The Kind of Gifts
1. Permanent (13:8,13)
Love never fails; it alone endures forever.
1John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Love is the one permanent gift that will remain forever. Jesus demonstrated His love for us on the cross, that all who should believe on Him might have eternal life. When we get to Heaven, love will still be there. It will never end.
2. Semi-permanent
In verse 13 it tells us, And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Faith hope and love are mentioned. Love is the greatest because it will endure forever. But what about faith and hope.
Faith is confidence in God. The Bible says in 2Cor.5:7, (For we walk by faith, not by sight
1John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Someday we will see Christ, then we will no longer need faith.
Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The second of these is hope; it is the second semi-permanent gift. It also will cease when we see Christ. We will have no need of it any longer then. Go back to 1John 3:2,3
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Our hope is in the coming of Christ.
Rom.8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Hope that is seen is not hope. Our hope is in the coming of Christ, our ultimate salvation.
Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
When our hope (Jesus Christ) appears, we will no longer have need of hope. Hope will therefore end at the Coming of Christ.
3. Temporary
There are three gifts mentioned in this chapter that are temporary gifts. That is they lasted only for a specific period of time. Look at verse 8 in 1Cor.13,
13:8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away. These gifts are all temporary. They will last just for a temporary period of time, and then as it says will fail, cease, and vanish away. They will cease to be no more. These gifts are also representative of the rest of the spiritual gifts that are mentioned in 1Cor.12, but these three are specifically mentioned because of the context, speaking of the Word of God.
Let us consider first the gift of tongues, the most widely misunderstood and misused gift today. There are many reasons why tongues is not for today. The verses in this chapter give us some very good ones. Verse eight says they shall cease. And I believe that the context will show us that they already have ceased. In fact the gift of tongues ceased to be by the end of the first century. Before we look at this Scripture consider some of the characteristics of the Biblical use of tongues:
1. The word tongue means language. (Acts 2; 1Cor.14:4)
The word "unknown" is not in the Greek. The language was a known language, just unknown to the one speaking it.
In Acts 2 there are about fifteen different nations and languages represented, and they all heard the disciples speak, each in their own tongue or language.
2. 1Cor.14:21,22 tells us that tongues are a sign for the unbeliever, specifically the unbelieving Jew.
3. Some of the tongues came from source that was not of God. We briefly looked at that already from 1Cor.12:3
3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
The source of some of the tongues was definitely demonic. They were calling Jesus accursed in a different language that they did not know. I have challenged some Charismatics how they knew if their tongues were from God or not. Their only answer was from Luke 11:11-13, that God wouldn't give them an evil gift. But how do you know it is from God, I replied. If you dont know what you are saying, if you have no interpreter, and can't understand anything, how do you know it is from God? I still have no answer to that question from them.
4. The Bible never commands one to speak in tongues. It never suggests that anyone should seek after the gift of tongues. It gives no instruction on how one should speak in tongues. But there are people from Charismatic churches that will give you instructional booklets on how to speak in tongues. That isn't Biblical. What goes on in the name of tongues today is not the gift of tongues of the Bible. That gift has ceased.
If one would take seriously, within context, all of the teaching about tongues in I Corinthians, they could not fail to see that tongues-speaking would cease. Paul writes, "Charity (love) never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away" (13:8). There will always be the need for love, therefore love will never drop off. But when the canon of Scripture is made "perfect" (or complete), there will be no further revelation from God, neither in predictive prophecy nor in divinely revealed knowledge other than prophecy. The gifts of "prophecy" and "knowledge" will be entirely unnecessary with the completion of the Scriptures. And "if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book" (Revelation 22:18).
Paul acknowledged the incomplete nature of the Scriptures in his day when he said, "For we know in part, and we prophecy in part" (13:9), or more literally from the Greek, "For in part we are knowing, and in part we are prophesying." Then he adds, "But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away" (13:10). The word perfect is in the neuter gender, and therefore refers to the perfect (finished or completed) Word of God. If the word perfect referred to Christ it would be in the masculine gender. The sign gifts were "done away" (rendered inoperative) with the completion of the New Testament.
Now what about tongues? "Whether there be tongues, they shall cease" (13:8). Tongues shall cease (Gr. patio), that is, they shall come to a complete halt. Who needs tongues? Only the untaught, carnal babes in Christ, for Paul added, "When I was a child, I spake as a child . . . but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (13:11). The word "spake" in context can only refer to speaking in tongues. So that Paul himself came to the place of Christian maturity, through God's revelation to him, where tongues were no longer necessary. And so in the same tongues context he admonishes the Corinthians, "Brethren, be not children in understanding . . . but in understanding be men" (14:20). Experientially, tongues cease when the Christian matures on a diet of the meat of God's Word. Actually tongues is baby talk.
DHK
UR HEARTS as I see it) that which is imperfect goes away. A LOVE that surpasses knowledge. Therefore you no longer carry the book under your arm you have the WORD written in your HEART and BECOME a LIVING EPISTLE.
