1 Corinthians 13:8–13 and the Cessation of Miraculous Gifts

140 Detroit Baptist Seminary Journalthe second half of the analogy with the meaning of the statement, “Iwill know fully just as I also have been fully known.” The majorityopinion is that Paul is once again addressing events surrounding thereturn of Christ. As such, the statement is interpreted to mean that, inconjunction with Christ’s return and the church’s being gathered tostand before Him, believers will know God as fully then as they arefully known by God now. 121There are a number of problems with this interpretation that makeit unacceptable. The first is that this interpretation, in effect, says toomuch. It blurs the creator–creature distinction by equating in someway, at least, the believer’s knowledge of God with God’s knowledge ofthe believer. A number of those championing this interpretation sensethis tension. They attempt to mitigate the tension by adding qualifiersto the effect that the verse does not say what this interpretation seems toimply. The knowledge the believer will have of God is similar in onlysome ways, they explain, to the knowledge God has of the believer. 122Such qualifications, however, are not supported by the text. The expressionPaul employs in the comparison, “just as,” does not permit qualifyingor lessening the force of the comparison. The expression is used anumber of times elsewhere by Paul, always in the sense of an exact correspondence.123The second problem with the above interpretation is that it is supportedby a faulty understanding of the preceding analogy and themeaning of “face to face.” As noted above, the majority interpret Paul’sstatement about seeing “face to face” literally as a reference to seeing121 E.g., Carson, Showing the Spirit, p. 70; Thomas, Understanding Spiritual Gifts,p. 83; Turner, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts, pp. 294–95; Grudem, The Gift ofProphecy, pp. 196–97.122 For example, Grudem adds, “The second and third word for ‘know’—the onefor ‘then I shall know even as I have been known’—is a somewhat stronger word forknowing (Greek epiginōskō), but certainly does not imply infinite knowledge or omniscience.Paul does not expect to know all things, and he does not say, ‘Then I shall knowall things,’ which would have been easy in Greek. Rather, he means that when the Lordreturns, Paul expects to be freed from the misconceptions and inabilities to understand(especially to understand God and his work) that are part of this present life. Hisknowledge will resemble God’s present knowledge of him because it will contain nofalse impressions and will not be limited to what is perceivable in this age. But suchknowledge will only occur when the Lord returns” (The Gift of Prophecy, p. 197).123 Spicq identifies the precise force of the comparative construction: “The expression‘even as’ (kathōs; St. Paul uses the word twenty-five times) means ‘exactly as’; itmakes an exact comparison…. It always has this sense when God or Christ is beingpresented as model” (Agape in the New Testament, 2:166). Interestingly enough, Spicqstill interprets 13:12 as referring to the Lord’s return. His conclusions underscore thetensions with this interpretation: “The vision of God face to face has its motive, itsraison d’être, in the loving knowledge which God has of us, and our knowledge of himwill correspond exactly to his knowledge of us” (ibid.).