Question
I always wondered about the gift of “tongues” I noticed the scripture references in 1 Corinthians so I turned to them. maybe it’s me but if you start at 1 Corinthians 13:1 it appears that the author is speaking about love and not tongues. I feel that these verses may have been taken out of context.1cor13:9,10 This was written after Jesus died was glorified and ascended. Therefore in verse 10 when they talk about ‘that which is Perfect coming’ wouldn’t you think they would be talking about the 2nd coming and therefore these ‘gifts, tongues, prophecies,etc’, that we ‘know in part (vs9) are not yet done away with because Jesus (that which is perfect hasn’t come yet) This is why I love the Bible 2 people can make totally intelligent interpretations of scripture and come up with 2 totally different conclusions. So did I peak your curiosity?
Answer
Paul is indeed talking about love throughout 1 Corinthians 13. However, toward the end of the chapter, he begins looking at spiritual gifts and their purpose and duration. Notice verse 8:
Love never fails. But whether [there are] prophecies, they will fail; whether [there are] tongues, they will cease; whether [there is] knowledge, it will vanish away.
So without a doubt, tongues, prophecies, and knowledge are going to disappear, which leads to your question of when. The answer, as you pointed out, is in verse 10. However, you misunderstand what Paul is referring to when he writes “that which is perfect.”
Going back to the original Greek in which the letter was written, the word “perfect” in verse 10 means “complete” rather than “without blemish” (Christ). So the meaning is “When that which is [complete] is come, that which is in part will be done away.” Notice the parallelism of the sentence when this definition of “perfect” is used.
It is important to remember the reason for spiritual gifts in the 1st place: They were given as aids to the Christians who otherwise would not have had access to the teachings of Christ, other than whatever they could remember from the teachings of the person who had baptized them. However, this was an incomplete solution, and the Lord knew that. So He set limits on the duration of the gifts: only the Apostles could pass a spiritual gift on to another person. That person could not pass the gift to anyone else (Acts 8:13-24).
By the time the last people to have the gifts were dead or dying, most if not all of the New Testament had been recorded. It was at that point that “that which is in part” was done away because “that which is perfect” had come. When the New Testament arrived, there was no longer a need for the spiritual gifts.
As for “living water” in John 4 and John 7, Jesus is speaking of the establishment of the Church and His willingness to save those who obey him. Zechariah makes use of the same phrase in Zechariah 14 when he is clearly referring to the establishment of the Church in Jerusalem.
By Michael Molloy
