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1.      Gifts will pass, love will last.

 

The Corinthians needed to hear Paul’s correction in this passage.  Over and over again he brings the truth and contrasts it to their situation.  It just keeps on bringing it on, without stop.  Have you ever thought about that?  How we must hear truth over and over again, repackaged many ways before we finally figure it out.  God is so patient and persistent with us.

I don’t know about you but I am slow to learn.  I don’t think I have anything on the Corinthians. 

 

 

Well, sometimes we can be like that with spiritual things.  We just don’t get it till one day!  Oh yeah, that’s it – it’s about love.  That’s how the Corinthians were.

You see, they lived in a society that a lot of things right but also a lot of things wrong.  They valued ideas and concepts way about actions.  All the while they were materialistic and worldly.  This deadly combination led to hypocrisy and arrogance.  They thought as long as you knew some key things you were free to live as you wanted to live.  Sound familiar?   Furthermore, they looked forward to a final disembodied state where they would be free from the material world.  Listen to what the bible scholar/theologian Gordon Fee says about the Corinthians.

 

 

So Paul is about to burst their bubble in this section.  While they equate the practice of spiritual gifts with a heavenly existence, Paul says in effect, there won’t be anymore gifts practiced in heaven.  Look at verse 8.  “Love never ends – as for prophecies, they will pass away, as for tongues, they will cease, as for knowledge, it will pass away.”  All three are gifts mentioned previously in chapter 12 – tongues, prophecy and the utterance of knowledge.  All three will end.  Yet, love never ends.  Love is coupled with faith and hope at the end of our section in contrast to the three gifts of tongues, prophecy and knowledge.  While these gifts pass, love along with faith and hope – never meet the end of their use.  They abide in contrast to passing or ceasing.  In effect, Corinthians, your badge of maturity is meaningless in the long run.  It is indeed not the sign of spiritual maturity or spiritual perfection.  It is not the experience of the final state – love is.  You’ve got it all wrong!  Terribly wrong!!

 

 

Well, some of you might need to tear things apart and start again.  You are like the Corinthians, measuring your life by the wrong thing.  The good news, the really good news is that it is never too late to tear things apart and start again.  This time, you can build with an expert carpenter who never makes mistakes.  The reality is he has perfected his building skills and takes trash and remakes it into something beautiful.  He died and bore your sin to win you total forgiveness and an everlasting relationship with him, where he will work with you to get it right, patiently forgiving and instructing as we learn to get it right in him.

 

Maybe your mistake is not so much that you missed Christ totally, but like the Corinthians, you have been measuring your life by something else besides that which truly lasts.  Maybe something else that is temporary or subservient to love has been your measuring device.  Maybe it is your gifts, maybe your bible knowledge, maybe your career or maybe your possessions.  This passage is an opportunity to realize that all these things will pass but love lasts forever.  True love, born of God, granted in Christ, by the power of the Spirit, shared with one another, refreshed and inspired by God, molded according to our individual gifts and personalities – this love, lasts forever and all that other stuff passes. 

 

All that other stuff only matters if it is utilized in true love.  First, love for God supremely above all else, and then, necessarily following, love for others – our families, our church and those God has put around us.  Everything we have only matters as it relates to this true love.  That is what the Corinthians were missing.  Is it what you are missing?

 

When the final day comes, are you going to find that you have deep regrets for how you misused the temporary things instead of investing them in what lasts forever?  What is your “tongues” issue?  What are you misusing, using it for a reason besides love?

 

2.      Gifts will pass because they temporary & PArtial serve love that lasts.

 

You see, these gifts are given for a season, they are temporary.  Take a look at the passage.  “As for prophecies, they will pass away, as for tongues they will cease, as for knowledge it will pass away” too.  Now, this isn’t speaking of knowledge in terms of what we know, for we know clearly in scripture that we will have knowledge of God in heaven – perfect sinless knowledge as it says in verse 12.  This type of knowledge is the gift of knowledge – or the word of knowledge – that gift by which we receive and speak an insight into the deep truths of God, especially related to understanding Christ.  This triad of gifts, prophecy, tongues and knowledge will all pass away.  That is the thrust of this passage – the temporariness of these gifts versus the permanence of love.  There will be a time when these gifts will have served their purpose and will pass away. 

 

The question is, “when will they pass?”.  Well, some have said that the time of their passing is the establishment of the canon of scripture, others, the establishment of the church by the apostles.  That is an argument you can make but certainly not from this passage, though some have seen it that way.  Let’s take a look at the passage.  We see in verse 8 the mention of the passing of these gifts and then verse 9, “for we know in part and we prophesy in part”.  Okay, so during the time of these gifts we experience a partialness in our experience – we’ll talk some more about that in a minute.  But then verse 12 follows in the flow and answers the question, “when will this partialness cease, when will these gifts cease?”  Well, look at what it says: “for now we see in a mirror dimly – (that is partially, incompletely) – but then, face to face.  Now I know in part (okay, got that), then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  Now when would that be?  Is it when the canon of scripture is complete?  I don’t think that is the same as seeing face to face or the same as knowing fully.  Neither is it the perfect that is promised to come in verse 10, see what it says, “when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away”.  Now, certainly the word of God is incredible and a wonderful gift but its reception does not coincide with knowing fully or experiencing the perfect or seeing face to face.  You might argue that having the word is all these things but I would say – do you now know Him fully as you are fully known?  Do you now experience the perfect one?  Do you now truly see him face to face?  Where in scripture is such wording used to indicate the experience of reading the word, as good as that is?  Is it not always the description of an immediate and intimate encounter with the living God face to face?  Clearly, the point of the passing of these gifts is that day of days, when we will see him face to face, when we will know him without sin or hindrance or confusion, when we will behold and enjoy the perfect forever!

 

We are in good company to understand this passage this way.  Though there was a day not long ago when many bible scholars would use this passage to teach that the gifts have ceased since the apostolic age, that group has shrunk almost to non-existence.  Even our dear brother, Richard Gaffin, a godly and gifted bible scholar of the cessationist persuasion can not lend credence to this view:

 

 

Furthermore, Jean Calvin, the great reformer that many cessationist brothers would look to, agreed very bluntly with Dr. Gaffin:

 

 

So, where does the opinion that the gifts have ceased come from?  I believe that a couple of things drive this opinion.  One is a sincere love and understanding of the importance of and wonder at the word of God.  Many believers do not want to see the objective flawless word of God obscured by subjective non-canonical speech and thus arrive at the conclusion that any revelatory gift must be restricted to keep the word of God untainted.  While I fully appreciate this love and regard for the word, this seems more driven from fear and bad experience than a clearly biblical argument. It is also inconsistent with the reality of the other gifts of the spirit that are more readily accepted.  The word of God always stands above any personal revelation –whether it be prophecy or preaching and teaching.  Listen to what a respected bible scholar/theologian friend says:

 

 

Another reason for holding the cessationist position is experience.  Many who hold this position have never seen the right operation of the revelatory gifts like prophecy, tongues and word of knowledge.  They may have seen a bad use and have been turned off or just never have seen any demonstration of the gift.  Perhaps they back up their position by arguments made from history that the occurrence of the gifts ceased after the apostolic age.  I have found the evidence points the other way.  Yes, perhaps we don’t see the intensity of the gifts reported in Acts but there is a consistent record of the miraculous and revelatory gifts throughout history including some reliable accounts from trusted friends here and in other countries where the gospel is going forth into new territory.  For further study, I refer you to others such as Wayne Grudem, DA Carson and Jack Deere.  Experience must not be what determines our viewpoint – scripture alone must and experience only helps us to test if our understanding is accurate.  I fear many have drawn their conclusions from outside of scripture.  Listen to what Jack Deere has to say here.

 

 

So, the gifts have not yet ceased but they will indeed cease one day soon, at our Lord’s glorious return.  For now, we enjoy them, even though they only help us to see partially.  That’s right, not only are they temporary, but their results are only partial, not perfect.  Take a look at the passage.  Paul says we know and prophesy in part –only partly –not wholly, not completely.  He furthers this argument by comparing the use of the gifts now to looking in a mirror dimly.  We don’t see the whole picture but a clouded partial one.  It is a mystery still to us to some degree.  Have you ever felt like that?  I have.  There are times where I read about the love of God in Christ, and like one of the guys said yesterday at men’s fellowship, “all I get is dust and crickets chirping”.  I know logically that God must be the greatest thing there is, that an infinite perfect good loving and wise God as man bearing the sins of one like me is the greatest expression of glory and love and wisdom and justice that could ever be known.  Yet, I feel I’m looking in these things like I look into the mirror in the morning after I take a shower and only see shapes and colors but not enough detail.  It is fuzzy and impartial and oh how I need to see!  Oh, how I need to see his glory!  Oh, how I need to see His goodness and holiness and mercy and wisdom and unfathomable love yet I am constantly aware of how limited is my vision!  Oh, God show us your glory!!  Brothers and sisters, that is our dilemma this side of heaven.  We see in a mirror partially – fuzzily.  But there will be a day when we shall see clearly!  Look in verse 11.  For now, we are like little children, not completely formed and mature, still thinking, talking and reasoning as children.  But there will be a day when we are mature – complete, perfect and not lacking anything.  We will see clearly!  Oh what a day that will be!  I am so looking forward to that day!  In the meantime, we have these gifts operating to show us God, though only in part, only still shaded by our imperfections and limitations and sin.

 

 

 

3.      Gifts will pass, so use them for love that lasts!

 

You see, these gifts are for this age only.  The time between the resurrection of our Lord and his return.  They serve the function of revealing God’s truth, communicating his love and caring for his church.  They are not an end in themselves at all, they are a means.  They are a means to that which doesn’t pass, true love.  True love is from God, flowing to us in and because of Christ and His gospel, flowing through us to one another and to God.  This is what it is all about and this experience will never cease for the believer.  Gifts will pass, love will last.

 

Now it would be wrong for us to overreact to what Paul is saying here and stop using our gifts.  The gifts are very necessary now, for they are avenues of experiencing the grace we already have in Christ but have not fully experience yet.

 

 

These gifts are now necessary and wonderful to us, for they are how we experience the inheritance that awaits us.  I’m sure you, if you belong to Jesus, have experienced this.  I will never forget the day I first heard and believed the good news of Jesus.  It was as if God himself was speaking to me.  I sat and kneeled there, before a TV actually, as the pastor shared the truth that Christ had borne all my sins in his body on the tree that I might die to sins and live to him (1 Pet 2:24) and that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone the new has come (2 Cor 5:17).  Though this was only a man speaking, God was delivering the bread and milk of life to me through him and I ate and was satisfied.

 

 

 

 

What about you?  Do you understand the gifts this way?  Do you see that they are temporary but essential for life before Jesus returns?  Or do you act as if they have ceased?  You may be a continuationist versus a cessationist but when it comes to the use of your gifts you may be a functional cessationist.  If so, why?  And, why not fully utilize these gifts for their intended purpose.  You see, the thrust of 1 Corinthians 12-14 is that gifts are means to the end of love, the eternal perfect love of God.  We are to use them to love God and love others.  If you are not using your gifts then you are not loving fully.  Though the gifts are temporary and partial they are still necessary and quite amazing.  Let’s not be anti-Corinthians.  Let’s not swing the other way and ignore the gifts.  Let us be fully charismatic in the best sense of the word.  Let us be fully continuationist.  Let us use our gifts for the great purpose of love – love that is anchored in truth and focused on God.  Dave Harvey in a message on this passage has this to say.

 

 

What does that look like for you?  What are some gifts that you need to pursue – either to experience them anew or experience them more consistently?  Do this, this afternoon or tomorrow ask your spouse or friend, “What spiritual gifts do you see in me?”  And then ask, “Am I pursuing them?”  Let us use these gifts fully and faithfully to the great end of love, love that lasts.

 

4.      Gifts Will Pass When the Perfect Comes, the love that lasts.

 

You see, the gifts will pass but love will last.  It won’t be long now at all.  The shortness of a life or even sooner is all that is left.  Then the perfect will appear and there will be nothing left but eternal bliss and love for all of God’s children, all who have heard his call, experienced his presence and turned from self and sin to behold and trust love incarnate, his Son.  We will then know fully even as we are fully known.  On that day we will fully know God, forever unhindered and unclouded.  But take heart even now, not only because a great future awaits his people but also a great present is yours now.  For in verse 12 it says we will know fully even as we are fully known.  This knowing is not mere intellectual knowing – it is experiential knowing.  You will know in a full, experiential way but look at the verse – you are already fully known.  That is God fully knows you, he fully knows you as his child.  Think about that.  He knows you through and through.  He knows you better than your mom, better than your spouse, better than yourself.  He knows you in all your frailty and weakness, he knows you in your gifts and on your best day, he knows you in your sin and struggles and on your worst day – he fully knows you.  He knows everything – not just intellectually but as a loving intimate heavenly father.  If you are his, if there is that seed of faith in you, that seed of repentance that says I don’t want self and sin, I want God, than you bear the family resemblance and you are his.  You are his and he knows you as his child – he is closer than the closest friend and knows you.  Not only does he know you fully, but he accepts you just as you are, fully in His perfect and awesome Son.  Just as you are, with no improvements, no struggling, no striving.

 

 

And then, it only gets better.  For we will pass into his perfect presence, no longer partially knowing or partially speaking but fully beholding and enjoying forever.  Perfect everlasting love in his glorious presence!  Oh what a day, what an eternity that will be!  Check out what Jonathan Edwards says about this.

 

 

Let us set our sights on that day.  Let us enjoy and practice his love now.  Let us actively and aggressively pursue these wonderful though temporary means of grace known as the gifts of the spirit for the purpose of love – true love, everlasting love.  Gifts will pass, love will last.