First Corinthians chapter 13. We'll bring our study of this particular chapter to a close tonight. The theme of this particular chapter is love, but it's being presented in a context associated with the use of spiritual gifts and how important that is. In fact the display of love is to be preeminent in the mind of the saint. Paul made it very clear in the first three verses of this chapter that it doesn't matter really what you do that might be impressive to man, might be impressive to every other saint on the planet, and yet without love it equals nothing, it profits nothing, and really it makes you nothing. So that is how important love really is. I mean, you could be the greatest orator, faith healer, or philanthropist on the planet, but who cares if it's void of love? That's always humbling because we live in a world that's always pushing us to perform and to be impressed with someone else's or our performance as well. But the fact is, as a believer in Christ, you should be humble to recognize that if you've got anything going for you, it's all by the grace of God, and you have nothing to boast of. In fact, you have a privilege as a believer in Christ to do something the world cannot do, and that's truly love somebody. It's on to the Lord because that love has been placed in your heart. And we know the Greek word for love in this chapter is the Greek word agape. It's not a sensual love or love of affection. It's not even a love of friendship or warm fuzzies. It's a love of intelligent commitment. of decision that results in self-sacrifice for the benefit of someone else. In fact, it's a response of genuine concern to someone that is not the least bit worthy of it in any way. It's derived from what Christ did for us on the cross. God sold the world that he gave. And because God is, God does, and that's to be the same with you and me. Agape love describes unconditional sacrificial love, the same love that God is, the same love that God shows, follows that the quality of supernatural divine love is only made possible by the indwelling and enabling of the Holy Spirit. Without Christ, you can't love, because without him you can do nothing, and yet you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You know, I think of these verses once in a while from when we were still without strength. That means we're helpless in every way. In due time, Christ died for us. In fact, we were considered ungodly. In fact, verse 9, it should have included that, tells us we were his enemies, and yet he loved us. Verse 7 goes on to say, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone might even consider dying. But God demonstrated his love toward us, and while we were totally unworthy as sinners, he died for us. And that is part of the good news of the gospel, that God loved us, he loved the whole world, and the whole world is savable because on that cross, Christ died for each and every sin that every human being has done and ever will do. The epitome of love, and so the issue is, like John 3.16 tells us, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever simply believes in him, puts their faith and trust in what he did for them on the cross, shouldn't perish but have everlasting life. And so everyone is trusting in something, and most people are trusting in themselves to get them to heaven, and yet that's a bad object of your faith. It's faith in Christ, he's the savior, he got the job done, he cried out, it is finished. Your sins he paid for in full, and therefore salvation is freely offered, not by works of righteousness which you have done, but according to his mercy, he saves us. And on top of that, the same love that caused Christ to go to the cross for you is the same love that lavished upon you all the blessings in heavenly places, and you're worthy of none of them, like I am. And so that's the cool thing about God's love is that it stems from the nature of the lover, not the worthiness of the recipient. That's why we saw in this chapter, as Paul described love, that love doesn't seek its own. It seeks the benefit of someone else. And so he described love beginning in verse four. It says, love suffers long and is kind. It doesn't envy. It doesn't parade itself. It's not puffed up. It doesn't behave rudely. It does not seek its own. It's not provoked. It thinks no evil. It doesn't keep any record of wrongs. It doesn't rejoice in someone's sin. It rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And he concludes that list by telling us that love, excuse me, never fails. You know, love is... Hard to define, and here we have a description of it. But when someone was asked a couple hundred years ago what love is, this is how he described it. It's silence when your words would hurt. It's patience when your neighbors curt. It's deftness when scandal flows. It's thoughtfulness when another's woes. It's promptness when stern duty calls. It's courage when misfortune falls. And so, very, very nice. But I'm thankful that we have this list here, because by nature, mankind doesn't even understand what love is. If we didn't have the word of God to explain to us what love is, we'd have our own idea what love is, and that's why the average individual thinks he's a fairly loving individual. And yet if you compare yourself to the standard, you'd see that, well, wait a minute here, I fall short. It's no different than the average individual doesn't see their need of a savior, they think they're just fine, when in fact their sin causes them to deserve separation from God forever in the lake of fire. And so here in chapter 13, we come to verse eight. And again, and this is in the context of love relative to spiritual gifts, and in particular, the spiritual gifts that the Corinthians were enamored with and exalting themselves with. And he's comparing the templeness of these gifts and how they're gonna come to an end with the permanence of love. And there's a message there for us. And so as we think of the last six verses here, the contrast of love is that it is permanent, while the revelatory gifts, we're gonna underscore revelatory gifts, are going to end. They're gonna end. In fact, when we get into the 14th chapter, we're gonna be even more involved with the subject of tongues, because that's the theme of that chapter, and that was really what was throwing these Corinthians for a loop. And so he says, love here never fails. Never fails. though the things that they were enamored with will indeed fail. I like how the Amplified captures this, it captures it well. It says, love never fails, it never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end. As for prophecy, and that's the gift of prophecy, It will be fulfilled and pass away. As for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease. And as for knowledge, again, that's the gift of knowledge. It will pass away. It will be lose its value and be superseded by truth. In fact, the complete and canon of truth is the idea there. And so, it's a pretty strong word here, in the beginning of verse eight, love never fails. That goes on to say, but whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Whether there are tongues, they will cease. And whether there's knowledge, it will vanish away. For now we know in part, partially, we prophesy in part, we know and prophesy partially. But now which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, present time when Paul wrote this, but then face to face, now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. Now abided faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. So Paul here says love never fails. It's a different word for no, it's not never, it's not new made, it means absolutely and objectively not even at any time, never at all, either at any time, never, nothing at any time. It's a pretty strong word that means love is not gonna come to an end. In fact, it's a word used by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 7.23, when the religious people who think they're works are going to save them, he says, I will declare to them, I never knew you, not once, not ever. We had no relationship, so you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And so love, never what? Never fails. And the Greek word for fails here is the Greek word pypto, which in this context is figurative usage, which means comes to an end. So love will never ever come to an end, It usually notes, the word usually means to fall. And that which falls, in other words, it ceases in its activity. Love will never cease in its activity. Love never falls away or disappears. It never quits. It's never used up. It keeps on coming. In fact, because it has its source in God, the more you use it, the more there is. I still remember when Mark was born, I loved Allison so much, I said, how can I love another child? And lo and behold, I did. The love kept coming, and that's God's love. It cannot stop in any way. Never falls short, it can never be defeated, never fails to have an impact. And that's because it's from God, and what is God? God is love. So if God can come to an end, then love can come to an end. And since God can't come to an end, love can't come to an end. And that's really how it could be translated. And so this is kind of, the word is being used in a derivative sense, length of time, doesn't come to an end, it just goes on forever and ever and ever. Because since God is eternal, love is eternal as well. And so Paul has already stated that when it comes to the use of your spiritual gifts within the local body, love is to be the key there. You are to administer the spiritual gifts you were given to in love. That is God's design. That's how he wants this thing to work. Love's always in play. In fact, at the end of this epistle, one of the things Paul's going to say is, let all you do be done in love, because that was a problem in the Corinthian church. And so he's making a comparison here between love and these revelatory gifts. These gifts that he is going to address here are going to come to an end, and in the grand scheme of things, in a relatively short time. However, love is forever. These gifts exist for a limited time. Love is gonna outlast these gifts, and so that's why it takes the preeminence. And so God always wants us to think in terms of the eternal, to recognize love is more important than that which is passing away, if you will. These particular gifts are just part of the passing scene. And we have to know here, he's mentioning the revelatory gifts because there's gifts that still exist today. The gift of apostleship, for example, is gone. That ended when John died in 96 AD or whatever it is he died. That was the end of that. And some of these revelatory gifts have passed off the scene as well. And that's one of his points here. But love is important because these relationships we have in the body of Christ are gonna go on forever. and they'd be anchored in love. So as we think of these spiritual gifts he mentions here in verse 8, he says, where there's prophecies, they will fail. Where there's tongues, they will cease. Where there's knowledge, it will vanish away. And so the words prophecy, tongues, and knowledge describe three spiritual gifts here that the Corinthians have been enamored with and we're displaying envy over. He's going to say here these things are partial. He's going to say they're comparable to that which is immature, that which is infantile. So these are speaking gifts. These are communication gifts. They were part of what God used, as we'll see here, before the finished canon of the scriptures to communicate truth because the Bible wasn't done yet. That's why these gifts were there. And because of their carnality, if they had one of these gifts, they thought they were something because they received revelation from God, and it went to their head. And there was even competition with each other in the church, where there should have been love. I mean, again, love wants what's best for another. That's why he said earlier in this chapter, love doesn't puff itself up, it doesn't parade itself. These Corinthians esteemed them so highly, they were abusing them and were not displaying love. They were looking down at others who didn't have this gift. They thought they were something when they were nothing. So we're kind of setting the context here. But love is the more excellent way. And so when you compare it to certain spiritual gifts and certain virtues, love outlasts them all. And that's what makes love the greatest of all. It'll never end. But these spiritual gifts will end. And hopefully this will be clear by the time you go home tonight. So it says here in verse eight that prophecies are going to fail. Now here's another way that we can capture this. Whether the prophecies, they should be rendered inoperative. That means abolished, come to an end. There's a different word applied to tongues or languages here. They shall stop by themselves. And it says in our version, vanish away, that's the same Greek word rendered inoperative. So the spiritual gift of a word of knowledge and the spiritual gift of being able to prophesy are going to become in honor, but tongues are going to cease in and of themselves. So the first point he makes is that the gift of prophecy here is going to fail. Some translations say done away with, and it's katargeo, and it means to be reduced to inactivity. The idea is to make the power or force of something ineffective so as to render powerless, reduced to inactivity, to do away with, to put out of use. They're going to expire. They're going to be put out of use here. In fact, this is kind of technical, but it's important. It's a future passive indicative. In other words, prophecies will come to an end as a result of something acting on them in the future. something acting on them on the future. When something's in the passive mood in the Greek, that means they receive the action of the verb. So something outside of them is gonna stop them. They'll be rendered inoperative by another thing acting on them. And we're gonna see that in verse 10, what it is is that which is perfect. No, it's different. I mean, an easy illustration, I was hit. If I was hit, that means I had to be hit with something, something outside of myself. I received the action of the verb, I got hit. That's the passive use. And so these two things, prophecy and knowledge, are gonna be put to an end because of something else outside of them that works on them. Now, when it comes to the gift of tongues, speaking in tongues, it says here, they will cease. They will cease. Now when you think of this word tongue, it's important to recognize that in different contexts it means different things. Tongues in the New Testament is used literally to refer to the tongue as part of the body. That's the literal use of it. And figuratively to refer to either speech or language. The context determines what. For example, 1 Peter 3.10. He who would love life, let him see good days, let him refrain his tongue. from evil, a physical tongue speaking evil and his lips from speaking deceit. So he's talking about your tongue there. John 3.18, he's talking about speech. My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Let's not just talk about it, let's do it. And it also means languages, like in Revelation 5, 9, they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue, people and nation. So there the tongue, the word means language. I think a clearer one is Acts 2.11. Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues, our own languages, the wonderful works of God. And so, the gift of tongues, we'll see here. It was always a known language. Always a known language. And we'll cover that further when we get to chapter 14. So the gift of tongues was the ability to speak in a foreign language without the learning process. And it was used by God as a sign. And we'll learn that in the next chapter as well. God had intended this to be a sign gift with some very specific purposes to unbelieving Jews. Important to understand this. Now we think of the word cease, It's a Greek word, pao. We get our English word, pause, from this. It means to cause something or someone to cease from an activity or a state and to come to an end. But this is in the middle voice. It's a middle indicate. It's not passing. In other words, they're going to cease in and of themselves. There's not going to be an outside force bringing them to a close. They're going to cease in and of themselves. And I believe they ceased around AD 70 when General Titus ransacked Jerusalem because actually the tongues were used as a warning to the nation of Israel that judgment was coming. And when the judgment came, there was no need for that sign gift anymore. So it ceased. It ceased. And then we have the word, the spiritual gift of knowledge. It says here, will vanish away. Again, it's the same Greek word that means to be acted on outside of it and be rendered inoperative. And the gift of knowledge was the ability to observe facts and make observations and draw spiritual truth to understand it. So, without the formal learning process as well. And so prophecy and knowledge are gonna be brought to an end. They're only partial here. They're gonna give way to something outside of themselves that's complete. So keep that thought in mind. And so everyone agrees that at some point, the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues, and the gift of knowledge is gonna cease. But then it gets a little crazy after that. Now verse nine, Paul, in clarifying, says, for now we know in part, or partially, we have partial knowledge, and now we prophesy in part. The prophecies that were given were partial. They were a tidbit of truth. So the gifts of prophecy and knowledge only provided partial information is the idea here. Partial information. Tongue stopped before that which is perfect is come. That's in verse 10. But knowledge and prophecy stopped when that which is perfect came. The Amplified, again, does a good job here. For our knowledge is fragmentary, incomplete, and imperfect. So when you think of the gift of knowledge, and again, keep in mind here, the reason this is the case is because the New Testament canon wasn't complete yet. We didn't have the book of Ephesians or Philippians, didn't have the prison epistles, we didn't have the book of Revelation. didn't have the epistles of John and so forth. Our prophecy is fragmentary, it's incomplete and imperfect. These gifts were given to local church at this point in time because the Bible wasn't complete. Keep that thought in your brain. Now he's not suggesting the prophecies were mixed with error and thus partially correct or partially incorrect. That's not what he's trying to say here at all. He's saying there's something that's going to come along to replace them is the idea. And we see that in verse 10. Verse 10 reads, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. And so when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. So it was sometime in the future when Paul wrote this letter. But this is where everyone has a different idea of what they think this is. Not everyone, but a lot of people do. But what he's saying is that if that which is perfect is come, then that which in part will be abolished or rendered inoperative, done away with. It's the same word, kata ergo, it means to be, vanish away, or to be done in, or to fail. So the problem amongst expositors is, well, what is it and when does it happen? What is it and when does it happen? Whatever it is, it's going to eliminate the need for those gifts, though. So what is the perfect thing? Well, I've read several different interpretations of this. Gifts of prophecy and knowledge will cease when the perfect comes. That's the main thought here. What are the potential interpretations? I'll list them for you. Number one, the completion of the New Testament canon, which would be in A.D. 96 of the Book of Revelation. Some take it as the maturity of the church at the close of the apostolic age. Those two are kind of related, which would be about the same time, the end of the first century. Some will say it's the death of the believer and his immediate presence with the Lord, so that when you die and go to heaven, it's a very vague idea of the perfect. I don't know how exactly that fits. Some think it's the rapture of the church, which again is still future. They would say at the rapture, all these gifts cease because the church is done. Some say the return of Christ, and by that they mean the second coming, so at the end of the tribulation, these things end. A lot of people think it's the eternal state, which is after millennium, also future. And number seven, when the end times events come, more of a general idea of the future. They say when the end times events start, that's when these things go away. And so which one is it? Well, it's important to understand what the definition of that Greek word perfect is, and we'll get to that in a second. Because a typical argument is if something is perfect, then it's flawless, without defect. And so people say this has to refer to Jesus Christ because he's the only thing that's perfect. And so when Jesus Christ comes, that which is in part will be done away. And that's not gonna work for a couple of reasons because the word perfect here is in the neuter gender. And when you're talking about Jesus Christ in the New Testament, he's always in the masculine gender. So this can't refer to Jesus Christ right there. He's always masculine. And so the word perfect here is not masculine. And so the neuter gender indicates the perfect thing is not a person but a thing. But a lot of commentators say the perfect must refer to the eternal state because then everything in the world will be perfect. So Paul is saying he's comparing the present age in which he lived when he wrote this with that which will exist for all eternity. And so the perfect then would be kind of a shorthand for the consummation of all things, the intended goal of creation. It's a rival which would naturally displace the partial experience that we're having now. Problem with that is that would mean spiritual gifts of prophecy and the word of knowledge would still be given through the tribulation in the entire millennium. And since this is for the church, and these are spiritual gifts given to the church, and the church ends at the rapture, that doesn't add up. He's talking about the use of spiritual gifts here in the church. Spiritual gifts weren't for Israel. They were for the church. And the church age ends at the rapture. So some think it's the rapture. But we have to keep in mind here, what verses is he saying are gonna come to an end? Or excuse me, what spiritual gifts are? The revelatory gifts. Knowledge and prophecy. Why does it say all gifts will come to an end? Why does he mention those two? But the strongest argument against this being Jesus Christ is the Greek word for perfect. See, the Greek word for perfect is tutelion, or teleos, and it means the end of something. It doesn't mean flawlessness. It means the completion of something, describing a goal or end that has been met. In fact, this is the word that Jesus used when he cried out on the cross, it is finished. The word used signifying to the world that his saving work was done. When he cried, it is finished, he wasn't crying out, it is perfect. He's crying out, the work's done. The price of sin has been paid, paid in full. And because it is done, salvation is freely offered as a gift to anyone willing to take it. So we could read this this way. When that which is complete is come, these revelatory gifts will be abolished because these gifts serve their purpose. So the question is, what is complete? When that comes, see the coming of the, that which is complete eliminates the need for that which is partial. So it's very apparent here that Paul's point with the Greek word tutelion is something that is complete, and therefore the partial will be done away. And these two gifts in particular, revelatory gifts, will be done away with because something is complete and they're no longer needed. And ultimately, love's gonna go on, and these gifts that they're all enamored with, he's trying to let them know, you guys are all, you know, you're jacked up over the wrong thing. And so when you think, what is prophecy? Again, a prophet was a believer who received direct verbal revelation from God. God revealed himself verbally to that prophet. That prophet would transmit what God said to others, so they would have the word of God. So the prophet was a channel that God worked in and through as a means to teach and edify the body of Christ. Paul's going to bring that out in chapter 14. The tongue speaker was a believer who received supernatural ability to speak in a language that he never learned. And so God somehow put this language into the mouth of someone and they spoke. And so this is a revelatory gift. In every use of the gift of this book of Acts, the speaker spoke a foreign language that communicated something to the hearers that could be understood. And we'll get into that in chapter 14. Think of the gift of knowledge. The full title for this gift is given in 1 Corinthians 12.8. It's called the Word of Knowledge. So clearly, again, it has to do with words, and it's a revelatory gift. The gift of knowledge was the ability to know something beyond human capability, something you had never investigated, something you had never studied. And how did you know it? Because God revealed to you in this verbal language. But keep in mind, this was the case in the local church before the Bible was finished. You know, God reveals things to us through language, so they can be written down and transmitted to people, so that people can know him, so they can know the truth. And so when it comes to that which is perfect, It refers to the completion of divine revelation, both written and oral, accomplished with the writing of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, by the last living apostle, John. And it might add an AD 96, when that was written. And so these gifts of revelation and authentication were temporary, designed for the first century only. When the canon of the scripture was complete, these revelatory gifts were no longer needed. But as I already mentioned, the cessation of tongues happened, I believe in AD 70 or thereabouts, when Jerusalem was ransacked, because the purpose of tongues was different than the purpose of the word of knowledge and of prophecy. So God is no longer speaking audibly to the human race apart from scripture. But again, we didn't have the scripture completed in this infant church here, and that's why those gifts were needed. And so today there's no prophets, there's no tongue speakers, there are people with a gift of knowledge or prophecy. Those were given prior to the New Testament canon. It's complete, it's closed, and that was the outside force working on these gifts to bring them to an end. That's why, again, verse 10 says what? But when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part will be done away. Well, what's in part, verse nine? The gift of knowledge and the gift of prophecy. God's word is complete. We've received all things that pertain in life and godliness. The spiritual information that we need to do the will of God and to know God to the degree he wants us to know us has all been given to us. We have a complete canon of scripture here. We've collectively received every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. God is not giving any more revelation today. And so if someone tells me that they've got the gift of prophecy, and they say they're prophesying, technically, we should be writing it down and adding it to our Bible, if God is still giving revelation today. But since that gift came to an end at the completion of scripture, if someone tells me they're prophesying, I know who it's not coming from. And that's true, you know, there's people that speak in what they call tongues today. But the tongues they're speaking today would be on par with what Paul said in chapter 12 in verse two. Or excuse me, verse three. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit calls God, calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. The pagan cults spoke in tongues at this time. And so whatever they're doing, it's on par with that. Because when the canon is done, the revelatory gifts all came to an end. The sign gifts came to an end. The gift of miracles came to an end. And that doesn't mean God still isn't doing miracles today, because he is. But he's not using people to do these things, because they had a specific purpose before the canon was complete. The Bible only records three periods of history when human beings were given the gift of performing miracles. First was Moses and Joshua. The second was Elijah and Elisha. And the third was the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. And each one lasted about 70 years, and then abruptly ended. Now, there's gonna be miracles in the millennial kingdom, because Hebrews 6.5 says the powers of the age to come. But you know, the last miracle recorded in the New Testament in which God worked directly through a human instrument occurred in 58 AD in Acts 28.8, and there's nothing recorded from that point forward through the writing of the book of Revelation. You've got to remember, signed gifts were used to confirm the message of the gospel and show that God was doing a work on earth in the spreading of the gospel. The writer of the book of Hebrews alludes to this. How shall we escape when we neglect so great a salvation which at first began to be spoken by our Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, the apostles, Notice God, as they spoke, confirmed it, what? Bearing witness with both signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit. They had that purpose to accompany the gospel preaching to show that God was doing a work amongst the people. But once the message was established, these sign gifts were no longer needed and they ceased. And so Paul now in verse 11 and 12 gives two illustrations of his point here. Paul illustrates the point by describing the cessation of the revelatory gifts as a transition from immaturity to maturity and from limited sight to full sight. Notice verse 11. Here's his metaphor. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away, same word, katageo, put away childish things. Aristotle goes on to say, for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know partially, but then I shall know just as I am also known. So keep in mind when you read these illustrations that they pertain to the spiritual gifts. They don't pertain to you as a person, but to spiritual gifts. Now Paul is using himself as an analogy. But again, he's saying, he's trying to illustrate the fact that these things are going to come to an end when the canon is complete. So put in context, when the New Testament canon was partial, these revelatory gifts were active, but when it became complete, they were done away with. And he's saying these revelatory gifts were temporary, but left behind when that was his perfect key. So he says, when I was a child, what did I do? I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, and thought as a child. And a lot of commentators think, well, I spoke as a child, that refers to tongues. I understood as a child, that was the gift of knowledge. And I thought as a child, that's wisdom and prophecy. But what he's saying is a child has incomplete knowledge. And yet when he's mature as an adult, he has complete knowledge is the idea there. That's what he's trying to illustrate here. The Greek word for child means simple-minded, immature person. When Paul became a man, he abolished childish things, meaning he put those immature ways behind him. The expressions of the physical infancy came to an end when he became an adult. And that's the illustration he's using to say that when that which is complete came, the primary things, the elementary things were done away with. These gifts were no longer needed. So the revelatory gifts which were needed during the church's period of infancy are done away with them when the canon was complete. And so A mature adult in this illustration compares to the finished scriptures. Hopefully you're tracking with me here. You know, there's age appropriation to certain activities, but there comes a time when those activities are no longer appropriate or needed. And so in verse 12, He goes, now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face-to-face. Now my knowledge is partial, but then I will have full knowledge, is the idea there. So he's contrasting looking in a dim mirror versus looking in a clear mirror face-to-face. A dim mirror was a polished bronze mirror of the ancient world. They were famous in Corinth, but it has no comparisons in terms of quality when we look in a mirror today. And so what you received then when you looked into a bronze mirror of the Corinthians was a partially accurate reflection. And if I'm holding a mirror, I'm going to see a reflection of who? Myself. So if I'm looking at myself in this illustration, since you're looking at yourself in a low quality mirror, then you would see only a partially accurate depiction of yourself. It's accurate insofar as it goes only partial because of the low quality of the mirror. But when you had a full mirror, a modern mirror, or whatever it is, a complete mirror, you have a much more accurate depiction of yourself. That's why he says face to face. The word interesting dimly is the Greek word enigma. I think we get our English word enigma from that. And the word means difficult to understand, puzzling. And so I think that's really good. in the sense that you had partial information when these gifts were in play in the first century church, and when you have the complete canon, you have a much more accurate assessment, in this case, of yourself. In fact, the point of these metaphors is to illustrate that when something partial becomes complete, the partial is done away with. Again, remember, he's not talking about You know, people wanna see the word face-to-face here and think you're standing before Jesus and you're gonna be complete. But you have to include the words face-to-face with God here. But he says you're looking in a mirror. When you look in a mirror, what do you see? You don't see God, you see yourself. And I think what Paul might have been doing here is alluding to what we have written in Numbers 12, six through eight. This is from Garland's commentary. He says, when Paul writes here, echoes Numbers 12, six through eight, where the Lord chides Arian and Miriam. He says, hear my words, when there are prophets among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to them in visions. I speak to them in dreams. Not so with my servant Moses. He is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak face to face. Clearly not in riddles. and he beholds the form of the Lord. So why then are you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? He chides them and so on. But that's the idea there. Paul, or excuse me, God spoke directly with Moses. The other prophets, he spoke in riddles to. I think Paul is making an allusion to this, that the Corinthians who understood the Old Testament would understand. And so in the Old Testament context here, it's clearly in reference to revelation or communication from God to man. And that's what he's talking about here, communication from God to man prior to the completed canon was done through prophecy and a word of knowledge. Those gifts are no longer needed. So to stay consistent with the metaphor, to see face-to-face must be see yourself in a clearer mirror. You can see yourself as you really are. You've got a more accurate understanding of what you look like. Jesus is not in the context here. The context is looking at yourself in a mirror, not looking at Jesus. So important. So again, these two metaphors are designed to reinforce that the two spiritual gifts here of revelation, a word of knowledge and prophecy, are going to come to an end when the canon is complete and you'll be able to see clearly. So he says in the second half of verse 12 here, now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known. Again, this is his way of saying that the New Testament canon was only partially complete. We can only see it in part because of the incomplete revelation. But when the new canon is complete, or New Testament canon is complete, we would see ourselves fully because we had a full, clear revelation of who we are in ourselves and who we are in Christ. And so the contrast here is one between the present timing of the writing, which is 56 AD, and then later in 96 AD when the canon would be complete. So Paul's talking about looking at yourself in the mirror of the New Testament. and only knowing in part who you really are before it was complete. And then when the New Testament is complete, you have a much better picture of who you are in Christ. See, I can know exactly who I am by studying the New Testament. Remember, Ephesians is such an important book. It wasn't written then. We know about our position in Christ and we received everything because we have the book of Ephesians. It wasn't written yet. So they would get bits and pieces. Now we can study the scriptures and know who exactly I am in light of my position in Christ, because I've got the full picture at my disposal. See, God explains who we are. He's been doing it all along as these letters are written. But now we have the whole thing before us, so I can know all of who I am. I mean, how would you know, if you didn't have the whole scripture, that you were a new creation in Christ, that you were regenerated and developed by the Spirit, baptized by the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit, to be spiritually gifted, to be seated in heavenly places in Christ, to be totally forgiven of all trespasses, to identify Christ in a sense that you've co-died with Him, you're now co-risen with Him, you can now walk in newness of life. I mean, you couldn't know you were sealed in the spirit unless there was a gift of prophecy or a word of knowledge to explain that prior to the Book of Ephesians being written. That's his point here. So during this point in church history, since a number of these truths were not written down or preserves, God used these revelatory gifts to explain these truths in local churches. And so what's going on today, in terms of what people call the gift of tongues, isn't scriptural. And some people say, well, what is it? Because there's people, quote, doing this. You know, if you do happen to hear this today, one possibility is it may be satanic. It might be demonic. We know that every false religion has a demon behind it. You know, earlier in this epistle, Paul said rather that the things which Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I don't want you to have fellowship with demons. Demons are behind every false doctrine there is. They're behind every false system. Satan is working in these false religions so that you can believe that wherever tongues occurs in false religion, the basic source of Satan are demons. You know, Mormons claim to speak in tongues. Mormonism is a false religion. They're not saved. Again, there was pagan ecstasy going on in these cults throughout Corinth, where they were speaking, quote, in tongues. Satan is an outstanding counterfeiter. In fact, I read that there are certain, in the 1600s, there were scientists that got together and they spoke in tongues. But another explanation is, you know, some of this stuff is learned behavior. You know, I got saved. I was part of a charismatic church for a while. And I was told to go home and practice. And I said, this doesn't make any sense to me. And they gave me techniques to use. And I never did it, because I thought this was weird. And I'm really glad I didn't. And so in that sense, it's kind of fake. And I know people that have practiced this and don't know Christ at all. And if a spiritual gift is only given to someone who's saved, how can you, quote, speak in tongues if you're not saved, if it's a spiritual gift only given to those who are saved? And we'll talk more about that in chapter 14, Lord willing. So in verse 13, he draws a conclusion. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. So in conclusion, faith, hope, and love remain, and love will never end. And you know, faith and hope are subsets of love, because if you look at what he said in verse seven, He said, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. So agape love functions in hope and in faith. But these things reconstitute that which is important. These things remain in time, but the revelatory gifts will not. The things they were all jacked up about. And there's a time where faith and hope will come to an end, and that's why love is the greatest of them all, because love is part of who God is, and love never ends, because God never ends, but faith and hope are gonna come to an end, because according to 1 John 3, in verse two, that we see him, we're gonna be like him, we're gonna see him as he is, we're not gonna need faith anymore, we're not gonna need hope anymore. Right now we have a blessed hope, we're looking for that great and glorious appearing of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our hope. Absent with the body is present with the Lord. That's our hope. And so we walk by faith in light of that. But faith and hope are going to remain when the revelatory gifts come to an end. And so relative to the use of these gifts, what's really important is faith, hope, and love. That's what he's trying to tell them. Again, one of the obvious reasons that love is the greatest is because it's never going to end. Now, it's interesting. The Bible doesn't say God is hope. The Bible doesn't say God is faith. But the Bible does say God is love. So love is as eternal as God is. And this is what the Corinthians needed to hear because in their lack of love, they were tearing everyone apart, competing with each other, and fracturing the fellowship in an effort to exalt themselves, missing the whole point of why God gave spiritual gifts. And so as you think of the main thrust of the passage here, it's the permanence of love over the temporary use of spiritual gifts, especially the ones that they use to flaunt themselves with, the revelatory gifts. And so putting all these things in summary together, Paul is saying love is greater than the revelatory gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge, as well as the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love, because love will outlast them all. These revelatory gifts are going to be done away when the completion of the New Testament canon came. And so after AD 96, there was no longer a need for these gifts. So the outside force that caused them to cease was the completion of canon. There was no longer a need for them to be used. Make sense? Did you track with all that? There'll be a test next. No. This is a difficult passage in many ways, but hopefully you see the thrust of it and the point he's trying to make to the Corinthians who were carnal and overemphasizing and enamored with that which is passing away. So love takes the preeminence here when it comes to these things. So hopefully that was helpful. If you have any questions, you can talk to me later. Let's pray. Father, thank you tonight for this passage. I just ask that the Spirit of God would make it clear in our own minds that we'd understand how you've worked and the infant church in the first century church, what you gave to the body, how it was to be used and see that it's no longer needed today. But what is needed is love. And you've taken your love, you put it in our heart, you've shared it abroad, so we can walk with you, abide in you and abide in your love and then be able to dispense this love to others for the glory of Jesus Christ. Help us to not soon forget that and to realize That's the point of it all. So we give thanks for what we learned tonight. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.