By Al Ngu
Introduction: A Passage of Controversy
Few passages in the New Testament have sparked as much theological debate as 1 Corinthians 13:8–11. The apostle Paul writes:
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (ESV)
For centuries, these verses have stood at the center of one of the most persistent theological disagreements in church history — the question of whether the miraculous gifts of the Spirit (like prophecy and tongues) continue today or ceased in the early church.
Cessationists argue that Paul foresaw a time when the gifts would no longer be needed, interpreting “when the perfect comes” to mean either the completion of the New Testament canon or the maturity of the early church. Continuationists, however, read the text differently, claiming that “the perfect” refers not to something that has already come, but to the consummation of the age — when Christ returns and believers see Him face to face.
Among modern scholars, one of the clearest voices supporting the eschatological interpretation is Gordon Fee, the late Pentecostal theologian and author of the NICNT commentary on 1 Corinthians. Fee’s reading places this passage firmly within Paul’s grand vision of redemptive history, where the church lives between Christ’s first and second comings — “between the times.”
Love That Never Ends
The context of 1 Corinthians 13 is crucial. Paul is not primarily writing a treatise on spiritual gifts; he is writing about love. His point is that love endures when all other things — even good and spiritual things — fade away. The gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are not condemned; they are temporal tools, given for a temporary age. Love, by contrast, belongs to eternity. It is the very nature of God Himself (1 John 4:8).
In Corinth, spiritual gifts had become a source of pride and competition. Some believers prized tongues as evidence of superior spirituality. Others exalted prophecy as the highest spiritual experience. Paul redirects their focus. “You want to know what lasts?” he says. “It’s not tongues. It’s not prophecy. It’s love. Love never ends.”
This sets the stage for his deeper argument — not that the gifts are bad, but that they are temporary manifestations of God’s Spirit in a world that still awaits its final redemption.
“The Perfect” — What Does Paul Mean?
Paul writes, “When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.” The Greek phrase τὸ τέλειον (to teleion) literally means “the complete,” “the mature,” or “the perfect.” It can describe both moral perfection and final completion.
Cessationist interpreters, particularly within certain Reformed traditions, have argued that to teleion refers to the completion of the canon of Scripture — that once God’s revelation was fully written, the partial modes of revelation (like prophecy or tongues) were no longer necessary. Others propose that Paul speaks of the church reaching doctrinal maturity.
But Fee argues that both readings miss the point. The key to understanding Paul’s meaning lies not in the word teleion itself, but in the verbs he uses to describe what happens when “the perfect” arrives. The words katargēthēsontai (“will pass away”) and pauōntai (“will cease”) are eschatological verbs — words Paul uses elsewhere in 1 Corinthians to describe the end of the present age (1:28; 2:6; 15:24–26).
1 Corinthians 2: 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 1 Corinthians 15: 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
These verbs signal a future event of cosmic transformation, not a historical development within the church. Paul’s point, Fee explains, is that the gifts are temporary because they belong to this age, not because they were ever meant to disappear before Christ’s return. They will “pass away” only when the church moves from the partial to the complete, from the present age to the age to come.
Face to Face: The Language of Consummation
Paul clarifies his meaning with the words, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (v. 12).
This phrase, “face to face,” echoes Old Testament theophany — encounters with the visible presence of God. In Exodus 33:11, Moses is said to speak with the Lord “face to face.” In Numbers 12:8, God distinguishes Moses from other prophets because he alone sees the Lord “clearly.”
For Paul to use this language in 1 Corinthians 13 suggests that he is describing a direct, unmediated encounter with God, not a metaphor for spiritual growth. The “mirror” image reflects the limited nature of our present perception: we see God’s glory reflected dimly through the Spirit’s gifts, through Scripture, and through the church — but not yet with the fullness that will come at the resurrection.
Fee therefore concludes that “the perfect” must refer to the eschaton, the final consummation when believers will see Christ “face to face.” Only then will the gifts — partial reflections of divine knowledge — no longer be needed.
Childhood and Adulthood: A Temporal Analogy
Paul continues: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child… but when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
This analogy has often been used to support the idea that the church must “grow up” and leave behind the so-called childish gifts of prophecy and tongues. Yet, in context, Paul’s analogy does not describe individual or corporate maturity — it describes the progression of redemptive history.
Childhood represents the present age of partial knowledge and mediated experience. Adulthood represents the coming age of fullness, when believers will experience direct knowledge of God. The analogy, therefore, is temporal, not moral or developmental. Just as childhood naturally gives way to maturity, the provisional gifts of the Spirit will naturally give way to fullness when Christ returns.
Living “Between the Times”
Fee’s interpretation places the church’s experience of the Spirit squarely within an eschatological framework. Christians live in the tension between the already and the not yet — between the inauguration of the kingdom through Christ’s death and resurrection and its final consummation at His return.
In this “between time,” the Spirit empowers the church with gifts that both reveal and anticipate the coming kingdom. They are signs of the future breaking into the present — prophetic glimpses of the world made new.
To deny the operation of these gifts is to misunderstand the church’s eschatological identity. The gifts are not proofs of immaturity but marks of participation in the age to come. As Fee notes, the charismata “belong to the church’s present eschatological existence, in which God’s newly formed people live ‘between the times.’”
This is why Paul calls them “manifestations of the Spirit” (1 Cor 12:7) — they are visible signs that the Spirit of the risen Christ is already active among His people. The church is a community of the Spirit, empowered for mission until the day “when the perfect comes.”
The Passing Away of Gifts: Not Historical, But Eschatological
When Paul says that prophecy and tongues “will pass away,” he is not predicting an early cessation in church history. He is describing what will happen when history itself gives way to eternity.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul uses the same verb katargeō (“to nullify,” “to render inoperative”) to describe the final destruction of all powers opposed to God:
“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying (katargēsē) every rule and every authority and power” (v. 24).
Just as death will one day be “abolished” (15:26), so too will the partial forms of revelation — not because they are defective, but because they will be swallowed up in perfection.
The gifts are not terminated by ecclesial maturity but transformed by eschatological completion. They are temporary only in the same way that faith and hope are temporary (13:13): they will continue until they are fulfilled.
When Christ returns, faith will give way to sight, hope will give way to reality, and the Spirit’s gifts will give way to the direct presence of God.
Implications for the Church Today
If Fee’s reading is correct — and the evidence strongly suggests it is — then 1 Corinthians 13 offers not a rationale for cessation but a theological foundation for continuation.
The gifts of the Spirit are not vestiges of an immature church but instruments of the Spirit’s ongoing work in a world that is still awaiting redemption. They are, as Fee says, “signs of the End already begun.”
In a sense, every act of prophecy, every prayer in tongues, every word of knowledge is an eschatological event — a preview of the future world breaking into the present.
This interpretation also brings Reformed and charismatic theology into conversation. Reformed theology rightly emphasizes the sovereignty of God and the finality of Christ’s redemptive work. Charismatic theology rightly emphasizes the present activity of the Spirit who applies that finished work in real time. Fee’s eschatological reading shows how both are true: the gifts operate not as alternatives to God’s sovereignty but as its outworking in the “already–not yet” age.
The church, therefore, remains both Reformed and charismatic — grounded in Word and Spirit, doctrine and power, revelation and love — until the day “when the perfect comes.”
Conclusion: Awaiting the Perfect
Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 13:8–11 is not that prophecy and tongues would fade once the church matured or the canon closed. His vision is far greater. He situates the gifts within the story of redemption itself, as temporary manifestations of the Spirit that serve the people of God until Christ’s return.
When that day comes — when believers see the Lord “face to face” — prophecy will no longer be needed because we will hear God directly. Tongues will cease because all languages will be united in praise. Knowledge will no longer be “in part” because the fullness of divine glory will fill all in all.
Until that day, the Spirit continues to distribute gifts to the church as signs of the coming kingdom. We live between the times — the redeemed people of God, filled with His Spirit, sustained by His love, and awaiting the perfection that only His presence will bring.
Love never ends. But until the perfect comes, the Spirit still speaks.
References (APA 7th ed.)
Fee, G. D. (1987). The First Epistle to the Corinthians (New International Commentary on the New Testament). Eerdmans.
Thiselton, A. C. (2000). The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (NIGTC). Eerdmans.
Carson, D. A. (1987). Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12–14. Baker.
Wright, N. T. (2012). Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Fortress Press.
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