This post continues our answer to a reader’s objection to our Miraculous Gifts post. There we dealt with 1 Cor 13:8–10 and said “that which is perfect” (1 Cor 13:10) refers to the messianic age.
If our identification of the “perfect” is correct, Paul was showing the Corinthians when God would withdraw the miraculous spiritual gifts. These gifts include those in 1 Cor 12:7–10 and Mark 16:17–18. They would cease being a normal part of the church’s life at the end of Jesus’s generation (Matt 24:34). At that point, the Temple would fall, ending the Mosaic age (Matt 24:1–3).
Our reader believes “that which is perfect” is the eternal state. So, he reasons, the miraculous gifts continue (or should continue) in the church today just as they existed in Paul’s day. Many sincere Christians join him in holding this view.
Previous posts have supported our position from 1 Cor 13:10–12. This post will consider the last verse in that chapter: “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13). It will consider the implications of this verse regarding two important historic changes: 1.) the Mosaic-to-messianic age transition and 2.) the messianic-to-eternal age transition.
We will use the inmillennial prophetic model to show our results. So, for ease of reference, here is the overall model we derived in previous posts (here):
The Mosaic-to-Messianic Age Transition
We will consider this transition from two perspectives. First, we will assume the messianic age is “that which is perfect” in 1 Cor 13:10. Second, we will consider the possibility that it is the eternal state.
If the Messianic Age is the “Perfect”
Our last two posts (here and here) established Paul’s “now … then” orientation (e.g., 1 Cor 13:12). His “now” comprised the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. His “then” was the messianic age.
We find two supports for this perspective in 1 Cor 13:13. First, Paul provides a definite time indicator through his “now” statement. “Now abide faith, hope, and love.” Thayer’s Greek-English lexicon says the primary meaning of the Greek word for “now” (nuni) is “at the present time.” He assigns this meaning to nuni in 1 Cor 13:13.1
“At the present time” makes sense if Paul was thinking about the soon-coming end of the Mosaic age. It makes little sense if he is thinking about the eternal state at the end of the messianic age. That would be in his distant future. (More on this below.)
Some commentators think Paul is using “now” another way in 1 Cor 13:13. They think he is using this word to draw a logical conclusion. This is a legitimate use of the word. Thayer says New Testament writers sometimes use nuni “in stating a conclusion,” but thinks this is not Paul’s meaning here.2
Simon Kistemaker holds the “logical conclusion” view of “now” in 1 Cor 13:13. But, he makes an important admission. He says, “It is impossible not to recognize a temporal element in the word now of verse 13.”3
We agree. Paul’s emphasis on temporal sequence dominates the previous five verses. Paul says “love never ends” (1 Cor 13:8 ESV)—neither in time or eternity. The miraculous gifts would end in time. Paul knew “in part” at the time he wrote this letter. In the future, this would change (1 Cor 13:9–10). The same time relationship holds for Paul’s other metaphors: childhood vs. manhood (1 Cor 13:11), dim sight vs. “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12), and partial vs. full knowledge (1 Cor 13:12). These images contrast two temporal states of being.
The time element is also present in Paul’s “now” in 1 Cor 13:13. He is thinking chronologically, describing the abiding nature of some of God’s gifts in his generation. “Paul wrote 1 Corinthians … probably … early in [AD] 55.”4 He expected to live until the end of the Mosaic age and enter the Lord’s parousia (e.g., 1 Thess 4:15). So, his “now” included the full transition to the messianic age. It happened about 15 years after he wrote this letter (i.e., in AD 70).
The second reason for our position involves what Paul said would happen. Faith, hope, and love would remain (Gk. menō).
The abiding nature of these three gifts implies that others would cease. If this is not so, Paul was making a nonsensical statement. He was saying “faith, hope, and love remain, but so do all the other gifts of which I have been speaking.”
This is not Paul’s meaning. He is making a time-distinction between two sets of gifts. At some point, the miraculous “gifts are set aside and cease, but the three virtues remain.”5 This would happen in his “now.”
We can superimpose these ideas on a modified diagram of inmillennialism:
If the Eternal State is the “Perfect”
The idea that the “perfect” in 1 Cor 13:13 is the eternal state destroys Paul’s “now” perspective. There would be no distinction in his lifetime regarding spiritual gifts. All of them would continue into the inaugurated messianic age. In this scheme, Paul’s “now” becomes equivalent to a distant future. It makes Paul say, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; and all the others abide, too. But then, after the messianic age, the others will cease.”
The following diagram shows the results of this idea:
The Messianic-to-Eternal Age Transition
We will now move to the transition from time to eternity. Our approach will be the same as above.
If the Messianic Age is the “Perfect”
Our position is that the miraculous gifts would cease at the end of the Mosaic age. But, “faith, hope, and love” would continue into and through Jesus’s messianic-age reign. What would happen then? Would the three “abiding” gifts last throughout eternity?
Paul knew the entire messianic (kingdom) age would follow the Temple’s fall in his generation. He described this age in 1 Cor 15, immediately after his discussion of the spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12–14. He said, Jesus “must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:25–26).
Paul placed the bodily resurrection and final judgment at the end of the messianic age. At that time, God would banish all sin from his good creation. The eternal state would begin.
But not all of the three “abiding” gifts would operate in the eternal state. Paul established an ending point for faith and hope. He said, “while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:6–7). Walking by faith pertains to this life. Faith will end when we are with the Lord after death.
Paul asked a rhetorical question about hope. In this life, “we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” (Rom 8:23–24). Hope will end at the resurrection.
Many commentators recognize these end-points. John Gill, for example, says “In the other [post-resurrection] world, faith will be changed for vision, and hope for enjoyment, but love will abide, and be in its full perfection and constant exercise, to all eternity.”6
So, Paul said faith and hope would end before or at the transition from the messianic age to the eternal state. But, love would continue, for “love never ends” (1 Cor 13:8 ESV). This is one reason Paul says, “the greatest of these [three] is love” (1 Cor 13:13).
We can now update our diagram:
If the Eternal State is the “Perfect”
The idea that “that which is perfect” (1 Cor 13:10) is the eternal state creates problems here, too. First, if that was Paul’s meaning in 1 Cor 13:13, “this verse presents the notorious difficulty that Paul has spent the entire chapter expounding the eschatological permanence of love alone, only to conclude, apparently, that faith and hope also last forever.”7
Second, as we saw above, this scenario makes Paul’s “now”—“at the present time”—in 1 Cor 13:13 of no consequence. How does “now” fit into his reasoning if he had the eternal state in mind? One would have expected him to say “then—at the end of the messianic age—these three will remain.”
Third, this view ignores Paul’s teaching elsewhere that faith and hope end at the resurrection. It destroys the distinction among the three “abiding” gifts, namely that love never ends. It says the miraculous gifts end at the resurrection. But, faith and hope join love in an endless existence. Why did Paul distinguish love from the others by saying, “love never ends”?
The following diagram depicts this view:
Conclusion
Before we summarize, we wish to clarify another issue our kind reader raised. He believes our diagram on typology (here and here) misuses Josh 5:12 by applying the label “miracles cease” to it. We then compared 1 Cor 13:10 to this verse and applied the same label. He thinks this implies they ceased in toto.
This is not our meaning. God performed many miracles after Israel entered the Promised Land. One thinks of the walls of Jericho and the shadow on the sundial, for example. Our point is that certain wilderness-miracles had been a part of Israel’s ongoing daily life. God gave them supernatural manna six days each week and a continual supply of water from a rock, for example. That these ongoing miracles ceased is what we meant by our diagram.
In like manner, God has performed many miracles in the messianic age. Our point is that these blessings are not a normal part of the church’s daily life. The miraculous gifts in the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age were normal. Perhaps our diagram label should be “routine miracles cease,” or something similar.
I thank our reader for his thoughtful comments. I hope we can continue our dialog via email. This will be our last post on the cessation of the miraculous gifts unless the Lord gives additional light on this subject from his Word.
In summary, the following list gives our reasons for believing the messianic age, not the eternal state, is “that which is perfect” in 1 Cor 13:10. It provides links to posts where we discussed each point:
- Regarding 1 Cor 13:10: The Scriptures often use “perfect” (i.e., mature, full-grown) to describe the messianic age. They seldom (if ever) apply this idea to the eternal state. See Has “Perfection” Come?.
- Regarding 1 Cor 13:11: The Scriptures use several metaphors to describe the messianic age as “perfect.” See The “Perfection” Metaphor.
- Regarding 1 Cor 13:12a: In the messianic age, Christians enjoy a face-to-face relationship with God through Christ. See Face to Face.
- Regarding 1 Cor 13:12b: The knowledge-change Paul mentioned pertains to the Mosaic-age-to-messianic-age transition. Its nature, timing, and scriptural support show it does not pertain to the end of the messianic age. See Knowing As I Am Known.
- Regarding 1 Cor 13:13: The current post shows that faith, hope, and love alone remain into the messianic age. Faith and hope end at death and the resurrection. Only love, the greatest of these three, never ends.
The miraculous gifts pertained to the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. When “that which is perfect”—the messianic age—came in AD 70, God caused them to cease as a normal part of the church’s life.
Footnotes
- Joseph Thayer and James Strong, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Coded With Strong’s Concordance Numbers (Milford, MI: Mott Media, 1982), 430.
- Thayer and Strong, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, 430.
- Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, NTC (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 471. Emphasis added.
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo, and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 283.
- Kistemaker, First Corinthians, 470.
- John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments in The Baptist Commentary Series, 9 vols. (1809–1810; repr., Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 8:710.
- Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC, eds. I. Howard Marshall and Donald A. Hager (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2000), 1071.
