His point is that neither prophecy nor knowledge is exhaustive (cf. Job 11:7–8). The knowledge believers enjoy is true but not comprehensive. In the age to come there will be no need for such gifts since what is partial and incomplete will pass away.

In other words, if the Corinthians want to truly lay hold of the “perfection” of the future in the here and now, then they must pursue love, for it has genuine abiding value. To say it another way, “the perfect” is the consummation of all things of which love holds a prominent place. When perfection arrives, love will be present but the gifts will not. The true indicator of maturity/spirituality is love, not the exercise of the temporal gifts.

10. The ‘perfect’ (teleion, CSB; or, as the NIV says, completeness) is coming, and when it arrives gifts like prophecy and knowledge ‘will come to an end’ (NRSV). The Corinthians’ penchant for exalting spiritual gifts is punctured. As wonderful as gifts are, they are provisional and partial. When perfection arrives, they will be left behind for ever. What is the ‘perfect’ here? Some have suggested that it is the New Testament canon. Once the New Testament canon was completed and established, spiritual gifts were no longer needed, or at least (according to this reading) the more dramatic spiritual gifts were dispensed with. Others have suggested that the ‘perfect’ here refers to spiritual maturity and not to the close of the canon. Still, it is suggested that when the canon of Scripture was completed believers attained spiritual maturity; thus dramatic gifts like prophecy and tongues were dispensable.

Both of these interpretations are unconvincing, especially as the interpretation of the ‘perfect’ is tied up with how we understand verse 12 (see below). I will argue in verse 12 that Paul refers to Christ’s future coming and thus to the end of present history. The ‘perfect’ then refers to the arrival of the eschaton, when all God’s purposes for human beings will be realized and fulfilled. A reference to the completion of the New Testament canon should be rejected, for even though Paul knew his words and writings were authoritative, he had no conception that they would be collected and included in the New Testament for hundreds and thousands of years. Paul expected Jesus to return soon; this is not to say he was mistaken since he did not set an exact date. The spiritual maturity view is also unpersuasive since it is scarcely evident that believers today are more spiritually mature now that the canon has been completed than believers were in the New Testament era. Once again, the argument assumes that Paul was aware that a New Testament canon would be developed and, even more improbable, that the Corinthians would understand this. There is no textual or historical reason to think the Corinthians would grasp that Paul was writing about the New Testament canon, and it is quite improbable that Paul would write about something that he knew the Corinthians would not and could not understand.