Love never fails; but whether prophecies, they shall be done away; or tongues, they shall cease; or knowledge, it shall be done away.
The verse just before this described what love does and does not do. Here love stands beside three spiritual gifts — prophecy, tongues, and knowledge — and only love lasts.
Love as Nature, Not Gift
Commentators trace love's permanence back to its source. It lasts because of what it is, not because of how well anyone uses it.
"Love never fails." It cannot fail or stop. It is the very life of God. Those born of Him will live that life for ever in His presence, once everything holding it back is gone. It is a nature, not a gift — except that life itself is the gift of Him who is the life-giving Spirit. But special gifts and displays of the Spirit must cease with the occasion that called them forth.
Gifts Fitted to a Passing Condition
The three things listed are not faulty. They simply match a situation that will not last.
Prophecies and knowledge will end. Tongues will stop. But love lasts. They suit the time we live in now. They are only partial. They do not fit the perfect state, where no evil exists and love is fully at work. Love belongs in glory. Partial, passing helps end when glory comes.
Prophecy and the Need It Serves
Prophecy answers a need. Remove the need, and the gift has nothing left to do.
Verses 8 to 13 now deal with love's permanence. It never fails. So it stands in contrast to prophecies, tongues, and knowledge. Prophecy is only for a condition in which people need building up, encouragement, and comfort. Even in the millennium, prophecy will no longer be necessary (Zech. 13:2-5).
Tongues and the Scattering of Nations
Writers link the many languages of earth back to Babel. There God stopped one united human project by confusing their speech.
Tongues attract the worldly mind of fallen human nature. But they will stop. In the new creation, when all things have become new, there will be only one language. Tongues are a reminder of the pride of man, when he set out to build a city and a tower with its top reaching to heaven. But God stepped in and broke the power of man… by confusing their language, giving them tongues to weaken them.
Another writer draws the same line, adding what replaces the confusion: the differences between languages mark how far the nations stand from God, and "in heaven there are many voices, but one speech."
Knowledge That Measures Our Ignorance
The hardest of the three to accept is that knowledge will pass. Writers explain that what disappears is not truth, but the partial way we hold it now.
Knowledge, or the partial knowledge that we have at the present time, will be done away. The knowledge we have now is not full knowledge. It is something we keep adding to. That alone proves how much we do not know. However much we take in of the truth here, it always stays knowledge "in part".
One writer pictures the change: our knowing and prophesying fade when perfection comes "just as the moon fails and vanishes away in the light of the sun."
Gifts as a Measure of Ourselves
The gifts that shine are the ones that pass. So what we prize shows where we stand.
The contrast is between the most shining gifts, which pass, and the lasting marks of divine life in believers. The more we live by our old nature, the more mere gifts dazzle us. The more we live by the Spirit, the more we value faith, hope, and love.
Available to Everyone
The one thing that lasts is not handed out to some and withheld from others. So this verse reaches the believer with no gift at all.
You say, I have no gift. Possibly so, but you can love. Every Christian can do that. And it is worth more than the brightest gift. Love is the nature of God. It seeks the good of others, and thinks of everybody but itself. What chapter 13 says of love is the divine nature showing itself again. It is the life of Jesus, and love abides for ever.
Summary
- Nature. Love does not fail because it is not a gift handed out but the very life of God in those born of Him.
- Prophecy. It serves souls who need building up and comfort; when that need is gone, the gift is finished.
- Tongues. Many languages mark a scattered race; they stop when the reason for the scattering stops.
- Knowledge. We know only "in part," which shows how little we know. That partial knowing ends when the full comes.
- Love. Everything fitted to the present state passes; love fits glory — so a believer with no gift already holds the one thing that lasts.