I CORINTHIANS 13:8-10

Q:  I have heard this passage used to explain why supernatural gifts of the Spirit such as speaking in tongues are no longer present in the church. Is that what these verses mean?

These verses read: “Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.” And the gifts of prophecy and mountain-moving faith could be included in that list since they are specifically mentioned in I Corinthians 13:2.

The argument here goes as such: “The complete” in the passage refers to the completion of the New Testament. Once that is available to all, the need for these supernatural helps ceases entirely. The argument hangs or falls on the definition of “the complete,” often translated as “the perfect.” The Greek word teleios appears about 15 times in the NT, but none of these uses applies to God's written word. Aside from references to a perfect gift, perfect law, perfect tabernacle above, and perfect law of Christ (i.e., love), teleios usually refers to the perfecting or maturing of believers.

And if we look at the subsequent verses in I Corinthians 13 (vv. 12-13), they are best understood in a more eschatological sense as referring to the End Times. Charles Ryrie, for example, feels that it is the Second Coming in mind here.

Another passage quoted to prove that these gifts are no longer active is Acts 8:14-20 and related instances where the Holy Spirit is given to believers upon the Apostles laying hands on them. The argument goes that since we no longer have the Twelve with us, those gifts can no longer be passed down. It is a highly flawed conclusion since:

(a) The necessity of the presence of an apostle (with subsequent speaking in tongues of the recipient) only specifically occurs where there is the need to confirm to the Jerusalem Church the entrance of a new group of believers into the fold (the first Gentile converts and some followers of John the Baptist).

(b) If that were true, then it would mean that none of us today has the Holy Spirit at all since the text says nothing whatsoever about the gifts of the Spirit, only the receiving of the Holy Spirit Himself.

(c) Even if the reference were referring to the gifts of the Spirit, then that means that we do not possess any of the gifts today, including teaching and preaching.

Others argue against the continuation of the “sign gifts” today by pointing to the historical dying out of the practice within the church. Others easily counter this by attributing the same phenomenon to the general lessening of zeal within most churches and lack of faith.

Another argument put forth is that since the purpose of these gifts was only to validate the new message of salvation through faith in Jesus, it is no longer needed today. As proof of that contention, they quote Hebrews 2:1-4 concerning this message which “was first spoken through the Lord, (and) was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” This is obviously using fallacious reasoning for two reasons:

1. Just because one of the reasons for the “sign” gifts was as a supernatural witness to those who had not yet heard the word, that does not indicate that it was the only, or even the main, reason for them.

2. It wrongly assumes that everyone in the world today (and for the last 20 centuries or so) has ready access to the message of grace and doesn't need any sort of added validation.

In conclusion, it is probably best to not be dogmatic on this point either way. One approach to particularly avoid is to label, as some have, phenomena such as speaking in tongues as a sign of demonic possession. Those who do this are really no different from the Pharisees who said that Jesus' miracles were performed using demonic help since His teachings did not fit in with their particular interpretation of Scripture. Remember that it was at this point that Jesus warned them about committing the unforgivable sin.