 |  |
didn't know it. God had not revealed it to him. Speaking of the mystery of Christ, Paul
writes that in other ages it "was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles" (Eph. 3: 5). Similarly, as quoted above, Col. 1: 25
states that "the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is
made manifest to His saints". That secret (mystery) having been "hid in God" (Eph.iii.9)
could not have been known by Paul until God revealed it to him in his Roman prison, the
time to which the now refers. Paul could not have known, when writing Corinthians, the
secret of what God would do if the Jewish nation was rejected. Years after writing
I.Corinthians, Paul wrote Romans, the last epistle he wrote during the Acts period, and in
that it is obvious that he still saw the Jews playing the dominant role (e.g. Romans 1: 16;
2: 10; 3: 1; 11: 1, 18, etc.). Thus the secret of Ephesians, with its absolute equality
between Jew and Gentile in all things, must have been revealed to Paul after the writings
of Romans. Thus "that which is perfect" of I Cor. 13: 10 cannot refer to the revelation
of the secret (mystery) of Ephesians.
(5)
What was in Paul's mind in I Cor. 13:?
One of the reasons why believers have trouble in agreeing on the meaning of a
passage of Scripture is "backwards thinking:" not backward thinking but backwards
thinking, retrospective thinking. It is so easy to read into an O.T. passage some truth not
contained in it and not revealed until the New Testament. We can attribute to a verse in
the Gospels something which was not known until after the Lord had ascended. We can
read into an Acts period epistle knowledge which wasn't revealed until after the Jewish
nation had been set aside and the secret (mystery) of Ephesians revealed. Thus in dealing
with any passage, and especially those which are controversial and confusing, we should
attempt to put ourselves in the writer's place. We should look on the passage
prospectively from his point of view, and assume only the knowledge of God's plan that
he had at that time. All too often we view the passage retrospectively, looking back from
our point of view, assuming all the knowledge that is contained in the completed
Scriptures.
Paul wrote I Corinthians during the Acts period and those alive at the time, knew that
it was possible for Christ to return even then. This was why he wrote those controversial
words on not marrying in I Cor. 7: 7: 7-11. Later he explained this and wrote:
"I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a
man so to be . . . . . But this I say, brethren, the time is short; it remaineth, that both they
that have wives be as though they had none" (I Cor. 7: 26, 29).
These Corinthian saints were "waiting for the coming (revelation) of our Lord Jesus
Christ" (I Cor. 1: 7) and in Rom. 13: 12 Paul wrote "the night is far spent, the day is at
hand". John stated "It is the last time (literally last hour)" (I John 2: 18) and James said
"the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" (James 5: 8). In his epistle Peter wrote "the end
of all things is at hand" (I Pet. 4: 7) but it is his speech in Acts that clears up any queries
as to how the Acts period could be "the last hour":