Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:8-13
Today, we’re looking at the second half of what’s commonly known as the “love chapter” – 1 Corinthians 13. Take a look at last week’s post to read about the first half of this chapter. Paul has talked about how none of the gifts of the Spirit from 1 Corinthians 12 matter if the person does not have love. Then he went on to define that love, which can be summarized as matching up with the character of God.
The first phrase in verse 8 is that “love never fails.” While this statement can stand alone, it is also important to consider what it means in its surrounding context. Paul goes on to explain how prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will all go away; in contrast to those, love is permanent. But, you may be wondering, if prophecies, tongues, and knowledge are gifts from the Holy Spirit, who is part of the eternal and unchanging God, why would they cease?
The answer to that question lies in verses 9-10. Knowledge and prophecy are “in part” and incomplete while we are on this earth. Anything on this earth just does not compare to the perfect knowledge and understanding that we will receive when we spend eternity in heaven. When we reach that point of completion then anything that is incomplete will become fulfilled and complete. The root word of the Greek word translated as “completeness” is teleios, which I wrote an entire blog post about here because it’s difficult to translate into English.
Some people use this passage to support the cessation of certain supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, that they no longer continue today – specifically, prophecy, speaking in tongues, and inspired revelation. They say that because the canon of the Bible has been closed, that has caused these gifts to stop being poured out on people. Because we are no longer receiving special revelation of the inspired Scriptures from the Holy Spirit, we are also no longer receiving these gifts. However, there is no indication in the text that the word teleios here refers to the completion of the Bible specifically; it is left to the reader to determine what is being completed in this context.
The point Paul is making here is that while other things that are more of this world may pass away and stop, love never will because God is love and God will never pass away.
Paul acknowledges that this is difficult for our finite, earthly minds to comprehend these concepts in verse 11. Our present understanding of all of these things is compared to how a child thinks and reasons versus how an adult thinks and reasons. An adult can understand things much more clearly than a child can. In the same way, when we have perfect understanding in heaven, we will be able to understand all the things that we cannot understand now.
Once we grow up into men and women, we no longer think like children. We have to put those childish ways of thinking and processing behind us. When we get to the perfect and sinless world of heaven, we will have to put our imperfect ways of thinking in this world behind us. Everything will be made clear to us then!
In verse 12, Paul continues this comparison using the metaphor of a mirror. Seeing our reflection is a good representation of ourselves, but it is not the same as seeing face-to-face. A modern version of this may be comparing a Zoom meeting to having an in-person meeting. We can still have interaction and communication and we can still see each other’s faces, but there is something better about meeting with people face-to-face. We experience being in the same room and seeing the whole person, rather than just their face in a small box on a screen.
But even when we get to heaven and have that full understanding, we will not have the same mind as God. We will have a clearer understanding and much greater knowledge, but we are still God’s creation. God fully knows us, but we can never fully know Him. The creation can never fully know its creator, as the creator is always greater and more knowledgeable than the creation.
Verse 13 closes out this section with a summary thought: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Faith, hope, and love will remain forever. Paul has already established that love never fails and will exist forever, as God will exist forever, but now he adds faith and hope to that list. Our faith and hope in God will be ongoing and eternal as we continue on into that next eternal life of perfection. However, our faith and hope will be different then, just as our love will be. Our love will be mature, complete, and perfect, and our hope and faith will be fully realized. Our hope and faith will no longer look toward the future but they will be realized in the present.
The main point to take away from this entire chapter is that God is love, and we are called to love as God does, to the best of our abilities. If we need some guidance on what that love looks like, Paul gives a list of its characteristics. However, we must also realize that we cannot understand fully what that perfect love looks like, at least not this side of heaven.
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