What is "the Perfect"?

[Matt McCarnan]

From your studies, what does "the perfect" refer to in 1 Cor. 13.10 ("...when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away." [ESV])?

I know of at least two interpretations, both of which greatly affect the interpretation of other related concepts and passages.

[redfish]

There are 3 common interpretations by conservatives that I've found.



The first one I wouldn't buy even if it was on sale:

1) The "perfect" is the Bible in codex form (some even say KJV in specific) and is used as an ambiguous prooftext that the Bible is a total replacement for the revelatory gifts of prophecy and tongues. I personally do NOT speak in tongues NOR do I ever offer revelatory prophecy, but using this text to say it's been done away with is abuse of the Scriptures, there's no way to logically prove this interpretation without hermeneutical gymnastics.



The other two sound more plausible:

2) The Second Coming of Christ: Whether folks interpret this as the rapture, or His coming to establish the Millenium, or however they interpret the 2nd Coming of Christ. Christ is the only thing humanly speaking worth calling "perfect". I'm still not convinced on this one, but certainly more sensible than the above statement.


3) The New Jerusalem (aka Heaven) and our resurrected, glorified state: this is the one I lean toward. Look closely at Paul's discourse in ch 13, he's taking you on a time travel. He says "love never ends. Then he also says when I was a child, I spoke like a child, when I became a man, I put aside childish things. Comparing a child to a man seems to be to be an analogy of comparing the glorified man to the current state of sinful man. He says "we will see face to face...know fully....and be fully known". This still further suggests to me the glorified state.


"perfect" in the Greek is τὸ τέλειον, meaning "completed", which, of course, stiff further suggests the glorified state.

[Michael Morris]

...that the "perfect" refers to our glorified and fully sanctified state. In addition to the points mentioned, there is something else I would like to "throw out". Paul tells us in verse 8 that love never ends. He goes on to tell us in verse 13 that "now" faith, hope, and love abide.

In the eternal state one could reasonably argue that we will only have love...faith and hope will no longer be needed. The bible defines faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb 11:1). In the eternal state we will have that which we hope for, our hope will be fulfilled and we will see our Savior as he is.

The presence of "faith" in our glorified state would be a matter of one's definition of faith of course. Interesting question.