Sermon Discussion Questions:
1. Read 1 Cor 13:8-13. What questions do you have?
2. When will prophecy and tongues end? Discuss the different perspectives Marc presented in the sermon.
3. What is "the partial"? How can we exaggerate our strength and our weakness in understanding?
4. What is "the perfect"? See 1 John 3:2
5. What aspect of heaven are you longing for most?
What do we want? We want bad things to end, good things to come, and the best things to last. Sadly, life often feels like the opposite of that. Bad things last, good things pass us by, and the best things end. Friendships cool, the promotion passes you by, and illness and infirmity increase. Life will easily disappoint you. And this has led certain skeptics throughout history to assume that the primary role of religion is to serve as an “opium of the masses,” a narcotic to take the edge off, to spin a fanciful story to make the dark world feel more endurable with the hope of an afterlife.
The skeptic may claim that, but the apostle Paul believes he is spinning no fairy tale and peddling no false hope as he exposes what we desire most: bad things to end, good things to come, and the best things to last.
8 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.
- 1 Cor 13:8-13
What ends, What comes, What lasts
The thesis of 1 Corinthians 13 is the necessity of love in the church. In the chapters immediately before and after this one Paul is addressing certain abuses and confusion around the practice of spiritual gifts in the Corinthian church, particularly around how prophecy and tongues are practiced. So here, in chapter thirteen, Paul is showing the Corinthians what he calls the “more excellent way,” (1 Cor 12:31), the way of love.
What Ends: The Partial
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)
Of all the things that will “pass away,” why does Paul highlight these three? There are many other things that will one day “pass away”—sin, death, the fallen world, mosquitoes (hopefully). Why focus on prophecies, tongues, and knowledge? We see these three mentioned again at the beginning of chapter thirteen: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels…if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge…but have not love, I am nothing,” (1 Cor 13:1-2). Tongues, prophecy, and knowledge. I don’t think “knowledge” here is referring to the spiritual gift “words of knowledge” back in 12:8, but “knowledge” in general since he does not describe it as “words of knowledge will pass away,” but just “knowledge.”
But you may be thinking: I can see how prophecy and tongues will cease…but how can knowledge cease? Is our future going to lack cognition? No, it cannot mean that, because the hope held out at the end is total knowledge: “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known,” (1 Cor 13:12). So, “knowledge” passes away in the sense that the imperfect, partial experience of knowledge that we currently possess passes away.
One reason these three are linked together is that all three are being used wrongly in the church (1 Cor 8:1-3, 1 Cor 14). But there is another connection between these three: prophecy and tongues are a means of knowledge. In 1 Cor 13:1-2, Paul connects prophecy with knowledge, “if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge.” To be a prophet entails understanding mysteries, knowledge. And, in chapter fourteen, Paul is going to link tongues and prophecy together by showing that tongues are a form of untranslated prophecy. Prophecy is revealing mysteries, while tongues are “uttering mysteries in the Spirit,” (1 Cor 14:2). In other words, Paul links these three gifts together in 1 Cor 13:8 because prophecy and (translated) tongues are intended to be a means of bringing knowledge.
The emphasis on knowledge is made clear by noticing how the passage eventually whittles the other two away, till only knowing remains.
- Prophecies, tongues, knowledge (vs. 8)
- Know in part, prophesy in part (vs. 9)
- I know in part (vs. 12)
What’s the point? Prophecy and tongues are conduits of knowledge, ways in which the mysteries of God are revealed to the church. And, one day, they—along with partial knowledge—will cease. Picture a large garden being watered by many sprinkler hoses during a drought. The hoses are how the water of the word (knowledge) is brought. Eventually, the drought will end, and these sprinklers will no longer be necessary. Or, picture a sailor relying on starlight to navigate in the dark. These two stars help, but when the sun rises, the sailor can see land clearly. When? Many Christians rightfully point out that Paul assumes that they cease “when the perfect comes” that is, when Jesus comes again. Other Christians sometimes argue that the “perfect” here perhaps refers to the closing of the canon of the New Testament, so the gifts of prophecy and tongues functioned in the church until the New Testament was completed, but have since ceased. But that is probably wrong. The passage clearly teaches that the coming of “the perfect” occurs at the second coming of Christ, when we shall see him “face to face.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the gifts of prophecy or tongues continue till the second coming. It could mean that! But it is still possible that prophecy and tongues could cease prior to the second coming without compromising Paul’s teaching here. The point of this passage is that the partial knowledge—which prophecy and tongues are a means of—will pass away. But, to return to our analogies, prophecy and tongues are not the only sprinkler hoses or stars of partial knowledge in the church—there are several others: the Bible, the preaching of the church, the exhortation of fellow Christians, prayer, etc. Many of you in this room likely do not experience the gift of prophecy or tongues regularly in your life, or ever have, yet you still have a “partial” experience of knowing God. When Christ comes again, all that is partial will pass away so that we “know fully.” It is likely that Paul, out of a pastoral concern for the abuses of spiritual gifts in Corinth, highlights prophecy and tongues here to deflate those who suppose that their spiritual gifts place them on the spiritual “inner-ring.” So, it is possible for the gifts of prophecy or tongues to cease at some point prior to the second coming of Christ, without losing the emphasis that Paul places on the “partial” passing away.
The main point Paul is making: the church’s current experience in this fallen world in her knowledge of God is limited. And that is true even for individuals who possess the most esteemed gifts in the church. We all only see in a fogged mirror, the consequences of a fallen world cloud our mind and our hearts so that the bright truth of God can appear dim.
Practically: Christians can sometimes exaggerate both our strengths and weaknesses.
If we struggle with doubts about the faith or feel frustrated that we do not understand the Bible or wrestle with a persistent struggle of sin, we may despair. We assume: I shouldn’t have these questions, I shouldn’t have these doubts, I shouldn’t have this struggle. Maybe you’ve thought that. Maybe you’ve assumed that you should be able to answer every “why” about God’s plan. But I think this is an overconfidence in our abilities. But remember, we see through a glass dimly, we know in part. There are some mysteries that no seminary will be able to solve, no doctrinal formulation fix. There are some broken things that God chooses to not fix in this life, thorns that remain so that we can learn the power of God’s grace to sustain us in weakness. God never told Job why He did what He did.
But if you get to a point where your struggle leads you to throw your hands up and claim, No one can know anything for sure about God; if I can’t be sure about why God is doing this or what that doctrine means, I can’t know anything! If your questions and limitations lead you to believe that no objective truth remains and that everyone is just groping in the dark. But that would be to exaggerate our weakness. We see through a mirror dimly, but we do see. Our faith may not be perfect, but that does not mean that it cannot be true. “It may be too good to be understood, but it’s not too good to be true.”
Sometimes the spark of faith is slight
And does not make the darkness bright.
But keep it lit and you will find:
Far better this than being blind.
What Comes: The Perfect
“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. 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 13:9-12).
Paul uses two analogies to explain our current experience: childhood and a mirror. Remember, in the ancient world, they didn’t have mirrors like we do. They would have looked much more like a reflective piece of metal than a mirror you are familiar with, so the image seen was unclear and warped.
Practically, what effect would this have on the Corinthian church as they read it? Their superior “knowledge” and sensational spiritual experiences are, in Paul’s estimation, childish and dim. And I don’t think this is meant to be a particular slam on the Corinthians, as if they are especially childish, but is a description of what all our experience is like. (But since the Corinthians do have an inflated ego (1 Cor 4:6, 18-19; 5:2; 8:1-3), this may have felt like a personal attack). But Paul is only describing the reality of our limitations as redeemed sinners living in a fallen world. We are only in first grade at this point, so we shouldn’t act like we just graduated college. Nor should we despair that we don’t understand everything that a grown adult does.
But this isn’t the conclusion of our story. Paul says that when “the perfect” comes, the partial will pass away. So, what is the perfect?
In one sense, we immediately want to say “Jesus is the perfect.” Jesus is perfect. The only perfect thing there is, right? And I’ll explain in just a bit why I think that is true, but I think Paul intends for us to see more than just that. Why? He could have just said When Jesus comes, the partial passes away. But he didn’t. And he also puts the emphasis on what happens to us when the perfect comes—our partial knowledge is what passes and we shall “know fully.”
Let’s examine a similar passage from Paul concerning spiritual gifts, the church, knowledge, love, the metaphor of childhood-to-adulthood, and perfection:
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children,” (Eph 4:11-14a).
Verse 11 shows us a list of gifts that God gives to the church and verse 12 shows the reason. God gives pastors and teachers to the church to equip the saints, the members of the church, for the work of the ministry so that the body of Christ may be “built up.” So, practically, the pastors of this church are given to you to give you the tools you need to accomplish the ministry of this church. But what does that look like? Later in Ephesians, Paul explains: We are to “speak the truth in the love” (Eph 4:15) to each other in such a way that we grow in maturity, grow in our Christ-like-ness, so that we are built up “in love” (Eph 4:16).
Did you notice the example of growing from children to mature men? The word for “perfect” in 1 Cor 13:10 is teleois. The word for “mature” in Eph 4:13 is teleois. So what is the work of the ministry? Speaking the truth in love to one another so that we may resemble the perfect man, Christ Jesus.
In Ephesians, the emphasis is on the ministry of the saints now, as we strive towards the goal of Christ-like-ness. But in 1 Corinthians 13, the emphasis is on the completion, which only comes at the second coming of Christ, when we see Him “face to face.” Our ministry now is the class working together on the project; the hope then is the teacher walking in and completing it for us. Now, we are striving towards a destination; then, we arrive.
When is “then”? When do we see Him “face to face”? This could be when we die, or when Jesus returns. John tells us of this hope: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is,” (1 John 3:2). We shall be like him. The “perfect” is Christ—but the “perfect” will also one day, be us, because “we shall see him as he is.” Face to face.
“Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known,” (1 Cor 13:12)
In heaven we will not be omniscient, like God is, we won’t know everything. But our experience of knowledge will be similar to God’s in the sense that it will not be partial and imprecise. There will be no holes, no warped thinking, no bent desires.
Maybe now you feel like you do not know that much about God. Maybe now you struggle to read the Bible, struggle to pray. Maybe learning things about God, honestly, feels boring or irrelevant to you. You are just tired and things that seem to excite other Christians don’t excite you. But, I promise you, if you believe in Christ, it won’t always be. Your experience of knowing God will be comparable to the knowledge of an adult to that of a child. Consider how much vaster the scope of things to be known is now that you are adult compared to childhood. When you were a child, your circle of knowledge was fairly small—but the more you learn, the more knowledge you attain, what happens? The circle of “things to know” becomes much vaster. So too will it be with God.
Your knowledge of God now is like a darkened mirror—you see dimly, but one day, face to face. The misshapen and dark thoughts you carry with you about what God is like shall fall like scales from your eyes, and we will see Him so clearly we will be able to trace in the lines in His face. The suspicions you carry about who God is and whether He is there, or is good, or why He would let this thing happen, will be replaced with the settled peace of knowing Him. In heaven, the mud of doubt unbelief will not clog your hearts. We will not only know, but feel the way we ought to!
What Lasts: Love
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:13)
Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge all have an expiration date. Love does not. Love will be employed today, tomorrow, and long into God’s future. We must let all we do now be done in love because love is not only a virtue, but is our ultimate destination.
Faith is trust in God as He is revealed in Christ. Hope is a confident expectation of what is to come. Love is what Paul has been meditating on this whole chapter, it—along with faith and hope—is what is to suffuse everything we do as Christians. But, like we considered last week, the reason that love is greater than faith and hope is because God is love. Which is why Paul can say: Love never ends. (1 Cor 13:8a)
Love never ends, never fails, never stops because it flows from God’s own heart. For love to end, God would have to end. And one day, the dross of the world, our sin, death, and all our pain will fade away. And what will last? Love. Which makes, as Jonathan Edwards famously put it, heaven into a world of love.
How is heaven a world of love?
In heaven, you know fully, even as you are fully known.
Paul said: “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Of course, right now, Christian you are fully known by God. Earlier, Paul taught, “But if anyone loves God, he is known by God,” (1 Cor 8:3). If you love God, you are known by him. But in heaven you will fully know that God knows you, and that God loves you. Now, we carry a sneaking fear that God is going to “find out” something about us that will finally push him over the edge. We know that’s wrong, we know it isn’t true, but our heart drifts there. We know that Jesus loves us, know that Jesus died for our sins. But for some of us, our experience of really connecting with that so that it feels true is like that of a man with a metal detector on the beach. Occasionally the beeper goes off, occasionally we stumble into moments where the truth feels real, but most of the time we are just walking across empty sand.
In heaven, you will know fully that God knows everything about you. Every sin, every deed, every thought. You will know that there is nothing whatsoever hidden from Him. But rather than fill you with fear, it will fill you with the deepest of all comforts. For you will also perfectly know that God so loved you—weak, vile, sinful though you were—yet His Son freely came and took your place of judgment and death. Love without truth is sentimentality. Truth without love is exploitation. But total truth and total love? That is heaven.
In heaven, you will love fully, even as you are fully loved.
There are two different kinds of knowledge: a knowledge of facts and a knowledge of persons. To know a person, you must know facts about them, but one can know facts and not know a person. The knowledge that Paul is talking about here is the knowledge of persons. In heaven, we will grow in our knowledge of facts—the clouding effects of sin on our mind will be lifted and we will finally be able to think rightly, especially about the God in whose image we are made! But we will not only know things about God—though, we will—we will know Him. We will love Him, even as He fully loves us. In heaven, there will be nothing that clogs or hinders our affection and love for Him, or anything else.
In heaven, we will love one another fully. No jealousy, no insults, no sarcasm. Our differences there will not create frustration or cliques, but we will see the beauty of God revealed in our differences and thus make us love one another and our God even more. We will never harbor any suspicion that our love is unmatched or unrequited. We will love and receive love amidst each other with no shadow of hypocrisy or question of hidden motives. We will be able to look one another in the eye and not glance away in embarrassment. And we will love with no fear of being separated from each other. No death, no tragedy, no goodbyes.
In heaven, everything that we found lovely on earth shall be restored to us. There we will meet the children we lost, there we will reunite with those in Christ who have died before us. And, above all, in Christ we will find the source and fountain of all that is lovely and pure. In Him we find the original of what all copies of Beauty on earth were. If our marriages fell apart, our career proved disappointing, our aspirations were never realized—in Christ, we find the consummation of all hope, all expectation, and all longing. What we lost, shall be restored.
In heaven, we will have new capacities to love all things. In the new creation, we will get to experience this world made new. And since we will be freed from the dulling and deadening effects of sin, we will be able to experience the created world around us and love it without any fear of idolatry. We will get to experience food, music, art, culture, forests, sunrises, beaches—all of it, with our hearts exploding in love to God as the author and creator of it all. And we will never fear that we are using anything wrongly or sinning, because we will be made perfect.
Heaven is a world of love.
Sound too good to be true? Do you think I am trying to cast a spell to numb your fears of this world? No, I am trying to break a spell! The spell that tells you that this world is the real world, it is all there is. Friend, your life is a mist that will be here today, and gone tomorrow. What I am describing is real life. And it could be yours! Though we do not deserve it, God has made a way for sinners like you and me to be ushered into this Paradise. What is that way? Submit to Jesus Christ, trust in His work to pay for your sins, and ask for forgiveness in Him.
