Love is one of the spiritual gifts given to us. This daily devotional looks at which ones are temporary and which ones are eternal and how we grow in Him.
Nuggets
- Spiritual gifts are temporary, but love is not.
- Prophecy and knowledge were used as examples of spiritual gifts that are temporary.
- Paul’s intent was to use our physical developmental stages to show spiritual developmental stages.
- What we see now with the eyes of our hearts, we will see and know fully then.
Devotions in How to Love Our Neighbors series
Paul had been discussing spiritual gifts. Then he started discussing how love is related.
In these verses, Paul continued that discussion. He showed how love is eternal and spiritual gifts are temporary.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Temporary v. Eternal
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away” (I Cor. 13: 8 ESV)
Spiritual gifts are temporary, but love is not.
Love is the first gift listed in the spiritual gifts list. It is a spiritual grace that is never going to end.
Of course not. God is love, and God is eternal.
There is no way love is going to end.
Paul identified some of the spiritual gifts as temporary. The gifts won’t be complete until we are perfected.
When Jesus returns, we won’t need the special gifts because we have been perfected. Prophecy is going to end because we will be with God eternally. We won’t need to have the future prophesied for us.
I was surprised that knowledge was listed. To me, when we get to Heaven, we will have all knowledge. Faith will become sight, which, to me, brings the knowledge.
Blackburn explained this was exactly why it would end. He wrote, “We are here to grow in knowledge in childhood and employ our gifts till we come to the full stature of Christian manhood (ver. 11; Ephesians 4:11-13).” Lyth argued that knowledge disappears because of a higher event.
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The event is our coming home and being perfected.
The spiritual gifts were designed for this world. They have to pass away.
We will be changed into our perfected being and become as Jesus is. We will truly be made new.
Knowledge and Prophecy
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (I Cor. 13: 9-10 ESV)
Prophecy and knowledge were used as examples of spiritual gifts that are temporary.
Have you ever made the connection between prophecy and knowledge? Prophecy is knowing something about the future that others don’t. The prophet shared that knowledge with the others.
I have never thought of this before, but the gifts themselves are not perfect. We love — but not everyone and not all the time. We know our knowledge is limited because we don’t have God’s knowledge.
We also have to understand the knowledge that we do have may not be totally correct. We don’t understand God’s ways. Science is only man’s way trying to understand God’s ways. It doesn’t prove anything.
I know. We get all caught up sometimes in the fact that the Holy Spirit doesn’t reveal everything to us.
Our pride is threatened, and our independence is weakened.
Parsons reminded us why these imperfections exist in this life.
- We have a sinful nature.
- We aren’t as intellectually strong as we think we are.
- This is part of God’s plan.
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Elsewhere, Paul described our lack of knowledge the result of having a veil present. “But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ” (II Cor. 3: 14 ESV).
The veil is removed by believing in Christ. We know that Christ is revealed to us all throughout our lives.
God wants us to live right now by faith, not by knowledge and sight. He wants us to put our trust in Him.
One day, “…the partial will pass away” (I Cor. 13: 9-10 ESV). Then all the sorrow and the imperfections will be removed.
As We Mature
“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” (I Cor. 13: 11 ESV)
Paul’s intent was to use our physical developmental stages to show spiritual developmental stages.
Paul did something unusual here. He referenced his own childhood.
What Paul was saying could apply to anyone. We all display childlike characteristics until we mature.
Robertson argued that even our most mature selves should be equated to being childlike when compared to our heavenly being.
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Jesus told us several times that we needed to be like children. “ And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18: 3 ESV).
We need to have childlike simplicity, wonder, and faith. We shouldn’t lose our sense of truthfulness. We need to stay humble.
But God doesn’t want us to stay milk babies. We need to grow in grace and knowledge as we navigate the Sanctification Road. This process of sanctification is how we become steak adults.
Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
We grow through obedience. We have to diligently seek God.
Rogers and Rawnsley gave us a list of what we should give up as we mature in our faith.
- Ignorance
- Narrowness
- Feebleness
- Silliness
- Selfishness
- Lack of self control
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We have to remember here that we are talking about mature love. Armitage reminded us that mature love is self-sacrificing and yielding. We have to get it down to the heart level.
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Knowing because Seeing
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (I Cor. 13: 12 ESV)
What we see now with the eyes of our hearts, we will see and know fully then.
We can’t physically see God. We don’t understand all of His ways.
I mean, can’t the Trinity be difficult to understand? Do we really grasp everything in the how and why Jesus redeems us?
Then we have the whole process of salvation to wade through. Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
Glossary
What we do see of Him is seen through the eyes of our heart.
We don’t always see each other clearly. Many times, we don’t see them through love.
Chapin nailed it. He wrote, “Faith, therefore, is the only legitimate conclusion from the capacity of seeing at all.”
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We can only see God through faith. Faith is a gift from God that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Glossary
God only reveals part of Himself in Scriptures. He waits until we are His children to reveal more. Part of me thinks He will be revealing Himself to us throughout eternity.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Making the Connections
Knowledge shouldn’t be our goal. Foster told us why. He wrote, “But knowledge is not a state of the dispositions, but an intellectual relation with anything which can come within the sphere of its apprehension.”
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Knowledge isn’t who we are. Love is supposed to be who we are.
That love comes from God. Edwards told us how. He wrote, “The love of God the Father flows out toward Christ the head, and to all the members through Him.”
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God loves non-believers, but His love for us is funneled through His Son. If we don’t accept Jesus through the Plan of Salvation, we don’t receive all the love we can. He has made it abundantly clear that His loving us alone is not enough.
The love has to flow through Jesus.
How Do We Apply This?
- We should desire love because we are to reflect God’s love.
- We must return God’s love.
- Jealousy shouldn’t be an option as it diminishes love.
- The worldview will try to steal it — we can’t let it.
- Love has to be expressed through decency and wisdom.
- We should be childlike, not childish.
- We must approach God humbly.
- We are called to diligently seek God.
- All we do in this life should make us want Heaven more.
- Be grateful for what God does reveal to us.
- Be patient as we grow in grace and knowledge.
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Father God. Thank You for revealing to us what we need to know when we need to know it. Help us to understand what You tell us and be patient when You don’t reveal everything to us. Most of all, help us grow in grace and knowledge. Amen.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
What do you think?
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