hted faith.

29. Sixteenth, love never faileth; that means, it abides forever, also
in the life to come. It never gives up, never permits itself to be
hindered or defeated by the wickedness or ingratitude of men, as do
worldly individuals and false saints, who, immediately on perceiving
contempt or ingratitude, draw back, unwilling to do further good to
any, and, rendering themselves quite inhuman, become perfect
misanthropes like Timon in his reputation among the Greeks. Love does
not so. It permits not itself to be made wicked by the wickedness of
men, nor to be hindered in well-doing. It continues to do good
everywhere, teaching and admonishing, aiding and serving,
notwithstanding its services and benefits must be rewarded, not by
good, but by evil. Love remains constant and immovable; it continues,
it endures, in this earthly life and also in the life to come. The
apostle adds, "Whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away;
whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall be done away." Love he commends above all other
endowments, as a gift that can never pass, even in the life to come.
Those other gifts, the boast of the false apostles, are bestowed only
for this present life, to serve in the administering of the
ministerial office. Prophecy, tongues, knowledge, all must cease; for
in yonder life each individual will himself perceive perfectly and
there will be no need for one to teach another. Likewise, all
differences, all inequalities, shall be no more. No knowledge and no
diversity of gifts is necessary; God himself will be all in every
soul. 1 Cor 15, 28.

30. Here Paul gives utterance to the distinction between the life of
faith here below and that heavenly life of divine vision. He would
teach that we have in this life and the other the same possession, for
it is the same God and the same treasures which we have here by faith
and there by sight. In the objects themselves there is no difference;
the difference consists in our knowledge. We have the same God in both
lives, but in different manner of possession. The mode of possessing
God in this life is faith. Faith is an imperfect, obscure vision,
which makes necessary the Word, which, in turn, receives vogue through
the ministry, tongues and prophecy. Without the Word, faith cannot
live. But the mode of possessing God in the future life is not faith
but sight. This is perfect knowledge, rendering unnecessary the Word