“A minister, a Boy Scout, and a computer expert were the only passengers on a small plane. The pilot came back to the cabin and said that the plane was going down but there were only three parachutes and four people. The pilot added, ‘I should have one of the parachutes because I have a wife and three small children.’ So he took one and jumped.
“The computer whiz said, ‘I should have one of the parachutes because I am the smartest man in the world and everyone needs me.’ So he took one and jumped.
“The minister turned to the Boy Scout and with a sad smile said, ‘You are young and I have lived a rich life, so you take the remaining parachute, and I’ll go down with the plane.’
“The Boy Scout said, ‘Relax, Reverend, the smartest man in the world just picked up my knapsack and jumped out!’”1
Sometimes knowledge is incomplete or partial. The full knowledge and revelation of the Word of God for our program today under grace was still partial and incomplete when Paul wrote to the Corinthians. That’s what he was referring to when he wrote, “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part” (1 Cor. 13:9). In 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, Paul teaches us when the miraculous sign gifts, such as prophecy, tongues, and words of knowledge would cease.
Charity Never Fails
“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” (1 Cor. 13:8).
“Charity [Gr., agape] never faileth,” Paul wrote. God’s agape love is constant, permanent, and continues forever. It never ends. This is so because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and His love is as eternal as God is. The Greek word translated “faileth” means to fall powerless to the ground like a fading flower with falling petals. But God’s agape love never withers, falls to the ground, corrupts, or fades in its power.
The verse that follows this statement about charity presents a contrast. We are taught that while charity never fails, the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge would fail and cease to operate. When Paul wrote these verses, they were a fading flower with petals falling to the ground.
These sign gifts were essential for the foundation of the Body of Christ and for revealing God’s will and message of grace to the world. While these gifts were still in operation, however, there were a couple of problems.
First, the Corinthian church was exalting the gifts themselves over love. In their carnality, they were enamored with their spiritual gifts, but Paul taught them that these gifts needed to be used in love and selfless care for others. Second, the Corinthians were focusing on something that was temporary and fading away when they needed to live by what endures forever.
Pastor C. R. Stam, found of Berean Bible Society, rightly pointed out that Paul addresses three subjects in these verses, 1 Corinthians 13:8-13: (1) that which was to be done away, (2) that which was to take their place, and (3) that which was to abide. We’ll look at these verses in this light.
That Which Was to Be Done Away
In 1 Corinthians 13:8, Paul chose three gifts prominent among the Corinthians: prophecy, tongues, and knowledge. Notice that Paul compared three gifts that would cease (v. 8) with three virtues that abide (v. 13). Paul makes it clear that there would come a time when the sign gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge would fail, cease, and fall away.
“Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.” The gift of prophecy was a revelatory gift in which God gave His Word through a prophet. The prophets literally spoke the Word of God by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaking verbally with the same inspired authority that Paul experienced and exercised when he wrote his epistles.
Paul could not be everywhere at once, so God used people with the gift of prophecy to speak the Word of God to the church in different places. At the beginning of the Dispensation of Grace, this gift of the Holy Spirit was needed and used to reveal to the Body of Christ the truths of the Mystery (Eph. 3:4-5).
“Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.” The gift of tongues was the means through which prophecy and the divine truths of grace were communicated to the nations of the world. The gift of tongues was the gift of languages, the miraculous ability, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to speak languages the evangelists did not know. This enabled the gospel of the grace of God to spread rapidly around the world while the Body of Christ was being established.
“Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” This was spiritual knowledge disclosed by God. It was the immediate imparting of spiritual truth to the mind. It enabled the recipient to know the mind and will of God for this dispensation.
That Which Which Was to Take Their Place
“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor. 13:9-10).
As Paul proceeds to reveal the timing of the cessation of these sign gifts, he sets up a now (present tense) time and a then (future tense) time. When Paul wrote in the present tense, he was referring to the time at which he was writing; when he wrote in the future tense, he was referring to a time future to the time of his writing.
In verse 9, he was writing about his now, the time of his writing, that now “we know in part,” and now “we prophesy in part.” In verse 10, he was writing about his then time: “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” In verse 12, you see both his now and his then: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” These now and then contrasts show that the miraculous sign gifts were temporary and nearing their end and would have no permanent place with the Body of Christ in this Dispensation of Grace.
“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part” refers to the incomplete knowledge and prophecies concerning what Christ was revealing to Paul: the Mystery, that is, the body of truth for the present dispensation (Eph. 3:3). The truths of grace and the Mystery were revealed progressively to Paul. Paul didn’t have the complete revelation of the Mystery when he wrote 1 Corinthians. Later, in 2 Corinthians 12:1, Paul wrote, “It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.”
Knowing “in part” and prophesying “in part” speaks of having only part of the knowledge of the Mystery. The content of the message of grace revealed through the sign gifts of knowledge (“we know”) and prophecy (“we prophesy”) was only “in part,” or incomplete and imperfect at that time. There were only partial knowledge and partial prophecies concerning the Mystery. The full understanding of the church truth for today was still coming.
“But,” or in contrast to the way it was at the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13:10, “when that which is perfect is come….” There was a time coming when what was imperfect would be perfect. A change was coming. Eventually these supernatural gifts would cease and give way to a permanent provision for the Body of Christ. Then the spiritual knowledge that they had in part, and the prophecies of divine revelation that were in part, would be complete.
I believe that 1 Corinthians 13:10 means the following: “But when that [the Word of God, in particular the revelation of the mystery given to Paul] which is perfect [brought to a completed end by progressive revelation] is come, then that [the supernatural sign gifts] which is in part [incomplete information from incomplete revelation] shall be done away.”
Incomplete knowledge and partial prophecies ended with the coming of “that which is perfect,” which is the completion of God’s Word through the revelation given to Paul. When the Mystery was fully revealed to Paul, the supernatural sign gifts of the early church fell away. At that point, no longer did they “know in part,” because full knowledge had then been revealed for this dispensation of grace. There was then no need to “prophesy” because all the divine revelation was given in His completed Word through the Apostle Paul.
Prophecies, tongues, knowledge, and the other miraculous sign gifts were given to the Body of Christ while the Word of God was still being revealed. However, after the Scriptures were complete, these temporary methods of divine revelation and the miraculous gifts ceased and fell away. They were unnecessary once we had a completed Bible.
“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the Word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints” (Col. 1:25-26).
According to this passage, the Mystery revealed to Paul fulfilled the Word. It completed the revelation of God by revealing the entirety of the second part of God’s eternal, twofold purpose. That twofold purpose is (1) for Israel and the prophetic saints to rule and reign with Christ on the earth, which is revealed in the Old Testament, the four Gospels, and the Hebrew Epistles; and (2) for the Body of Christ to rule and reign in Christ in the heavenly places, which is revealed in Paul’s epistles.
By the latter part of Paul’s ministry, “that which is perfect” had come, and the sign gifts had ceased. You find Paul, as well as his co-workers, not performing miracles or healing any longer (1 Tim. 5:23; 2 Tim. 4:20). And the gift of tongues is never mentioned again after the Epistle of 1 Corinthians.
“When I was a child, I spake 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 through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:11-12).
“The Sunday School teacher was describing that when Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom she turned into a pillar of salt, when Bobby interrupted. ‘My mommy looked back once while she was driving,’ he announced, ‘and she turned into a telephone pole.’”2 Like Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.”
Paul uses two illustrations to demonstrate the temporary nature of the sign gifts. He begins by contrasting childhood with becoming an adult, the immature with the mature. The sign gifts were the immature and incomplete way.
During childhood, knowledge is incomplete, speech is undeveloped, and understanding is simple. But as children become adults, they mature in all these areas. My father, Pastor Paul M. Sadler, wrote this: “When we became adults we put away all our childhood toys. Hence, our immaturity was gradually replaced with a fuller understanding of things once we became adults. Thus, the supernatural gifts were put aside with the maturing of the dispensation which came with the completion of Paul’s revelation.”3
The illustration of a child represents the beginning of the Dispensation of Grace, the infancy of the Body of Christ, the unfolding of the Mystery, and the incomplete knowledge that accompanied that time. The sign gifts belonged to childhood, figuratively speaking. But the Apostle Paul adds, “when I became a man, I put away childish things.” This refers to the maturity of the dispensation with the receiving of the full revelation of the Mystery and the putting away of the earlier, formational, figuratively childish things of the sign gifts.
The healings and speaking in tongues that today may be found attractive or intriguing are not to be regarded as signs of spiritual maturity. According to God’s Word, these are signs relegated to the “childhood,” the formative years of the Church, the Body of Christ. Maturity in our current dispensation come about through study, growth, and application of the Word of God, rightly divided.
Paul’s second illustration of the change that was coming and the cessation of the sign gifts is that of a mirror. The “now” of “now we see through a glass, darkly” refers to the time when Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians. The “glass” was something looked into with the purpose of seeing a reflected image, or a mirror. Unlike our mirrors today, mirrors in biblical times were at best just flat pieces of polished metal from which one could hardly make out one’s own image. They did not give off a bright, clear reflection as our mirrors do today.
Paul wrote that now we see through a glass “darkly,” or dimly, indistinctly, without a clear image. When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, he still had an incomplete and unclear view of the revelation of the Mystery for the Body of Christ. And the sign gifts were like looking into an ancient mirror and being unable to get a complete, detailed picture.
“But then,” or after “that which is perfect is come,” the image would be “face to face.” In other words, when the full revelation was given, everything would be crystal clear, like looking at someone directly in the face, able to see everything clearly in perfect detail.
From seeing, Paul returns to knowing: “now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” “I know in part” is Paul’s reminder that he only had a partial knowledge of the Mystery at that point. But there was coming a day when the knowledge would be complete and everything would be known. Still using the analogy of a mirror, Paul is teaching that when he did receive the full revelation, everything would be so clear that it would be as if he were actually looking at himself. He would know how he looks with the same accuracy that others know him, without a flawed reflection from an imperfect mirror.
There are two different Greek words for “know” in verse 12. Paul wrote, “now I know [Gr., ginosko] in part; but then shall I know [Gr., epiginosko].” The first Greek word for “know” means to perceive or understand. The second word for “know” means to recognize, knowing thoroughly. Later Paul wrote to the Ephesian church,
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ…may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge [Gr., epignosis] of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened…” (Eph. 1:17-18).
The Greek word for “knowledge” in Ephesians 1:17 is the noun form of the verb “know” (Gr., epiginosko) in 1 Corinthians 13:12, and likewise means full, thorough knowledge and recognition. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he had by then received the full revelation for the Body of Christ, the full knowledge of Christ according to His heavenly ministry today. And he prays that the Ephesians would be enlightened to this full knowledge of Christ by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
We gain our knowledge of Christ by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. As we spend time with God’s Word, we see Christ, we know Him more, and we “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).
That Which Was to Abide
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Cor. 13:13).
The “now” and “then” contrast finishes here with Paul concluding, “now abideth.” This did not await the completed revelation of the Mystery. Paul was teaching them that “now,” and for the entire Dispensation of Grace, “abideth faith, hope, charity.” These three crowning graces abide throughout the dispensation. While the miraculous sign gifts would cease, faith, hope, and agape love would remain.
Faith, hope, and agape love are the foundation for our Christian lives. We are called to “walk by faith” (2 Cor. 5:7), to “walk in love” (Eph. 5:2), and to be “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Paul did not look for tongues, healings, and miracles in the churches he established; he looked for faith, hope, and love. As he wrote to the Colossian church, “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel” (Col. 1:3-5).
This is the true measuring stick of spiritual maturity in Christ and of a strong church. These are the three essential qualities for our Christian lives. God desires that faith, hope, and love be the driving factor in all we do in life as we serve Him. And the greatest of these is love. “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men.”4 May God use our hands, feet, eyes, and ears to show His love to this world.
1. Ted Sutherland contributor, “Intelligence Is Not The Same As Wisdom,” Sermon Central, February 19, 2001, https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/1443/intelligence-is-notthe-same-as-wisdom-by-ted-sutherland.
2. “Joke of the Day,” The New Times, May 21, 2010, https://www.newtimes.co.rw/article/38325/joke-of-the-day.
3. Paul M. Sadler, The Supernatural Sign Gifts of the Acts Period (Germantown, Wisconsin: Berean Bible Society, 2017), p. 54.
4. Augustine of Hippo, BrainyQuote, accessed May 5, 2025, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/saint_augustine_148553.
