1 Corinthians 13 · a question people ask
"where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease." (13:8). Will gifts such as prophecy and languages cease before the Lord comes, or only at his coming?
This question is only about 13:8-12. First, what the chapter says: "Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with." (13:8-10). Christians read these verses in more than one way, each reading resting on verses, and these notes choose none. All agree that "Love never fails." (13:8); that "But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love." (13:13); that "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all." (12:7); and that "Let all things be done decently and in order." (14:40). These notes apply neither reading to any church, gathering or person today.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Until his coming
Those who read it this way read "when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with" (13:10) with "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face" (13:12) as speaking of the time of his coming. They point to the letter's first chapter, which says its readers "come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1:7), and to its words "don’t forbid speaking with other languages" (14:39). On this reading, such gifts are given until he comes.
1 Corinthians 13:10 · 1 Corinthians 13:12 · 1 Corinthians 1:7 · 1 Corinthians 14:39
Some gifts ceased earlier
Those who read it this way point to the chapter's words that the languages "will cease" (13:8), and to "Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things." (13:11). They hold that gifts such as prophecy and other languages confirmed the first witnesses' word, as Hebrews says the salvation "was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, by various works of power, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit" (Hebrews 2:3-4), with "the signs of an apostle" (2 Corinthians 12:12), and that they ceased when that work was done. Some who hold it read "that which is complete" (13:10) as his coming, and some as something earlier.
1 Corinthians 13:8 · 1 Corinthians 13:11 · Hebrews 2:3-4 · 2 Corinthians 12:12 · 1 Corinthians 13:10
The verses
“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.”
“But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.”
“But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all.”
“Let all things be done decently and in order.”