1 Corinthians 13:8-10 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Love never faileth It accompanies us to, prepares us for, and adorns us in eternity; nay, it is the very felicity of heaven. In these respects it materially differs from, and has an apparent advantage over, many of those gifts which some are so ready to emulate and pursue, to the neglect and injury of this love. For whether there be prophecies, they shall fail When all things foretold are accomplished, and God is all in all. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease For one language shall prevail among all the inhabitants of heaven, and all the low and imperfect languages of earth shall be forgotten. Whether there be knowledge Such as we now pursue with the greatest eagerness, the knowledge of the fleeting, transitory things of earth, and affairs of men, conducive as it is to our present usefulness; it shall vanish away As starlight is lost in that of the mid-day sun, so our present knowledge in the light of eternity. For we know in part, we prophesy in part The wisest of men have here but short, narrow, and imperfect conceptions, even of the things round about them, and much more of the deep things of God. And even the prophecies which men deliver from God are far from taking in the whole of future events, or of that wisdom and knowledge of God which is treasured up in the Scripture revelation. But when that which is perfect is come As in the heavenly state it shall; then that which is only in part shall be done away Both that poor, low, imperfect, glimmering light, which is all the knowledge we now can attain to, and these slow and unsatisfactory methods of attaining it, as well as of imparting it to others.