The Apostle now treats with the extent to which love operates and uses panta,

all things, four times. This is a word that always needs great care in the N.T. All sorts of

false conclusions can be adduced from this word unless the nearer and remoter context is

carefully considered. "All things" is not equivalent to "everything universally". Here we

are told "love believeth all things" (verse 7). Does divine love believe everything? If so,

it must believe the false as well as the true! Is it just credulous, or does it carefully select

what it believes?  Surely it should be obvious that "all things" here is limited to

everything that is in accord with truth, and nothing outside of it.

Divine love covers, protects, supports all things that relate to truth ("beareth all

things"). It never ceases to hope ("hopeth all things"); it endures all things. No hardship

or rebuff affects it. In other words, love never fails (verse 8). It survives everything, and

like God Himself (I John 4: 8), it is eternal: in contrast to the evidential gifts which were

only temporary and destined to pass away:

The modern revivers of tongue-speaking and those who mistakenly wish to emulate

them, should consider these statements seriously. Tongues shall cease. The verb is the

future middle indicative and means they shall make themselves cease, or cease

automatically and we know from the testimony of the Acts and the Pauline epistles

written afterwards that this is what actually did occur. There may have been a few

sporadic outbursts late on but these were confined to heretical groups like the Montanists.

As we have seen, there was no more need of prophecy when the N.T. and the whole of

the Scriptures were completed, neither was there for tongues when the earthly kingdom

testimony ceases. This was when Israel finally failed and was temporarily set aside by

God at Acts 28:

The Corinthian believers who were putting a false value on tongues and possibly the

gifts as a whole, were reminded again that this was a mark of spiritual babyhood (see

3: 1-3). "That which is perfect", to teleion, refers to maturity, full-growth, not merely to

a future period of time when the Lord returns--as some teach, but a present personal

possibility (compare 2: 6 and 14: 20 margin). This is reinforced by Paul's personal

experience which he now gives, contrasting his thinking and speaking as a child to his

present adulthood. He can now put away the things that once were necessary to him

when he was an infant. This was also true spiritually. He is now well on the way to full

growth (Phil. 3: 12-14). He can walk by faith and not by sight or sense. He can indeed

come into the category of blessing which the risen Lord indicated, when He said to

Thomas, so limited by his sense experience: "Because thou hast seen me, thou hast

believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20: 29).