First Corinthians 13:8b-13 Love never fails

So if you look at Ephesians chapter four, verse 11 and 12, what you find is that spiritual gifts, which is part of what we're talking about today, are towards the body. In a sense, they're external to the body. These verses say, and he gave some prophets and some apostles and some evangelists as pastors and teachers. for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. And then when we look back in chapter 12, verse four, the gifts were in the body, were actual members of the body. Verse four says, and now there are various varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. And then down towards the end of chapter 12, verse 27 and 28, these are gifts set in the body, but it's a different thought again. And the thought there is now you are Christ's body and individual members of it. And God has appointed in the church, he's done this, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administration, and various kinds of tongues.

So, a question hit me. Would the exercise of spiritual gifts produce the lack of love in the body of believers? I think it's pretty clear in Corinth that that's what happened. Because the Bible tells us that the Corinthians came behind in no gift. They had them all. And they were operative within their body. They had wonderful enrichments in the lines of gifts. But what were they doing about it? What was their lifestyle? Well, they were going to court and suing each other in the civilian courts. They were showing that the gifts were really no help to them at all. If they had relied on or if love was the overriding factor in their body, it would have prevented such a thing to happen.

So I think we can conclude with all of those gifts in a church, there's not a lot of love in that body. And God is not in the issue, and if God isn't in the issue, love isn't in the issue, and so therefore, having gifts is, in my mind, worthless. Gifts are a manifestation of love, of God's love. And they operate in love, if it's genuine. And love is greater than all the gifts, not only individually, but combined. In chapter 13, verse two, and the whole theme in there that Roger talked about, if I have the gift of prophecy, and I know all mysteries, all of them, and I have all knowledge, And if I have all faith so that I can move mountains around, but I don't have love, I'm nothing. That's quite a statement.

So in Corinth, there was undue importance attached to the gifts. Gifts being exercised, but not being exercised in love. And when it's not exercise and love, what's the outcome? The gift isn't the issue, it's the person who has the gift that becomes prominent.

The permanence of love, in contrast with the means of presenting the testimony or a blessing, has been urged by Paul, and these verses that we're gonna go through helps, I think, clarify it. In my first slide, notice I crossed out love never fails, because Roger pretty much covered all that last week.

But the word fail here is used of the law of God in the Old Testament when God said, look, of my law, there will not be slippage in the minutest detail. There won't be a losing of any authority in the law at all. it will not lessen down in its force. I know in our society today, what you're seeing is people trying to lessen the force of the law system we live under. But God says, look, My law won't ever lessen in force.

It's the same thing with love. So this word fail has a lot to do with how strong a message that the apostle is saying here, look. In Luke 16, 17, he says, but it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than one stroke of a letter of the law. Same thing with love.

In 3.18 it says, it's used, 13.8, it's used of love itself, that it is never, ever, ever gonna be out of date, never. It's a pretty strong statement.

So then he compares it with, but neither, but whether there are gifts of prophecy, there will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away. Now, as Jim was saying, it's done away in the sense that it will be fulfilled, it will bring prophecy to the end because if you know everything and you know what all the information is, you don't need a prophet. Tongues, however, will cease with the present divided condition of the nations.

And knowledge, or partial knowledge, which is really what we have in the present time, that'll be done away with too. And understand that the knowledge we have today of the Lord is not full, it's partial. But rather they're something that they're ever requiring, we're always studying, we always are learning, And what does that prove? It proves our ignorance. If we knew it all, we wouldn't study anymore.

I marvel at the, when we talk about the new covenant with Israel, one of the things they're not gonna have to do is study the law, because it'll be written in their hearts. They won't have to open up the book. It'll be there. They'll have it. So, now, prophecy and knowledge shall be done away, but it says tongues will cease. but love abides permanently.

Now, these gifts are suited for our time, but they're in part, as we'll see. And it's because they don't line up with the perfection where no evil will exist and love is in its fullest circle. When we're home with the Lord, there'll be no evil and love will be the full circle in which we live. Love is thoroughly in keeping with our total condition that we'll experience in glory. While incidental and partial gifts and agencies down here will naturally terminate when glory arrives.

So, Interesting little Greek here, of prophecies they will be done away, of tongues they will cease, and knowledge it will be done away. We've seen this word for done away with before. The verb is used of prophecy and knowledge, it's identical. In both cases, their future tense and passive voice. What that means is that they'll happen in the future and something will happen, the energy will be on them. They will be the receivers of the energy. In the future, they'll be acted upon in a way that they will be made totally inoperative.

Where have we seen this word before? This word, done away with, is caturgeho. And if you go to Romans 6, you'll see, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be, same word, done away with, or taken offline, or made of no effect. so that we should no longer serve sin. It's exactly the same word as used in this verse with prophecy and with knowledge. It's a kind of an interesting word because it's one of those words when you first get into the identification truths, this word becomes a really critical word in the study of Romans 6. Because you wonder, well, how far away is it? Who dies? Do I die or does the old man die? How do all of these pieces fit?

The real issue here is that, like sin, for the believer who lives under faith is to not have any effect on us anymore. We are free from it from a positional standpoint. And the reason that God included us in the cross of Christ was so that we could be free from the thing sin itself right now.

That's why this word is a really strong word when it comes to talking about, at some point, prophecy and knowledge will be done away with. Love never fails, but whether there be gifts of prophecy done away with, tongues done away with, et cetera, the word that's attached with tongues is a little different. It's future tense but middle voice. Middle voice means that the action of the verb is directed towards itself. Tongues will cease in and of themselves. What were tongues? Tongues were a gift, if you, Acts 2 and Pentecost.

People could hear the gospel message in their own language, spoken by a person who'd never studied their language. And the, When all of the out-of-town Jewish people came and heard the sound and were all gathered together and the apostles began to give the gospel message, they were from all parts of the civilized world.

And they didn't have to hand out pamphlets with, you know, like you see instructions for things now that come in 14 different languages. They didn't have to do that. They would just speak it. and the person understood in their own tongue, and the person speaking it never learned or never knew anything about the language.

So, when it ceases, it will cease because, I think it will end because we'll all speak the same language, but it'll be a spiritual language. It won't necessarily be one out of your mouth. So, Now, with that in place, the next question I think about is that, well, when's all this gonna happen? When are we gonna do that? So he says, in the next verse, he says, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. So however much we enter into the truth down here, now, it ever remains knowledge in part. It is only prophecy and knowledge in part.

You know, we in our society, we admire learned men, men who have spent a lot of time studying God's word, but no matter how good they are and how knowledgeable they are, it's just in part. In the perfect condition of heaven, this knowledge in part will forever be gone. There may be a blessing unfolding of truth in the heavenly scene, but whatever is presented there will be fully known. In contrast to our present condition, though truth is fully revealed in the word, the word of God has the revelation that God wants us to know fully.

Yet we can only partially apprehend it while we're still here. The constable says in his commentary, in the meantime, before we see the Lord, our knowledge and prophecy are imperfect in contrast with what we will see when we see him. Prophecy is imperfect in the sense that the revelation of the Lord's mind are only partial now. Knowledge now is in degree, we know in part. All that kind of learning, that kind of learning, the methodology will pass away. So, it's kind of like I would say, you could say, it's all there. but I don't really get it all.

And those who study God's word marvel at, if you spend time with the Lord and his word or you're preparing for a class or whatever motivates you to do it, it's a wonderful time because you do see things spiritually that you otherwise wouldn't see. And the spirit of God is revealing things to you. Sometimes you can't, even verbalize what you saw.

I asked Miles Stanford one time, I said, how do you do those papers that you do, 32 pages of some incredible stuff? And his answer was that the Lord gave him the entire 32 pages in 15 minutes in his spirit. But then it took him 18 months to get it out of his spirit, through his soul, onto a piece of paper so somebody else could understand it. Every one of us, I think, has experienced that.

We've seen something in God's word, and you can't turn to your spouse or your best friend and say, boy, did I see something cool this morning, and you start to explain what it is, and they look at you like, what language are you talking about? I have no idea what you mean. And that's because you spiritually grasped it to start with.

So, then he says, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. So Chester McCauley says we need to understand when prophecy and knowledge end, requires that we identify what is perfect. In other words, this verse, the key word is perfect. What then is the perfect? or when is perfection gonna be brought in?

Now what I found about this verse is that there are difference of opinions with different scholars about what this really means. Some think it's when Christ returns. However, Macaulay says, the subject of this chapter, there's no allusion to Christ's return. So the word perfect, If you understand the word perfect, it just means, and I ask, I think on most of my Bible studies, the word comes up and I say, what's perfect mean?

And right away, somebody says, complete. It's like we were gonna honor Luke this morning, but I remember when he was this little, and every time I'd ask a question in Sunday school downstairs, he always had the same answer and he always said it first. You know what the answer was? Jesus. No matter what I ask, he would say Jesus. He figured most of the time he was gonna be right. Anyway, another possibility is that our condition, it will be our condition when we stand in the Lord's presence.

Others have said the completion of prophecy and knowledge is when the New Testament was completed. Well, you could say that the knowledge was put in that book completely, but my apprehension of it certainly wasn't in that book. It must be remembered, too, that in the church age, at the beginning of the church age, especially Corinth, it was what we would call the pre-canon era, and there was a post-canon era. What I mean by that is that the canon of doctrine wasn't solidified until around 100 AD, so all of this that's going on in Corinth now is pre-canon. The information is being gathered, the Lord is revealing it, and it's getting written down. Pentecost was 50 years before the last New Testament book was written. So, the Corinthian church existed in the pre-canon era.

So, when we reach that point, the Lord will remove catargeo, what is partial. He'll remove the limits in our knowledge and other limitations that we endure at the present time. Variations of this view are pretty simple. Some think it's the rapture. Some think it's the Lord's return again. or to the maturing of Christ's body through the course of the church age, that at some point Christ's body will mature enough that they won't need prophecy anymore and they won't need knowledge anymore. John Darby said that when that which is perfect has come means the time of glory when everything is perfect and these partial things will have ceased. Learning now is proof of ignorance, like I said, but it won't be then. Even in divine things, we learn, and in all that is testimony, is really pretty ignorant.

None of us, even together, approach what we're gonna know. It gives the idea of, I would say littleness to us. All these partial instruments of communicating will be done away with, why? because the word says that I will know as I am known. Well, that means I better take a look and see, well, how am I known?

Well, right now I'm known as I'll know, which means I'm really ignorant, but when I stand before the Lord, what's gonna happen? See, I happen to think that the time when all of this goes away is when we leave the planet and we're before the Lord face to face. There won't be any impediments. The love of God will be totally the environment that we live in. And when I look in His face, I will know Him as He knows me. Because I have been recreated in Christ with the capacity to know Him on His level.

That's amazing when you think about it, that he has set it up for every believer to be able to enter in to the fullness of God. Now that's not to say that through eternity we're gonna reach a point where we say, well, I've got it all now. He's unfathomable, we will continually be learning, but to know him as he is, all the knowledge about Him will be right there because we're in Him.

You ever think about what am I gonna do in eternity? I think about the fact that before God ever created anything, what was He doing? What was the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit doing? Well, I think they were existing with each other loving each other and trading, not trading, that's probably not the right word, but sharing the life of God within a triumphant, a triangle which they were loving and receiving love from each other on a continuum. But there wasn't any time, so it wasn't Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that's the way it was.

Now if you add to that point, when we go into eternity, that the Bible tells us in 140 some places that believers are in Christ. Where are we? We're in one of those persons who's in that triangle. And what goes on between the three of them, we get to get in on. So we're gonna live all eternity right there in God's knowledge and in God's love. Special place, special place.

And anyone who can think that, well, Judaism is the same thing as Christianity, well, try that one on for a while, because it never says that about the Jews. Now, what he does is he uses a human example. He says, when I was a child, I used to speak as a child. I used to think as a child and reason like a child. And when I became a man, I did away, guess what the did away word is? Catergeo, with childish things. So to show our present personal lives, Paul uses the figure of a child. You can only think and speak and reason as a child spiritually. But when a child becomes a man, The childish condition is left behind.

So he's using this as an illustration to present, to show that what's true of us today and what will be true of us when we're fully grown in Christ. But you have to take notice here. The point of this passage is not to spotlight uncertainty on our present apprehension of knowledge. This is not an excuse to be ignorant. but to show its partial character as compared with the fullness that will be shared when we're in glory.

So while we're in these bodies, we are compelled to a large extent to think of spiritual things in unnatural terms in accord with our present condition. Constantly, in every Bible study I'm in, There's an attempt by the teacher and by those that are in it to explain a spiritual concept with natural terms. Well, the spiritual concept is just like, boom. Well, that's what Paul is doing here. He's explaining what's gonna be like, and he uses a natural concept to try to get the message across.

Again, Constable used, compared our present phase of maturity to childhood, and that of our later phase when we are with the Lord to adulthood. What is characteristic of a child? To be preoccupied with themselves and with things that are temporary in value. The Corinthians took great interest in these things, but they pass away. and that it would be soon that they would pass away, namely, knowledge, tongues, and prophecy.

A sign of spiritual maturity is occupied with the things of eternal value, such as love, or 1 Colossians 3.1.

Since you're risen with Christ, since that's a fact, What do you do? You seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. You set your mind and affection on things above and not on things of the earth. And then it gives you the reason why. Because you died and your life is hid with Christ and God. So to some degree, while we live here, we can do that. We can seek the things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

Again, Paul was stressing the difference between present today and what's gonna be in the future. What's interesting about this verse is that it sets up, the passage sets up the suggestion of growth. Every believer is in the process of growing spiritually. You don't think that at first, that there's growth in the divine nature, but I think we have to accept that there is, which means we have to accept the fact that maybe all I have is a partial view now. It's enough to sustain me and over-sustain me while I'm here, but boy, look what we get to look forward to.

When we're in a glorified state, we will enter totally into all knowledge. And by the way, this isn't that you will have the Encyclopedia Britannica written in your mind. That's not what we're talking about. Those of you who remember the encyclopedia or the entire internet, all of that knowledge. What you will have is a total and complete personal intimacy of the person of Christ. And he is knowledge. He is knowledge, he doesn't have it, he is it.

So there will be love that pervades that entire scene. Everyone will be filled with love and be in that scene of love. There won't be any spiritual gifts and everything will be perfect. So another question I'd ask myself was, was it the absence of love that made all the defects and the deficiencies at Corinth? And my answer was, pretty much, yes, it was. And Paul in writing Corinthians is dealing with and correcting in a loving way everything that was out of balance.

I'll give you a good example. Back in chapter five, you remember in chapter five when we were studying that, that he recommended or actually ordered the Corinthian church to remove a person from their midst who was in a sinful environment and to put him out of the assembly. And it was good that they did that. And the reason it was good that they did that was that love doesn't cover up sin in the sense of passing it by or sweeping it under the rug. I think as we grow spiritually, we appreciate the fact that the Lord never gives us a break on sin.

We understand and we know. Sometimes we pay the consequences, but not always, I don't think. But he operates that way, he wants us to know. He always showed the weakness of the apostles. He never put them up on a pedestal and made them something that they weren't. That's a good thing. Paul is showing that no matter what the circumstances are, love never fails. Then he says, for now we see in a mere dimly. but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

So he's confirming here the difference between these differences by another likeness, by the reflection of a mirror. with no more than a dim shape seeing face-to-face. And Jim mentioned, what were the mirrors like then? Well, I think they're like, if you've ever been in one of those ghost towns in Colorado and you look out through a window and it's all, you can see a shape out there, but maybe you wouldn't be able to identify who the person was. That's what he means with a mirror.

The medium, or rather the seeing now is essentially imperfect. The results, more or less, are dark, but by and by, it will be face-to-face, immediate vision. And when that happens, I will know fully as I was also known fully. So at present, we're like looking at objects through a semi-transparent medium. that obscures the vision a little bit.

It's like we've had a bad case of cataracts. Those of you who have had cataract surgery, you realize that when you walk out of it, and they do one eye, and you walk out of there, and it's like somebody turned the lights on. And then a couple weeks later, you get the other one done, it's like you almost have to wear sunglasses. It's so bright, because you're not used to it. I know in my case, my cheater glasses went down to the minimum. I was really excited about that.

The other place that you see this, though, on the positive side, is in 2 Corinthians 3.18, it says, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. I and you look at God's word, and what do you see? He uses this term a mirror, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, it's reflective. It's not full on because I don't have the capacity to see it full on just yet.

But just that reflection, that understanding, that beholding, face to face has an incredible effect on us as believers. What's the effect? It conforms us to the image of Christ. That conforms us. So when you're in the word of God, you're in there to see him, to spend time with the Lord, to behold him. And that, even though it's a semi-transparent medium, so to speak, It still begins this process and carries on this process of conforming you to Christ's very image. And what is that image?

God has known us in Christ, but I only know Christ partially now. We are known in Christ by God and we're known by Him no place else. But then, We do not know ourselves as God knows us. Believers are known of God in Christ, but in the future, we will know ourselves as Christ knows us, as God knows us in Christ. Limitations are according to our condition of flesh and blood.

And even Paul didn't profess to know everything. He even said, now I know partially, but then I shall know according as I have been known. Talk about a wonderful thing to look forward to. To know that at some point in the not too distant future, I'm gonna know as I am known. Who's the one that decides how I'm known? It's God himself who looks at me in Christ and knows me that way and I'm gonna get in on that. That's gonna be really cool when that happens. Then we will fully know the truth as a whole and not merely in part because we're fully known.

So is there a difference between, difference not merely of, it is a difference of, not merely of quantity but of method too. Our very learning now, no matter how much we have learned, proves that we're ignorant. I said that before. It will not be so then. The condition which needs to grow as well as the means which contribute to the growth will have passed away. We won't need that anymore. Truth will be fully known as a whole. And in that day, it isn't gonna be learned in piecemeal. I personally can't wait for that day.

But now, abides faith, hope, and love. but the greater of these is love. Paul speaks of the main moral principles and characteristics of Christianity. These are the three. He's not talking here about the power of testimony. And here also love has the greatest place. Though all are great and all are unshakable principles. but there's no indication here of faith and hope abiding for all eternity. They remain, but to say that these three shall remain forever is to put something in there that doesn't belong there.

In the perfect condition, faith will be changed to sight, and so faith will have its end. If I know and I see face-to-face and have knowledge, I don't need faith, it's right there. In the perfect condition of hope, that will also end. Why? Because everything I hope for will be realized. I won't have anything to look forward to because it'll all be right there.

Love alone will abide. Faith and hope make very good traveling companions, but we part company with them at the door of heaven. We go in with one thing, and that's love. Nevertheless, this verse speaks of a present condition and tells us that even love is the greater quality. a greater quality than faith, it's a greater quality than hope. Why? Because I think love is the very nature of God and therefore it has to be eternal.

But scripture can't be broken. Faith is the evidence or the conviction of things not seen. as hope is seen. Hope which is seen is not hope. What the Word of God does is reveal to us to make the things of God real and true. And what faith does, that's the part on our side that makes them real and true. In other words, it's evidence of the things of God and it's a conviction even though I may not see them. I'm convinced they're true.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Faith and hope therefore refer only to the present condition. Love alone is to eternity as well as the present. I would say completion supersedes the faith that looks at God's word for the object presented and the hope that desires and waits for it. But like this verse eight says, love never fails. So it's laid down in verse eight in contrast to the gifts that were given of God. Was it that way in Corinth? Paul thanks God for enriching them in all word and all knowledge so that they came short in no gift.

But as to love, he kept warning them in silence. Was it love to form rival parties? Was it love to promote the servants into leaders? Was it love to crave after worldly wisdom? Was it love to slight impurity? Was it love to refer differences to the courts of law? Was it love to enfeeble family ties? Was it love to seek relief and change of circumstances?

Unfortunately, the Corinthian saints were so proud of their knowledge, though even at that time, it probably had worms in it and it smelled a little bit. for they were perverting it to tamper with idolatry. So, while knowledge puffs up, love builds up. While knowledge gives no deliverance from self-seeking and self-indulgence, love strengthens the believer in the self-sacrificing service of Christ, free from all, yet becoming a slave to all. in order to gain the most possible. And I think, unassuredly, the obvious problem with the Lord's Table that we talked about, and even of the love feast mixed up with it, from the divine object of it, it was the saddest proof that they needed that the teaching on love and grace be given to them.

So to end this, I'm gonna read a page from a article I found this week by an old brother and man named H.F. Witherby. And when you leave, if you want a copy of it, they're out there. It's entitled, What is Life? It is the privileged moment for glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth. Here we are set to walk as he walked, to shine as lights in the world for him, to hold forth the word of life and to be his epistles known and read of all men.

Is it too much to say that many of the Lord's people have a veil between their affections and his heart? as if something existed in the way, they are not bright or shining. Peace, this through his blood they have, but his peace does not fill their hearts.

It is of no use disguising the truth. Many of God's people are not at this hour in personal fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. The spiritual countenance lacks expression. The features of Christianity are there, but the spiritual eye lacks luster. The soul is not close to the risen Lord Jesus in glory. This is not heaven upon earth, nor is it longing after himself. Spiritual intelligence is not spiritual affection. and without its love the lamp is dim.

And with such thoughts again we say, come, sit in your room alone, meditate upon the hour beyond this life and this world when we shall see him face to face and be like him. What a remedy this is for present spiritual ailments. Some have one remedy for the soul's condition and then another, but all fail, save Jesus only. We can thank God for the doctrines and thank him more that each doctrine is a door opening into the very presence of the Lord Jesus. Are we outside these doors? Many are. They know well what they are like. This is that of wood and that of silver and that of gold.

There is knowledge of His spotless humanity, of His redeeming blood, of His Father's glory through Him. But open the door of His humanity and behold Himself. Before you is the perfect man, even the silver door of redemption. And behold his once streaming wounds. Open the golden door and see him where he is in glory on high.

It is the Lord Jesus only with these hearts of ours. Let us seek more of his blessed personal company. His presence will shed his holy glow over our very beings. But it is a little while and we shall walk with him in the white. And now in this day of Christian walk in the spirit, our words shall speak the one language of heaven. If only we are in his presence. Ah, fellow Christians, our souls sigh out, quote, What a change there would be in us if the Lord Jesus formed our hearts. The strife of tongues would cease. Pride would vanish. Sin would be confessed and overcome, and men would take knowledge of us that we had been with Jesus. And then he quotes from 1 Thessalonians.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus. Faithful is he that calls you who will also do it. So let's close. Dear Father, my prayer today for us is that we would increasingly through your word behold the glory of your dear son. That we would spend time in personal company with him, knowing that he's the one that is the object of our affections. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your dear son, the Lord Jesus, and we pray in his precious name, amen.