Note 23 at 1Co 13:8: Paul summed up his description of God's kind of love by saying that it never fails. He was saying that it will never cease. We will still be walking in God's kind of love throughout eternity. That's why it is so important that we operate all the gifts of the Spirit through God's kind of love. Prophecies will fail and tongues will cease, but love will abide forever.

Note 24 at 1Co 13:8: Paul was not saying that it is inevitable that some prophecies will be inaccurate. Instead, he was saying that there will come a time when there will not be prophecies anymore. In eternity, when we know all things even as we are known, we won't need the gift of prophecy anymore. He was contrasting the temporariness of prophecy with the permanentness of love, to increase the value we place on God's kind of love.

Note 25 at 1Co 13:8: Some people have used this scripture and the following few verses to say that the gift of tongues has ceased and is no longer in operation today. That is not the case (see note 28 at 1Co 13:10). However, when we have glorified bodies and know all things, even as we are known, then there will not be a need to speak in tongues anymore. Paul was contrasting the temporariness of the gift of tongues with the permanentness of God's love, just as he did with prophecy (see note 24 at this verse), to increase the value of love.

Note 26 at 1Co 13:8: In all three of the comparisons in this verse, Paul was showing the relative worth of love. Love is greater than prophecy, tongues, and knowledge (1Co 13:13). "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth" (1Co 8:1). Knowing the love of Christ in an experiential way is superior to plain knowledge (Eph 3:19).

When Paul said that knowledge would vanish away, he was not speaking of all knowledge. In this very context, he said, "Then shall I know even as also I am known" (1Co 13:12). We will have knowledge, but it will be God's perfect, complete knowledge, not the corruptible carnal knowledge that we now possess.