Episode 7: What is the Partial and the Perfect from 1 Corinthians 13?

Summary

Question: 1 Corinthians 13 talks about the gifts of the Spirit being done away with when the perfect comes. What then is the partial and the perfect?

The whole pentecostal movement is based on the idea that the gifts of the Spirit are in existence now.

Acts 2:17-20 When a lot of people look at this they think this is a reference to Jesus’ second coming. They think that we are in the last days now and we need a revival of the gifts of the Spirit. From this perspective the possibility that the gifts are going to end cannot be the correct interpretation.

However, the Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture across the board. That way people don’t get to impose their own interpretations on it.

Hebrews 1:1-2 The last days began at the coming of the New Covenant. Jesus has the last word through the Holy Spirit to the apostles.

1 Corinthians 13:8-10 There is a time coming when the gifts are going to end. The perfect in this context means complete. The picture here is something complete is going to be in place as the gifts, the partial, cease. The “perfect” mentioned here is neuter gender, it means “the perfect thing.” Jesus is never referred to as a thing. He’s very definitely a masculine gender. God is the Father, Jesus is the Son, and the Holy Spirit is a Him as well, masculine gender. The perfect thing is never going to refer to Jesus, it has to be something else. We’re looking for something that is going to be complete at the time when the gifts cease.

We have established that the gifts we’re only given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands. We know then that the apostles are going to die out, and those that the apostles laid their hands on are going to die out. We are looking for something perfect and complete to come at the time that the apostles are dying out. The obvious conclusion would be the completed New Testament. About the time the apostle John finishes Revelation is about time for everything to close.

The perfect thing then is a reference to the New Testament writings which the apostle Paul anticipated would be coming into effect.

1 Corinthians 13:11 The idea is that the gifts were for the church in its infancy. As the church moves into a state of maturity, it’s not going to need the gifts anymore. It has something much more mature, the completed Word of God.

1 Corinthians 13:12-13 Now at the time Paul is writing this, he sees in a mirror dimly. Paul only had incomplete knowledge, the book of Revelation for example hadn’t been written yet. Paul knows that there is more yet to come through inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He saw in a mirror dimly, he couldn’t see completely, because he didn’t have the complete Word of God. This is one of the things that lets us know that the references to “the mirror” in the New Testament are the completed Word of God.

As long as the Word of God is in effect, faith and hope are there. Faith is where we believe what the Bible says about the things we can’t see. Hope is where we hope with positive expection for the things connected with Jesus’ second coming and our resurrection from the dead. Faith is not yet sight, hope is not yet realized, but love is and always will be. Faith and hope are temporary, love will abide forever which is why it is the greatest.

The New Testament is complete, it’s accurate, it’s all you need. The record of adding to it or taking away from it is not good, so let’s just go with what it says!