1 Corinthians 13

Chapter 13 of First Corinthians. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or as or a tinkling cymbal. And though I had the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity or love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not.

Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect, complete is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 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. And now abideth faith, hope, charity. These three, but the greatest of these is charity.

Now that's all we'll read. We see chapter 12, 13 and 14, really as a section dealing with the spiritual gifts. If you were to look at the beginning of chapter 12 and see the words now concerning spiritual gifts, the real word there is the idea of spiritual things.

The word gift is not there, but it is implied. So we see here that the apostle is beginning to take up the idea of spiritual gifts. Chapter 12 really is the spirit and he's delegating, the spirit delegating these spiritual gifts.

So he's giving the gifts and he's overseeing the use of them. So he's delegating. Without taking too much time, you see in chapter 13, that love is motivating.

So the spirit is delegating, love is motivating. And in chapter 14, you would see there guidelines really that regulate. I was going to say rules that regulate, but we don't like that word rules.

But that's what it is. Given by God, guidelines that regulate the use of gift in a local assembly. Now I'm going to spend my time on chapter 13, and we're going to take a look at first of all, the first part, the love that motivates.

But then we're going to learn something about the charisma or charismata, the gifts that were signed gifts that were temporary. Brethren, sometimes I feel that we fail in sharing some of the basics of Christian doctrine as it relates to the assembly, because we assume that people know. I went for quite a little time at the first of my Christian experience, knowing that the gift of tongues does not exist among God's people today, but not knowing why I believe that.

And in looking closely at first Corinthians chapter 13, I just want to share with you the reason why I believe the gift of tongues or gifts of tongues, prophecies and specific knowledge is no longer in existence today. So it could be that chapter 12 is really picking up from the words that the apostle said in chapter seven now concerning the things whereof you've written on to me. There are things that the apostle takes up in first Corinthians that are a result really of what he has heard from others, right? He had heard from the house of Chloe that there had been divisions or schisms among the people of God.

The apostle realized that no matter what the cause of these schisms were, he had to get to the bottom of it. He had to get to the root or else the assembly would be torn apart. So he addresses that right off the bat, the schisms that had been among them.

Some people said, I like this preacher and other people said, I like that preacher. And they began to separate. Divisions.

And he addressed that because of what he had heard. But we also see in first Corinthians that he had heard, it had been commonly reported that these Corinthians were accepting and allowing immorality in the assembly. And because he had heard this and knew that such a state of affairs really would be detrimental to assembly testimony, he addresses that, doesn't he? And how the assembly should behave toward the activities that are listed and toward the people who are involved in those activities.

Now, he begins to tell them about the things that they had asked about, and perhaps they had asked about how the gifts were to function in the local assembly. Chapter 13 begins. So I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity.

I'm become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, though I speak with the tongues of men or of angels. Now, brethren, let's be very careful. As you are, you move around, perhaps your community and you run into people who are what we would call charismatic people, they will say, well, I know that I do not have the gift of tongues.

That is the gift of language. To be able to speak different languages to different people without having learned that language before. That's what the gift of tongues was, by the way.

But I have the tongues of angels. So when I speak the gibberish that I call tongues, really, I'm speaking in the language of angels. And they look to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse one and say, see, here it is.

The tongues of angels. That's not what the apostle saying. The apostle really is saying.

It could be even if I could speak in every tongue of man and even if my gift was developed to the extent that I could speak in every tongue of angels. See, it's really superlative. The language is using even if I could do all of this and was able to impress and was able to communicate and was able to serve in such a capacity that nobody else could attain to.

If I do not do it with the motivation of love, then it's nothing. That's what he's saying. There is no such thing as gibberish in the gift of tongues that is the language or the tongue of angels.

So I hope we're all clear on that today. And he says, if I could develop or if I were given such a wonderful gift so as to be able to do even this and I do it without love, then I am a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, all knowledge and of all faith.

That's the special gift of faith, by the way, so that I could remove mountains and have not charity. I am nothing. So he's saying my gift, even though I am gifted to do a certain thing and maybe even gifted above others, he's saying if I have not love, I am nothing.

If my gift is not used with the motivation of love, I am nothing. But the next verse says, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. So not only is the use of the gift nothing without love, but any sacrifice he could make as a Christian, even to the work of God, if it's not motivated by love, it is of no profit.

So you're seeing he's saying it's not wrong to use your gift. It's encouraged. We heard that already.

But the motivation should be love. Motivation. Then he starts to tell us of the character of love.

Doesn't he? Suffereth long. It's prepared to be taken advantage of. Oh, there's one.

The character of love is such that if I am being motivated by it, I won't be looking out for my own things. And if someone happens to step on my toes, as we heard yesterday, love dictates that I don't let it bother me. Yeah.

So it says. Seeketh not her own. Thinketh no evil.

Thinketh no evil is something that I think challenges all of us. Not that it's having evil thoughts. The idea is that it doesn't take account of it.

You know what it means when someone does something to offend me, I'm not keeping score so I can get back at them. Says love, thinketh no evil. Believeth all things.

That means that love really seeks to believe the best about everyone. Really think the best before you think the worst. We think the worst, don't we? See someone doing something and we think, oh, we automatically think the worst about that person and what motivated them to do it.

But love says we think the best. Charity never faileth. Now I mentioned before, and I'm not going to spend long on it, but I did say before that grammar might not keep you awake.

But when it comes to the teaching in the New Testament, grammar will sometimes keep you straight. And it's important. It is.

So read with me in verse number eight. Charity never faileth, never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.

Okay, note that word, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

So the prophecies shall fail and the knowledge shall vanish away. The gift of prophecy was a gift that was in existence at the time of the Apostle Paul's writing this and at the time of the early church. It was a man who would stand up and be able to give the mind of God to the company, prophet.

The gift of knowledge was slightly different. It was a man who was given the gift to be able to stand up and express a certain tidbit of wisdom to the people of God to deal with a specific situation. Okay, that's what the gift of knowledge was.

Now, when you notice it says prophecies fail. Knowledge shall vanish away. Fail and vanish away are the same word in the original.

It is a word that in the tense that it is used or the mood if you want to say it is a passive word. So the idea is this. Something is acting upon that gift of prophecy and something is acting upon that gift of knowledge to cause it to be brought to an end.

That's it. So I believe brethren, the reason the gift of prophecy has come to an end is because something has come in and acted upon it to replace it. Yeah.

And that's something has come in and acted upon the gift of knowledge to replace it. The word of God and the gift of teaching. That's what I see.

So you got it. Something has acted upon these things to bring them to an end. But when it comes to tongues, it's a different word.

When it comes to tongues, it's the word from which we get our word to pause. To pause. And the grammar again is important.

It's not that something is coming from the outside and causing it to pause. It is something that pauses on its own. So it ceases of itself.

You know what that tells me? It has not given way to another gift. It has just ended. There is no gift to replace the gift of tongues.

But it has ended. Now, just for your consideration, without running the risk of stirring anything up, it could be the idea of pausing is that it is paused until a future time. You see, it says in chapter 14 that the gift of tongues is not a gift to the believers, but it's assigned to the unbelievers.

And when the 144,000 go out into the world, perhaps the gift of tongues will be taken up again and used in them to spread the gospel throughout the whole world. I say, perhaps. So you get it, the three of them.

All ended. But it's just as important for us to know when they end it, isn't it? Because a charismatic person may come to you and say, I know they are going to end, but they have not ceased yet. They have not failed yet.

And we still have those gifts with us today. So we look, verse number nine. For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

The picture here is of the local assembly, the coming together of the believers in a local assembly meeting. And one prophet gets up and he gives a message. And one person who has the gift of knowledge gets up and he gives a message.

And the apostle is saying here that the man who gets up, he only knows part of the mind of God for the people. The next man who gets up, he only knows part of the mind of God for God's people. And all on down the road, they only know a part.

They can only share a part. And then the apostle says, but when that which is perfect, the word is complete. What does it mean when that which is complete is come? Well, following the context, part, part, part, part, part of the mind of God, complete right here.

We have the complete mind of God for God's people today. It is the word of God. And when that which is complete has come, then all of the little parts are unnecessary and they've been done away.

Brother, and that's what I believe. This is not teaching that there is coming a future time when that which is perfect, when the day of the millennium is set up or when the day of Christ comes and all things are put in order in the day of God. That's not what it's saying.

It's saying when that which is complete has come. That's why the gift of tongues no longer exists today. That's why the gift of prophecies no longer exists today.

There were signs until the completed word of God came. Then he takes two pictures and I move quickly. The first picture is when I was a child, I speak as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

The idea is infant, isn't it? The word there is infant. So we all know that when we instruct the infants, when we instruct the little ones who are just beginning to grow, we tell them specific things to do. They don't understand the entire mind of their parents.

They don't understand the why. They don't understand all of the concepts that fit together in the mind of an adult. All they know is don't touch that.

Don't go there. You know, I think the first word most kids learn is no. No.

For me, it was shut that door because I was always in the cupboards. You wouldn't think that, huh? But he's saying as an infant, he only knew the commandments that the parent wanted him to know. But when he becomes an adult, now he knows more about the mind, about the whole picture.

Again, back to the context, that's what it is. And then he says, for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Some of your friends might tell you that this means the day that we see Christ face to face.

That's not what it's meaning. It really is another picture he's painting. So it's the idea of we're looking through a glass, but not a clear glass.

It's like an opaque glass where you can see some of the light and you understand that there's something going on on the other side. You can see the light move, but you can't really make out who it is, what they're doing and all the rest. And he's saying, while the gifts of prophecy and tongues and knowledge and all of those signed gifts were in existence, it was like looking through that glass and you knew what you needed to know, but you didn't know all of it.

And he says that when that which is complete has come, it'll be just like removing the glass. And now we're able to see clearly. I believe, brethren, that's the teaching of first Corinthians chapter 13 from verses number eight to verse number 13.

Gifts that had their use, gifts that were in place, gifts that were given by God, but gifts that have ceased to exist. When the word of God has come to us in its completion.