8-13 passing nature of gifts but love lasts

The Facts:

(List four (five) sets of contrasts in 9-12 and give your list an appropriate title.)

Paul uses a chiasmus in 8-10. It goes

a. Love never fails

b. prophecies cease, tongues are tilled, knowledge passes away

b'. we know & proph. in part

a'.when perfect comes, part is no longer used

List the three sets of contrasts that he then uses to illustrate what he is saying.

Prophecies, tongues and knowledge all have an end	Love never fails
now we know and prophesy in part (merous)	when the complete comes our present partial prophecies and tongues and knowledge end

(teleion)
1. when (infant) a child, I spoke, thought, reasoned as a child	when man, I put away the child
2. now we we see dimly in mirror (enigmatically)	then (when the complete comes?) face to face
3. now I know only in part (merous)	then? When? I will know even as I have been known

(and this is eternal life to know thee)

Interpretation:

Context:

Read the context and tell me why Paul uses the example of a child growing up.

What similarities can you think of between being a child and the way the Corinthians were speaking in tongues?

(Staying in chapter 14, what is one way the Corinthians were thinking like children (and speaking like children), and how did Paul want them to apply the principle of love in that situation?

speak intelligibly in order to uplift others not nonsense in order to uplift yourself)

(Why does Paul point out that prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are imperfect and incomplete? What evidence do we have that the Corinthians thought otherwise?)

Comparison:

How is looking at an unclear reflection in a mirror like being a child? Or seeing face to face like being an adult and finding childish things obsolete.

(In what ways is a mirror-view limited? A child limited?)

(In what ways were the Corinthians like a dim reflection?)

(How were the Corinthians limited to looking in a mirror rather than face to face? The only way to see God face to face is to love. The only way to see God face to face is to grow up. Now we see only a poor reflection of what God is really like, but if we give love the preeminence, and seek after spiritual gifts we will really see what God is like, face to face!)

(In Paul's first set of contrasts, when the perfect comes the imperfect becomes obsolete or disappears. What disappears or becomes obsolete in his next contrast? childish ways (lit. the child) Next? the mirror, Next? partial knowledge.)

*What would have been the result of putting knowledge/prophecy before love in chapter 14:25? Do we ever do this? Pastor who's sins are exposed--no love, just judgement.

When is now and then? Who are we able to see? What is the danger in thinking simply that this will be fulfilled when Jesus comes?

Why does he compare love to knowledge and prophecy? What did he want them to understand about the relationship between knowledge/prophecy and love?

What is principle of this section? Love comes before spiritual gifts? To put spiritual gifts before love is childish?

It is childish to put the imperfect before the perfect.

Application:

What are some specific modern ways that we give greater honor to gifts than to love in the church?--personally

What is the result? We remain immature--don't get to see face to face, do not know as we are known.

Have you observed childishness in church?

How does putting gifts before love encourage such behavior?

Decorating committee members who are talented but mean.

Why do we do this? Why would anyone look beyond what is lasting--love to what is imperfect?

Which of these do you most want God to change in Your life?

have you most recently fallen into?

If we are to grow up, we need to seek love more than gifts.

--Board Chairman story

What would need to happen for you to this?

What would this mean next time your are on a nominating committee?

What would this mean at work? What would this principle mean in your friendships?

Which of these areas do you need to apply it most? Share and have us pray.

What is going on with this stuff on mirrors?

our greatest status-suppliers are child's play, like an "adolescent pontificating about ultimate reality"

faith hope and love remain, but the greatest of these is love.

God loves, only we faith and hope, God has no need to faith and hope, (but if we love we do something that now only God does?) Faith and hope are both evidence of imperfect knowledge. If we loved each other perfectly we would not need faith in each other, we would know as we are known, we would be totally predictable? We would not have secrets? We would not just hope for help from a friend, we would know that we have it. Does this mean that when we fully love each other that Jesus will come? What would there be to wait for, we would be fully trusting Him, we would be fully reflecting Him. We would be living in His presence already, why not come?

We always say this is about the 2nd coming, "when the perfect comes . . . " but the what is the context here? Paul is talking about Christian maturity, the difference between being partial and childish and adult, incomplete and complete, partial and full. If we were mature, we'd not place priority or base our identity on things that pass away

Why does he go back and forth between the singular pronoun and the plural? we, I, we, I

He doesn't say when then is. He says now and then without specifying when then is. Can we tell from this passage when then is? Should we evaluate our assumption that he is speaking of the distant future when Jesus comes? Could it be that the growth he is advocating now would hasten the future day when Jesus comes. We tend to hear this and think, "Wow! That's great, it'll sure be nice when Jesus comes and changes our conditions so we can see Him face to face! That's against everything Paul has been saying since chapter 7.

What is Paul urging on them? Love, something they are supposed to do something about! He is urging on them growth, not a miraculous change of conditions that they can do nothing about! The only way to be sure you are going to see Him face to face is to love now, not wait being unloving until He shows up.