Perfection in Jesus Return
There is also, of course, a group who believe that gifts
continue. Generally, the belief held within this group is
that the return of Jesus, being the culmination of all things,
is the time of perfection spoken of by Paul in 1 Corinthians
chapter 13, and is therefore the time when gifts, which are
presumed to be imperfect, will no longer be needed.
Whilst agreeing about the continuation of gifts to present
times and beyond, I can see no contextual evidence in 1
Corinthians which supports that particular view. In 1
Corinthians, Paul is not speaking about end times, but
about order, growth, and in particular, maturity in the
church. He speaks about gifts and their operation, their
purpose and the context of their administration within and
towards the love of God. When the Bible speaks of end
times, the Greek word telos is used. It is normally part of
a contextual phrase, such as “end times” or “end of the
age”, for example, Matthew chapter 24
If it is used alone – “the end” – then it is also held in a
context. An example of this is Matthew 24 verse 14,
where Jesus, speaking at length about the signs of the “end
times”, and of “His coming”, concludes with the words,
“then the end will come”. If we return now to 1
Corinthians 13, we discover a very different context and,
although the Greek word seems to be superficially similar
to that used to when speaking of the end times, it is in fact a
quite different word, teleion which is never used to
describe “the end”.
It seems difficult to prove from the scriptures then, that the
work of the Holy Spirit came to an end either at the
completion of the scriptures, or the end of what has become
known as the Apostolic Era. Indeed many would argue that
the era of the apostle is not over at all. The belief of many
charismatics that the gifts will cease at the return of Christ
also fails to stand up to scrutiny. None of these theories,
then, answer the question raised by 1 Corinthians 13: When
does the perfect come? However, before I go on to
consider the answer to that question, there is one more
issue that must be addressed.