Verse 11 – 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.

Paul now illustrates what he has been saying—that the present is not the fullness; the perfect is coming and, though we are not yet experiencing it, it will come and when it does it will utterly transform our present (even Spirit-given) experiences, understanding, and insight.

To illustrate, Paul goes back to a time “When I was a child” (ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος). The temporal adverb (“When”) marks “a period of time coextensive with another period of time.”[1] It thus might be translated “as long as” or “while.”[2] The imperfect tense of the verb underscores the abiding and ongoing state. The noun (νήπιος, “child”) designates a very young child, probably to be considered an infant or a small baby.[3] It referred to a child who had not yet learned to speak.[4]

Three things were true of that time in Paul’s life. He presents them in telescoping fashion, moving outward from the simple (ἐλάλουν, “I spoke”) to the more foundational (ἐφρόνουν, “I thought”) and on to the root of it all (ἐλογιζόμην, “I reasoned”). The first verb (λαλέω) simply describes the human ability to emit sound—ranging from simple noises to actual speech.[5] The second verb (φρονέω) means simply “to think,” that is to say, have thoughts about something, form an opinion and hold a view of things.[6] The third verb (λογίζομαι) describes the more advanced ability to apply logic, reason, extrapolate one thing or a series of things into another. All three are in the imperfect tense, depicting the ongoing nature of a child’s speaking, thinking, and reasoning. The third verb it cast in the middle voice, indicating that the subject takes action upon itself. Thus, Paul underscores the inward, self-driven nature of the reasoning he sets in view.

A child speaks before it is able to embrace mature thought and the child thinks before his powers to reason are fully developed. Yet in each of these (notice the three-fold repetition) he did so “like a child” (ὡς νήπιος). With regard to speaking, he babbled and made “baby-talk.” With regard to thinking, he was fixated only on the moment and the person or item in front of him. With regard to his powers of reasoning, he as yet had no ability to connect concepts, string together ideas, and formulate logical, linear thought. The child cannot anticipate something that is not yet in existence and thus he cannot practice patience in the face of hope or the discipline of delayed gratification.

But Paul did not remain “a child.” He continues his illustration by taking up that time “when I became a man” (ὅτε γέγονα ἀνήρ). He employs again the same temporal conjunction (ὅτε, “When”; see comments above on this verse). The noun (ἀνήρ, “a man”) is most often used to distinguish an adult human male, but here in contrast to “a child” (νήπιος) it has emphasis upon the mature, fully-grown nature of the individual. The verb (γέγονα, “I became”) is in the perfect tense, emphasizing the completion of the action in the past and the ongoing state that results. This contrasts with the imperfect tenses of the three preceding verbs. There was a decisive break when Paul left behind the ways of a child and entered into a settled state of full maturity.

In that state of maturity, necessarily, he says, “I gave up childish ways” (κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου). More specifically, “childish ways” is “things of the child” (τὰ τοῦ νηπίου). These Paul can testify, “I gave up” (κατήργηκα). Here again is the thematic verb found also here in verses 8 (2x) and 10. In those verses it was rendered “pass away.” As noted in verse 8 the verb can range in meaning from to cause something to be unproductive, to cause something to lose its power or effectiveness, or, as here, to cause something to come to an end or to cease to exist.[7] In three previous usages (vv.8, 10) the verb was in the future tense, looking to a day yet to come. Here the perfect tense, like the verb just preceding the present one, pictures a decisive break with childhood and its ways. In the previous three usages it was in the passive voice, indicating someone or something acting to bring the partial (though divine) provisions of prophecies and knowledge to an end. Here the active voice pictures Paul’s own personal action in transitioning from childhood to adulthood. He “gave [them] up” of his own free volition, for that is what healthy, normal people do as they age and grow.

We should not read in Paul’s illustration him labeling as childish those gifted in prophecy, knowledge, or tongues. Nor should we read into their expression a comparison to childish gibberish. The comparison is with the child’s advance into mature manhood. The transition from “the partial” divine provision of gifts that we enjoy by His grace in this present world will give way to “the perfect” divine and final provision of eternal life in all its fullness as experienced in the presence of God in heaven.

[1] BDAG, 5412.2.

[2] Ibid.

[3] BDAG, 5087; Friberg, 18993.

[4] Liddell-Scott, 29569.

[5] BDAG, 4502.

[6] Ibid., 7819.

[7] Ibid., 4047.

Verse 10 – but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

Only now, having provided the reason for the cessation of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge (v.9), does Paul speak as to the timing of that cessation. He does so by way of adding a contrast (δὲ, “but”). He fronts the matter of timing for emphasis (ὅταν … ἔλθῃ τὸ τέλειον, “when the perfect comes”).

Debate surrounds just what Paul intended by “the prefect” (τὸ τέλειον). Whatever it is, it stands in contrast to prophecy, tongues, and knowledge (vv.8-9), which must, by implication, be considered “imperfect” in some sense, probably in that they are incomplete, situational, and thus temporal in nature. The presence of the definite article (τὸ, “the perfect”) marks that which it designates as singular and unique. The adjective itself is used substantively.[1] Its root points to the designed end of a thing. To be “perfect” is thus not so much to be without flaw as it is to be completed, brought into a state of original intent. Some have identified this with the completion of the Christian canon of Scripture, but there is no evidence that the term is so used elsewhere in the Bible and there is nothing in the context which would lend itself to this view. It seems, rather, to be driven by the theological agenda of cessationism. Thayer is probably not far off when he says it represents “the perfect state of all things, to be ushered in by the return of Christ from heaven.”[2] The context itself commends this understanding by its trajectory forward from the “now” to the “then” (v.12, twice).

The verb (ἔλθῃ, “comes”) as an aorist tense does not tell us anything about the specific moment of arrival, but simply notes the singular, punctiliar nature of the arrival. The coming is an event, a moment, a pivotal instant when all things will change. That time is indicated only by “when” (ὅταν). When used with an aorist subjunctive verb, as it is here, the temporal conjunction indicates action that precedes the main clause.[3] Thus “the perfect” arrives first and then, by its appearance, it eliminates and brings to an end “the partial.” For “the partial” (τὸ … μέρους) see above under verse 9 (where the noun is used twice; and cf. its use again in v.12) for more on the word’s meaning. In the attributive position between the definite article and noun Paul placed the preposition ἐκ. Our present experience, even when given supernaturally by the Holy Spirit through various giftings, is incomplete and not yet the fullness of God’s design. It is something given to us “out of” (ἐκ) the partial distribution of things in this present age and thus not to be compared to the fulfillment and completion of all God has designed for us in the end (τὸ τέλειον, “the perfect”).

This present divine, but partial installment of things “will pass away” (καταργηθήσεται). The same verb appeared twice in verse 8 with relationship to the ending of both prophecies and knowledge. See there for comments regarding its meaning.

The incomplete and situational cannot be extrapolated without fail and with absolute confidence in a trajectory outward to unfailingly imagine “the perfect.” But a time will come when “the perfect” will be able to be read back into all the situational realities of this life with complete confidence. When “the prefect” arrives we will finally, fully see, know, and understand.

C.S. Lewis, in his fanciful thoughts of heaven and hell conjectures that

… both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. Not only this valley but all this earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. . . . Heaven once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure that they say, “Let me but have this and I’ll take the consequences”: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things . . . the Blessed will say, “We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,” and the Lost, “We were always in hell.” And both will speak truly.[4]

[1] Friberg, 26442.

[2] Thayer, 5238.

[3] Friberg, 19997.

[4] C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 67-68.

Verse 9 – For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

Paul now in a sentence running through verse 10 moves to explain (γὰρ, “For”) the reason for the cessation of the three activities of verse 8. In doing so he addresses only the first and third examples from verse 8. Why might this be? Some conclude that he does so because of the difference in verbs used in verse 8 (see discussion above) and the conclusion that tongues will have ceased in and of themselves before the cessation of knowledge and prophecy. But, as far as its absence here and the reason for it, this is a conclusion reached though the text is silent. We simply are not told why he chose only the first and third items to carry forward his line of logic. And silence is a text difficult to read and ought to yield no firm conclusions, especially in the context of revelatory gifts of the Spirit!

Note that Paul addresses knowledge and prophecy in reverse order from verse 8, first “we know” and then “we prophesy.” The fact is “we know” (γινώσκομεν) some things and these things are brought within the realm of our knowledge by divine revelation. The verb tends to stress the personal and experiential nature of the knowledge (cf. the verb οἶδα in 13:2, which may at times emphasize the informational nature of knowledge). What Paul says certainly is equally true of knowledge acquired by observation and investigation—what we would call the scientific methodology. But Paul has particularly in mind that knowledge which is imparted by divine revelation—whether by a gift of immediate knowledge or supernatural insight in a specific situation or by the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ or the holy Scriptures through inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What God has revealed to us is true and is in harmony with all else that is true (though as yet unrevealed), but even this knowledge is only “in part” (ἐκ μέρους). The prepositional phrase is used four times in the NT, all of them by Paul and all of them here (12:27; 139 [2x], 10, 12). Each believer is one member of the body of Christ “individually,” or literally, “out of a part” (1 Cor. 12:27). The noun μέρος (“part”) refers to an individual portion/part[1] or a share (“a part due or assigned to one”[2]) as opposed to the greater whole. With the preposition ἐκ (“out” or “from”) it may have the sense of “one part out of the whole” or, as here, simply “in part.” What we “know” is only “one part out of the whole” of all that is true. And what is revealed as one may “prophecy” is only “one part out of the whole.” The prepositional (ἐκ μέρους) phrase is thrown forward in both halves of the pair so that it is emphasized by its position. The Apostle is stressing the partial nature of both our current knowledge and prophetic insight, even when it is a truly divine gift given to the people of God by His Spirit.

This ought to make us careful in what we claim and tentative in what we conclude, particularly when it comes to eschatology. We do not know as much as we believe ourselves to be certain about!
[1] BDAG, 4823.1.

[2] Thayer, 3405.1.

Verse 8 – Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

It is again (cf. v.4), literally, “the love” (Ἡ ἀγάπη)—that love which is above all other loves, that is in a class by itself, that is utterly unique and singular among all other loves. This love “never ends” (οὐδέποτε πίπτει). The verb indicates a descent from one, higher level to another, lower level, often with a sense of rapidity in the descent.[1] It thus is often translated “to fall” (cf. the only other usages in 1 Corinthians 10:8, 12). It can be used of persons (cf. Matt. 17:15; 18:26), or, as in this case, of things. In these instances it may speak of structures which “fall,” “fall to pieces,” or “collapse”[2] and thus become worthless. Here then it means that love never falls, never “fails” (NASU, NIV, NKJV), never comes to an end (cf. ESV, NRSV), never falls in upon itself or is destroyed. Love thus “will last forever” (NLT)!

Now Paul compares this love to three other things which the Corinthian believers placed high value upon. The ESV fails to render the mild adversative (δὲ, “but”), but compare to the NASB, NET, NIV, NKJV, and NRSV which all include it in their rendering of the verse. Each comparison is introduced by εἴτε (“As for”) which serves as “a conditional disjunctive conjunction bringing together two objects in one’s thoughts while keeping them distinct from each other.”[3]

The first comparison is to “prophecies” (προφητεῖαι). As for these, “they will pass away” (καταργηθήσονται). Paul will use the verb four times in this immediate context (vv.8 [2x], 10, 11). It can range in meaning from to cause something to be unproductive, to cause something to lose its power or effectiveness, or, as here, to cause something to come to an end or to cease to exist.[4] There will come a point when “prophecies” are brought to their finish line, beyond which they will be unnecessary and thus cease to exist among God’s people. The future tense casts this forward to a time beyond the moment of Paul’s writing. The precise nature and timing of that event will have to be determined by the context and other Scriptural evidence. The passive voice indicates that something will happen or someone will act in such a way as to cause “prophecies” to thus cease to exist as necessary among God’s people.

The second comparison (εἴτε, “as for”) has to do with “tongues” (γλῶσσαι). These, we are told, “will pass away” (παύσονται). Luke was especially fond of the verb (nine of its fifteen NT usages). He used it of Jesus concluding a speech (Luke 5:4), causing the winds and waves to cease (8:24), and finishing a time of personal prayer (11:1). It is used of the cessation of the offering of Levitical sacrifices since Jesus’ once for all, eternally effectual sacrifice (Heb. 10:2). The verb has the sense of causing something to stop or, in the middle voice to stop oneself from a certain activity. Here the middle voice (as distinct from the passive forms of the verbs in the comparisons before and after this one) may describe the simple leaving off of speaking in tongues at a certain point because they are eclipsed by something of greater value. It is sometimes argued that the middle voice here must mean that tongues will cease “in and of themselves.” That is to say, they will simply “die out” by their purely temporal necessity (i.e., during the period before the closing of the cannon). Others argue against this on a couple of fronts: it is argued that the verb is deponent and thus the middle form is active in meaning and it is further claimed that the example of Jesus as the personal agent in causing the winds and waves to cease (Luke 8:24) argues against the idea that the middle voice requires of ceasing of their own accord. But Daniel Wallace demonstrates that the verb is not in fact deponent and that the argument that inanimate objects (i.e., winds and waves) cannot cease of their own doing is foiled by the fact that in Luke 8 the winds and waves are personified and set before us as acting in response to Jesus’ word of command.[5] Thus we should make something of the use of the middle voice here in the midst of verbs of passive voice. But just what is to be made of this? As Wallace further demonstrates, this verse tells us nothing about the timing of the cessation of tongues, but simply that it will occur.[6] The way Paul speaks of it here may indicate that they will cease prior to the arrival of “the perfect” (v.10) but it is not definitively proven to mean that.

The third comparison (εἴτε, “as for”) has to do with “knowledge” (γνῶσις). This too “will pass away” (καταργηθήσεται). It is identical in form to its use in the first of these comparisons (“As for prophecies”) except that here it is in the singular to match the noun “knowledge” (γνῶσις).

[1] BDAG, 5936.1.

[2] Ibid., 5936.1.b.β.

[3] Friberg, 8254.

[4] BDAG, 4047.

[5] Wallace, 422-423.

[6] Ibid., 423.

Love is defined both by what it embraces and what it rejects.

I. Love is known by what it embraces.

• Patience (4)
• Kindness (4)
• Joy (6)
• Forbearance (7)
• Trust (7)
• Hope (7)
• Endurance (7)

II. Love is known by what it rejects.

• Jealousy (4)
• Pride. (4)
• Rudeness (5)
• Selfishness (5)
• Touchiness (5)
• Score-keeping (5)
• Unrighteousness (6)

But how could such love ever be found in me?

The Spirit’s assignment is to flood across the broad plain of your heart with the love of God, filling every low-lying thought, every hollowed out hurt, every cavernous wrong suffered (Rom. 5:5).

Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive …” (John 7:37-39a)

Come to the fountain, the Father. Come in Jesus’ Name. Come asking Him for the Spirit, whose job is to pour into your heart an overflowing flood of His love.