Appeals from both sides of the spiritual gifts debate have looked to this passage to demonstrate the cessation or continuation of spiritual gifts, especially speaking in tongues. One side says that "the perfect" indicates the completion of the Canon; the other side says that "face to face" is obviously a reference to the time when we will all see Jesus. What was Paul trying to communicate to his Corinthian readers? Let us begin with a few observations.
In this letter to the Corinthian church, Paul corrects many of the church's wrong practices and wrong thinking. In chapters 12 and 14 Paul instructs the church concerning the use of spiritual gifts, offering two lists of gifts and a detailed analysis of prophesying and speaking in tongues. In chapter 13 he emphasizes the superiority of love over all gifts. It is noteworthy that speaking in tongues, prophesying, and having all knowledge-each mentioned in the passage under consideration-are all mentioned in verses 1-3 as being worthless apart from love. This chapter and section turn on verses 4-8a; it presents the pinnacle of spiritual achievement. Verses 8-13 mirror verses 1-3 in the sense that they contrast speaking in tongues, prophesying, and having knowledge with something much greater-"the complete."
Though love will never "fall," prophecies and knowledge will "become useless" and tongues will "stop." These three verbs all may be taken to mean "do away with"; verse 8 is simply reemphasizing verses 1-3. The verb katargew is of special interest since it appears four times in this passage. Friberg defines it: "from the basic sense cause to be idle or useless, the term always denotes a nonphysical destruction by means of a superior force coming in to replace the force previously in effect" (Bibleworks).
Verse 12 simply reviews what has been said previously in verse 10, and verse 10 summarizes verses 8-9. Paul writes, "I know in part, but then I will know myself (epignwsomai, middle voice) even as I am known by God, when the partial is surpassed (katargew) by the complete, that is the partial knowledge and prophecy, which will become unnecessary (katargew)." There seems to be a funneling of the spiritual gifts down to one representative gift, knowledge, from 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 through 12:28-30, 13:1-3, 13:8, 13:9, and finally 13:12. If we connect the thoughts (which I believe we are justified in doing), then once we know ourselves as God knows us, we will not need the spiritual gifts.
The key to determining when the spiritual gifts will be inoperative is interpreting "the complete" and "face to face" accurately. Some students stumble over the English translation of to teleion as "the perfect," but the word focuses more on completeness. It is illustrated by the idea of a man becoming mature out of boyhood, by the experience of seeing something in real life that one might have only seen in old pictures, and by the knowledge God has about us that we will have. "In any case, kaqwV, 'exactly as') divine" (Briggs 299).
Because verses 11-12 are strictly illustrative, and because the phrase "face to face" is ambiguous, used in Numbers 12:6-8 of the Septuagint to speak of God's direct and clear communication with Moses, it is at best risky to understand this phrase as a reference to Christ's second coming. It is better defined as "clearly," in contrast to ainigmati, "obscure." This leaves everything to hang on the interpretation of to teleion, "the complete," for determining the time when spiritual gifts will be made useless.
Richard Hays suggests that verse 10 is simply a general truth, stating that something complete will always surpass, replace, and render useless something partial or incomplete (229). Paul is certainly applying this maxim directly to his present discussion, in which the incomplete thing is the spiritual gifts, represented by prophecy and knowledge in verse 9, and the complete thing is knowledge of ourselves equivalent to God's knowledge of us, taken from verse 12. These ideas are bound together by the repetition of the phrase Historically spiritual gifts became increasingly inactive with the passing of the apostles, as is evident in the writings of the early Church fathers. References to the continued practice of spiritual gifts, especially speaking in tongues, by Irenaeus and Tertullian are tainted by their association with the Montanists and can safely be disregarded. Does this mean that "the complete" has already come? If we rely on the above discussion, we cannot legitimately claim that the writing or collecting of the New Testament has fulfilled what is required in verse 12. Though we agree with God that we are sinful by nature, and though we have the mind of Christ, these do not in any way put us ahead of the apostles and first century Christians.
Finally, let us bear in mind that the incomplete benefits we receive on earth as a result of being God's children are pale in comparison to the complete benefits we will receive when we are changed and made complete in heaven.
