And close, personal knowledge of God is the goal for everyone.  The whole reason we use spiritual gifts is to help one another come to a deeper personal knowledge of God. 

Once we see Him face to face in heaven, we no longer need a prophet to explain what God is like, or a teacher to explain the implications of what the prophet said, or someone to speak in tongues, which is evidently also revelatory in nature.

BTW, that’s an argument against tongues being a prayer language designed to glorify God in a special way.  If that’s what the gift is, why would it cease – especially if it is a more profound way of praying than straightforward use of one’s own language?

And now Paul concludes by pointing out that while love continues throughout eternity, it isn’t only for the future.  It remains now as well.

13 and now remains faith, hope and love - these three but greatest of these is love.

This is an exceedingly difficult verse, for a number of reasons.  

For one thing faith and hope come out of nowhere.  You expect a concluding statement, and at first glance it’s hard to see how this is a conclusion to Paul’s argument.  (In fact, it’s hard to see how it’s related at all).

I think what’s happening here is that Paul is not only wrappping up his argument of ch.13, but he is adding an additional point and taking it a step further.

Not only is love superior to the gifts – it’s even superior to the other key Christian virtues – the ones that are permanent.

And the sum of all Christian virtues is faith, hope and love. 

Paul brings them out of nowhere, because everyone knows they are the “big three” of the Christian life.  

1 Thes.1:3   We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope 

1 Thes.5:8 let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 

Gal.5:5-6  But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus …The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 

Ro.5:1-5  through our Lord Jesus Christ we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 

Col.1:5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven 

Eph 4:2-4   Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love…4 you were called to one hope when you were called- 5 one Lord, one faith…

Heb.6:10-12  God will not forget…the love you have shown him…11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith…inherit what has been promised. 

Heb.10:22-25    let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess…24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love 

1 Peter 1:3-9 he has given us new birth into a living hope …4 and into an inheritance …kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power 
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 

The writings and sermons of the church fathers read the same way.

When you read Paul you might often come to the conclusion that the most important thing is faith.   Faith is the key to everything in Christianity.  If you ask Paul “What marks a true Christian?” he may very well answer with one word: “faith!”

And when you read John you might get that same impression about love.  

So which is it?  The answer is in 2 Peter 1:5-7.
make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

Everything in the Christian life grows out of faith and tends toward love.

Faith is the basis, and love is the goal.

So Paul is saying something like: “You always hear about the big three – faith hope and love.  And the goal of the gifts, obviously, is to bring about more of those in people.  

But the greatest is love, because it’s the final goal.

Some interpret this to be saying that faith and hope are also temporary.  And at first glance, that sounds right.

Where there is sight, there is no longer any need for faith.
2 Cor.5:7   We live by faith, not by sight.

So there is a sense in which faith will come to an end when we see Him face to face.

And once hope is realized, it ceases to be a hope.  
Ro.8:24-25  Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

So our hope for the culmination of our salvation will end when that comes.

So there is a sense in which faith and hope are temporary.  

But I don’t think that’s what Paul is getting at here.  He doesn’t say that faith and hope will end – in fact, just the opposite.  He says they remain.

The argument comes back that they only remain now.  But if that’s the case, what would be the point of saying they remain?  

I went back and forth on this, but the thing that convinces me that all three remain forever is the emphasis on the word remain.  Not only do they remain, but the word remain is placed in the most emphatic position in the sentence.      

There is a very real sense in which they are eternal.  We will always trust God and we will always be thrilled in anticipation of what God has next.

In fact, you could argue that in heaven we will have far greater faith and hope.  We will absolutely believe everything God says, and we will be genuinly excited about the glories to come next, because we will have firsthand experience of heaven. (Don’t think of heaven as a static place – things will keep getting better and better)

So the point is that not only is love greater than the gifts, which are all temporary, but it’s even greater than the other eternal, enduring virtues. 

He doesn’t say what makes it greater than those.  But it’s not to hard to guess.

We saw in v.2 that faith without love would be worthless, and we saw last week that hope is simply one aspect of love.

Also, love is completely other-centered.  Faith and hope have, at the core, a concern for self.  Love is completely selfless.

Love is pure, divine activity.  God is love.  The Bible doesn’t say God is faith or God is hope.  God doesn’t have anyone to trust or hope in besides Himself.

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Now let’s see if we can make sense of Paul’s point.  He tells us that gifts are for now, and love is better, because it’s eternal.  

But so what?  If gifts are for now, we live now, so now’s the time for gifts.  So let’s just get on with the gifts, and when the end comes we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  

If gifts are for now, then how do we apply what Paul is saying here about gifts being inferior to love because they are only for now?

Since we are in the childhood era, should we do the childhood things?  Yes.  

However, if a child does all the childhood things minus the parts that prepare him for adulthood, what good is it (since the whole point of childhood activities is to prepare for adulthood)?

Paul is right back to supporting the argument he made at the very beginning – gifts are wonderful, but gifts without love are worthless.

We need to live our lives with a mentality that is effected now by the way things are going to be in heaven.

The existence that is described in Scripture as that which characterizes heaven as our goal, and anything that doesn’t move us toward that goal is of no use.

So they way you apply this is simple – use your gifts in love.

The contrast between the present and future in this ch. is crucially important. The Corinthians (like many modern Charismatics), had as their highest value the goal of ascending into the heavenlies in their worship.

They want to transcend the physical world, and reach out and touch the spiritual realm.

That’s why they tend toward a lot of ecstatic kinds of elements in their worship (ecstatic literally means “outside of the body”).

In pagan worship they believe that if they get drunk, and repeat mantras, they ascend higher than the regular conscious mind and have the most profound possible kind of religious experience.  

That’s why strange things like tongues are so appealing to them – they want to rise above the normal, conscious, rational level and attain to the deepest experience with God.

They think only in terms of “below and above.”  And Paul is trying to get them to think in terms of “present and future.”

Their ultimate goal of deep knowledge of God and profound experiences with God through the gifts – Paul says all that is at best partial.

If you’re looking for that deep, experiential knowledge, and you want to transcend this existence, the answer isn’t in the gifts, it’s in the future.  We don’t look up for that.  We look forward for that.

In other words, if you want heaven right now, you can’t have it.  Sorry, you just can’t.  You can’t have that kind of knowledge of God now.  You can’t have the glories of heaven now, except…

Except one thing.  There is one profound, transcendent reality in heaven that is available now.  But it’s not one of the gifts.  It’s love. 
 
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I can’t help but to look back on this study of this chapter and think that me trying to teach this passage was an example of clumsy soiled hands handling something of exquisite beauty and holiness.

And yet no pastor could ever excuse himself from the responsibility to make whatever effort he can to make as plane as possible these matchless words.

And no Christian can excuse himself from the responsibility to make every effort to strive to attain to this standard with an ever-increasing striving toward Christ-like love.