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1 Corinthians 13:8
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.
KJV
 

Comments:

One of the problems in the church at Corinth was they misunderstood the purpose of the miraculous gifts and were misusing them. Thus Paul is writing to them and telling them what the spiritual “gifts” are and how they were to be properly used and in  1 Corinthians 13:8-13)  of their termination.

The nine miraculous gifts were not given to every Christian. 1 Corinthians 12:28  “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” Notice, “set some”, not all. In verse 29, Paul asks: “Are all apostles?” The answer is “no”. If the answer is “yes” then it destroys Paul’s argument. “Are all workers of miracles?” Again, “no”. Some had the special miraculous gifts, while all baptized believers from Pentecost on received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians chapter 12 tells us that everyone in the church is important, every member of the body has a purpose to help other members of the body. The purpose of the miraculous gifts was not to exalt self over others, but to edify the church, build up the body, compassionately through whatever gifts they had. They weren’t to be recognizing the person with the miraculous gifts as someone more special than anyone else.

As we read through these three chapters, Paul does seem to focus in on the gift of prophecy. It somehow edifies the body in a special way. In a sense, the other gifts seem to “back up” the gift of prophecy- exalt the gift of prophecy. Yet, those who had that gift were not to be exalted over other members.

In chapter 13 we read about agape love (active good will towards all men, unconditional love). All the miraculous gifts, as wonderful and spectacular as they were, needed to be used with agape love to put the gifts into proper prospective. Agape love is agape love before, during and after the time of miraculous gifts.

Then in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10, we learn something will come to an end, that being the miraculous gifts, for they are the parts. The knowledge that will end is the miraculous knowledge and not the knowledge gained by reading/studying scripture.  This knowledge was of the will of God which was necessary in the absence of the written record.   Tongues is the ability to speak in a language not known by the speaker.  Prophecy is the ability to foretell the future.  These are but three of the nine spiritual gifts mentioned in scripture (1 Corinthians 12:7-10).  So we learn from Paul here that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit have a point in time where they will cease to exist for mankind.