Featured "that which is perfect..." 1 Cor. 13:10

Yes. I agree (and I misspoke that gifts were not the topic). But as you point out, ALL the gifts are the topic. I believe because all are given to the church for the church to do kingdom work here on earth. So they are, by nature, temporary. But love endures - and this superiority of love IS the lesson on all the gifts.

To use the passage as dogmatic evidence sign gifts have ceased is to read into the passage, plain and simple.

 

Yeah, that's what I said. Synecdoche = part being used to indicate the whole.

Read verse 13. "Now (when Paul penned verse 13) abides (were still being given) faith, hope, and love, these three (not "these six")."

The gifts were no longer being given when Paul wrote 1st Corinthians.

 

Huh?

Paul being familiar with James's writing is anachronistic?

So God misspoke when He said not to add nor subtract from it? God has to inspire His word in every language or He failed to complete His mission?

You are free to believe anything you want. But if I agreed with you we would both be wrong.

 

Yes. That is your assumption or conclusion based on what you view as a need (or a lack there of) of these temporary gifts. Since you believe those gifts ceased when Paul penned the letter (and since Paul was too polite to simply condemn the Corinthians use/misuse of "sign gifts) he tried to lead them to that conclusion the long way around. And I agree that if Paul had the intestinal fortitude to simple speak the truth then there would be no debate.

But since he lacked the will to speak plainly what you know to be true we have to deal with what he actually wrote. And there is therefore disagreement.

 

That's right. Paul was both stupid and ignorant, completely unaware of a letter written to the churches 30 years earlier.

The gifts were given to confirm the inscripturation of God's word. When His word was complete there was nothing left to confirm. Reason to exist, gone. Gift's gone. Just like verse 13 says.

 

Except that is exactly what you are refusing to do. What part of "now abides faith, hope, and love, these three" do you find confusing?

 

So you believe abiding in faith, hope, and love was only for the dispensation after sign gifts ceased????

 

Two points then I am going to quit trying, Jon.

First of all, what "dispensation?" I am not a dispensationalist but even those who are, for the most part, are not hyper or ultra dispensationalists who see additional "dispensations" in Acts or the Epistles.

And second, the word μενει is a verb in the present, active, indicative meaning "continue." It says that faith, hope, and love continue.

 

Most conservative bible scholars believe James to have been written sometime between 35 and 49 AD. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians around 60 - 64 AD. Do the math.

 

I do not believe that prior to Paul writing to the church in Corinth others would have been justified in writing that abiding in faith, hope and love was incomplete. We simply disagree.

 

That is not what it says. You are changing what it says to conform to your (false) understanding. Rather you should change your understanding to conform to what it says.

It does NOT say that the people were abiding in faith hope and love. It says that faith hope and love would abide (μενει = continue).