Good morning. Love never fails. Everything else may fail, but
love does not. Paul then lists some things that will “fail“; that is,
disappear. But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there
are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
These are things that are important in the “here and now”; but there will come
a time when they won’t be necessary. Then they will no longer exist. There are
some groups that try to use these verses to say that the gifts of the Spirit no
longer exist, and that tongues for every day personal use no longer exists. For
we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the
partial will be done away. These people say that the “perfect“ is the New
Testament in its complete present form. Therefore we don’t need these things;
and they have ceased. We will return to that idea later. Father You are love,
and You never fail.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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