what we have so far
We’ve looked at two ideas so far in our walk through 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13. The first that it doesn’t matter what we do (speaking in different languages (human and/or angelic), prophesying, understanding all there is to know, or giving all we have to the poor), if we do not have love it’s nothing and our “service” is nothing. The second idea was that love is fundamentally and foundationally others-focused. We are called to love God and love our neighbors (Mk. 2:30-31).
Now we come to the end of this short section of 1 Corinthians and find that Paul is circling back to one of the main themes that started this entire discussion: love reigns supreme.
Is this loving?
What would you consider to be the guiding principle of your life? Before you say or do anything is there something, some sort of filter, you automatically process any and all situations through? If you were talking to Paul about this, I think he would say that the filter for everything you and I say or do ought to be love. Paul would hope we’d be consistently asking ourselves: Is this loving? But why is this the case? He tells us.
Love never ends.
As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
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.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:8-13, ESV)
not everything all-important, some things come to an end
I like to chew gum. It’s important for me to have some gum ready to go at all times (even while playing the drums). I also like to breathe. And, it’s also important for me to be able to breathe at all times. So, if I had to choose, would I pick chewing gum or breathing?
You know the answer.
You know the answer because you know that even though a lot of things can be really important, not everything is all-important. This is clear in the way Paul sets up his argument from verses 8 to 13.
Paul begins with a statement I’ve far to easily breezed over in the past: Love never ends. For you Greek lovers (like me) out there, Paul said that love never katargeō. It could be translated as never dies or never comes to an end. To put it positively, love lasts forever—it’s eternal.
There are things that will come to an end, though, and Paul gives us three: prophecies, tongues, and knowledge. These won’t last forever—they’re not eternal. Aside from tongues, which Paul says will cease, he uses the same Greek word as he did for the never ending nature of love. Prophecies and tongues will katargeō—they will come to an end.
Why, though? Why is it that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will stop? Why will they not go on forever into the new heavens and new earth?
the partial must give way to the complete
Paul anticipates this question (as he often does throughout his letters) and explains why some things will end in three different, but related ways.
Some things will end because they are not complete, and what is not complete will not last.
Some things will end because, just as adults need to let go of childish things as they mature, some things need to be left behind for better things.
Some things will end because what we see now isn’t as clear as it will be one day.
We know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. There is coming a day in which all that is left to be completed will be completed. This is (in my understanding) the second coming of the Son of God and the restoration of all things. This is the day in which the Lord will return to rule here on earth as he has been ruling from his throne, but in a more perfect sense. One of the big differences between now and then will be that this rule will take place on a new earth as it is joined with a new heaven (i.e., realm of God). This new home will be one without corruption; this new home will be perfect—it will be complete. And, so, what isn’t perfect will come to an end.
The point must be made, however, that this is not the same thing as saying that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge are not worth valuing or pursuing today. They most definitely are as Paul makes clear elsewhere in 1 Corinthians. Prophecies are real today. Tongues are real today. Knowledge is real today. They are are useful, but none of them are complete; they are partial. This situation is not dissimilar to the way in which the Old Covenant gave way to the New. The Old was not made obsolete (as the writer to the Hebrews said) because there was anything wrong with it. On the contrary, it was holy. It was made obsolete because something better came along (the incarnate Christ and the New Covenant).
Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge are important, but they are not all-important and so they must give way to what is.
faith, hope, and love remain
How then shall we live?
And, of course, Paul helps us here as he writes: “And now remain: faith, hope, love--these three. But love reigns supreme.” (1 Cor. 13:13) In comparison to prophecies, tongues, and knowledge that will not last forever, faith, hope, and love—these three, together—will go on forever. At the completion of all things our faith, hope, and love that we have now will expand and continue forever. Any trust you have in God today will expand when forever gets here. Any hope you have in God will grow when forever gets here. And any love you have for God will increase when forever gets here.
So, then, why not live like that’s actually true today? Why not practice now what we will be doing forever?
Those are the questions for us. You may want to prophecy—God bless. You may want to speak in tongues—God bless. You may want to know all there is to know—God bless. But let’s not pursue those wonderful and good gifts at the expense of those that will last forever: faith, hope, and the greatest—love.
Why is love the greatest?
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40, ESV)
Let all that you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14, ESV)
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6, ESV)
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12, ESV)
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16, ESV)
Do you see the persistent theme throughout these portions of the Bible? Love reigns supreme.
Whether it be the truth that the entire Old Covenant law is dependent and fulfilled in love. Or whether it be that in everything Paul insists we do it in love. Or whether it be that neither circumcision or uncircumcision is greater than love. Or whether it be that God’s love for us is perfected in us as we love. Or whether it be that God is love and if we make our home in love we live in God and God in us.
In all of these, love is the greatest.
This will be the major reality of the new heavens and new earth. The eventual home of God on this planet with his people like it has never been before.
It will be a world ruled by love, through the one who is love, with those who live in love.