Paul’s primary point in chapter 13 is to set the spiritual gifts of chapter 12 in their proper apocalyptic context. They are temporal: “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (vv. 8–10). Unlike love, which endures into the age to come, the gifts of the Spirit are designed by God to “pass away” at the Parousia. Paul’s temporal pneumatology fits well within a traditional Jewish apocalyptic approach to history. The various gifts of the Spirit (12:4–11) and offices for the administration of those gifts (12:27–31) are intended to be understood within a two-age framework. They are meant to confirm Jesus’ messianic status and thus “sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:8). - John P. Harrigan