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1 Corinthians 13:1-13 MSG
[1] If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but donât love, Iâm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. [2] If I speak Godâs Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, âJump,â and it jumps, but I donât love, Iâm nothing. [3-7] If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I donât love, Iâve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, Iâm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesnât want what it doesnât have. Love doesnât strut, Doesnât have a swelled head, Doesnât force itself on others, Isnât always âme first,â Doesnât fly off the handle, Doesnât keep score of the sins of others, Doesnât revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. [8-10] Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. [11] When I was an infant at my motherâs breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. [12] We donât yet see things clearly. Weâre squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it wonât be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! Weâll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! [13] But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.







Often times, Charismaniacs use verse 9 to justify their prophecies being wrong, while the Cessationists on the opposite end of the spectrum say that in verse 10, the “Complete” (they’ll quote from KJV as “that which is perfect”) refers to the biblical canon (to say that since we are not continuing to add to the canonical story of the scriptures, the spiritual gifts have ceased). The most likely interpretation is that this is all referring to us currently not having perfect knowledge and understanding (both intellectual and supernatural) until we are resurrected into our new bodies.