I have had two emails asking about what I Cor. 13:8 means. "Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away." Let me try to help today.
Let's look carefully at each of the verbs: "will be done away" and "will cease." The prophecy and knowledge Paul says "will be done away." They are indicative, future passive verbs. That means God will end or cut off these two miraculous gifts that were given to the first century church. They will come to a abrupt halt! In saying "will cease" speaking about tongues, it is an indicative, future middle voice verb. That means they will just fade away as time goes by. Tongues would lapse into complete silence and would go away completely over a period of time. I know what some teach today about tongue speaking but that's not Biblical tongues. Tongues were languages known. They were meant for unbelievers and not believers (I Cor. 14:22). How else were brethren and the apostles going to reach all the nations with the gospel without God giving the gift of tongues so they could hear in their language? What's more amazing is the gospel was preached to all creation by 62 AD! Yes sir, the apostles were commissioned to go into all the world to preach the gospel and Paul said in Col. 1:23 all creation had heard it! God gave them the gifts of tongues to reach those with other languages. Today, what many are calling tongues are nothing more than babbling slurs! Tongues, all miracles and signs were to confirm the truth of the word that was preached (Heb. 2:1-4).
In contrast, love will never end. It will continue and time will have no bearing on love. It was the love that the Corinthian brethren were missing. They thought the spiritual gifts were what made them special and spiritual but Paul said not so! It's rather amazing that Paul didn't teach the Ephesian brethren about the miraculous gifts. In fact, Paul showed them how they were to come to a full understanding of the mystery of Christ. "By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ." (Eph. 3:4) Paul instructed them to read! Nothing more or miraculous. Just read!
4 comments:
I don't believe that most who speak in tongues today are truly speaking in tongues, but I don't think I'd dismiss them as babbling slurs. Some tongues are known languages, but earlier in 1 Cor Paul said there various kinds of tongues and later he says that those who speak in tongues aren't speaking to men, but to God. I know many believe that tongues passed away when the Bible was completed, but the bible doesn't say that and I believe I should be silent where the Bible is silent.
Another instance of this is Acts 8. I've heard time and time again that this passage teaches that only apostles could pass on the gifts. I don't know if Phillip could pass on the gifts or not since the Bible doesn't say either way. Plus it appears in 1 Cor 14:13 that Paul teaches one should pray to receive the gift of interpretation.
Thank you for your comments. I always appreciate those who try to help me and others as well.
I will say that the tense of those verbs we cannot over-look. That's why I brought them up. Verbs are extremely important in the Greek. Now I will say that I never want to rob anyone from understanding God's word or lead them to thinking that one cannot understand it without knowing Greek. They sure can! However, we do have means to look at things today and trying to be a good student and teacher, I need to look carefully at the Greek to see things like this so we can have a better understanding when statements are made in their context. Thank you again.
I'm not sure what you're saying, but I believe that if these gifts haven't stopped already then they will stop at some point (when the perfect comes) - I just think it might be a mistake for me to claim I know what the perfect is. I also think it is a mistake for others to claim that one must speak in tongues in order to be saved.
I remember sitting in Jimmy Allen's Romans class and being told that anything I read into the scripture I will be able to read back out. I guess he was talking about eisigesis, but I prefer his wording. I've been trying to keep that in mind when I study the Bible. I don't know Greek, so if it says that tongues today are babbling slurs then that is what is says (although it makes me wonder why the translators did such a bad job), but just reading the English I can't say for certain that I know that these gifts have ceased.
But (I guess by using exegesis)the point that Paul is stressing in this passage is what you said - that love won't end and it is the gift they should be seeking.
Thank you Moser for your comments. I do appreciate it. Keep studying (exegete)with an honest heart! God bless.
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