1 Corinthians 13:8-10 Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease… The Christian's experience of Christ is in this life only partial: partial love is followed by partial knowledge. 1. He knows something of the welcome of Jesus. 2. He knows something of communion with Jesus. 3. He knows, too, in part, the spirit of service to Jesus. 4. A Christian knows also, in part, likeness to Christ.But all these brightest moments, these deepest joys, these noblest moods, are to be eclipsed, forgotten, counted as nothing, "when that which is perfect is come." To the Christian this is coming. All else is going. What, then, can compare with the claims and the charms of the spiritual life? Suppose there were on earth a country where, in health, that which is perfect had come; where, in purity of character, that which is perfect had come; where, in all the tender relations of domestic life, that which was perfect had come; where, in society and in government, in cottage and in palace, that which is perfect had come; where, in man, and field, and air and sky, that which was perfect had come; — how ships would groan with human cargoes destined for its shores! In comparison, fields of gold and seas of pearl would cease to draw. Yet the brightest conception of such a state falls immeasurably below what the dying Christian finds in heaven. (Benjamin Waugh.) Parallel Verses KJV: Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. |
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