What does 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 mean?
You won’t catch the meaning if you leave out 13:8 and 14:20–22.
The Corinthians church abused a spiritual gift of speaking in human, foreign languages (“tongues”) that a person had never learned.
The writer, the apostle Paul, included several relevant messages in chapters 12–13. One point was that believers should always practice faith, hope, and love, but revelatory gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge would become redundant. The Holy Spirit distributed gifts for specific purposes; so when a gift’s purpose was fulfilled, the Holy Spirit would stop distributing it.
Verse 8 uses different verbs to separate the causes of tongues’ ceasing from what caused prophecy and knowledge to cease.
Prophecy and knowledge would be idled (passive form of καταργέω (katargeó) -- to render inoperative, abolish) whereas tongues would stop themselves (middle voice (something acting upon itself) form of παύω (pauó) -- to make to cease, hinder). If you miss this, then you miss how the remainder of chapter 13 and chapter 14 are organized.
Verses 9–12 deal with what would end the spiritual gifts of prophecy and knowledge. The reason for the spiritual gift of tongues ending is described in 14:20–22.
Verses 9–10, 11, and 12 explain, in three different ways, that gifts of prophecy and knowledge would become become redundant.
- Verses 9–10 describes speaking gifts as partial. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. Speaking gifts give you a little revelation here and a little there. You never get the whole thing. When the whole verbal revelation comes in a recorded, written form, then you don’t need the partial revelations anymore.
- Verse 11 describes things that are needed by the immature. When maturity comes, then we put away the things of childhood. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. The infant church needed prophecy and knowledge. All they had was the Old Testament. But a degree of maturity would come when revelatory gifts would no longer be needed.
- Verse 12 describes seeing the full knowledge that comes from seeing directly as being superior to the partial knowledge that comes from looking in a first century mirror. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. In New Testament lingo, the mirror is verbal revelation from God.* Piecemeal revelation through prophecy and knowledge gives us but occasional glimpses of ourselves, whereas the completed scriptures made full knowledge available and at all times.
The perfect, complete, sufficient verbal revelation came as the New Testament scriptures were completed. The church passed from infancy to adulthood. Full knowledge of God’s words would replace going to the prophet to get verbal revelation bit-by-bit. As the scriptures reached completion, the spiritual gifts that delivered the same subjects would become redundant. The gifts of knowledge and prophecy would be idled by the completion of the New Testament.
The cause of tongues ceasing is a tangent, so I’ll be brief. Chapter 14 explicitly says “tongues are for” a purpose. Verses 20–22 refer to an Old Testament prophecy: Tongues was a sign to unbelieving Jews. The sign meant that God would soon punish the Jews for rejecting their Messiah. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in 53 AD. In 66 AD, Israel rebelled against Rome. Rome swept over Israel and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. Rome again warred against the Jewish remnant in 132–136. So as you read verses 20–22 in light of the prophecy’s significance, you find that tongues were for a particular audience:
- Not believers (14:22). 14:4 says, The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. Anybody who thinks speaking in tongues to edify yourself is a good thing has completely missed the point. Chapter 12 says the gifts are to edify the church, and no gift is given to everybody. Chapter 13 says the gifts are for loving others, and love does not seek its own (13:5). Chapter 14 says to seek better gifts and keep things orderly. Even 14:4 contrasts (“but”) tongues and prophecy in a way that puts tongues in a negative light.
- Unbelievers; more specifically…
- Unbelieving Jews educated in Old Testament prophecy
- Unbelieving Jews that the prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction might apply to — in other words, first century Jews.
When Rome fulfilled the prophecy for which tongues was a sign, tongues became redundant. Similarly, as the scriptures were completed and circulated, the gifts of prophecy and knowledge became redundant. Logically, the Spirit would no longer distribute redundant spiritual gifts.
All Bible references are from the New American Standard Bible.
Copyright 2020, Richard Wheeler. Permission granted for non-remunerated use. Remember to give credit where credit is due.
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