8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.Paul's purpose is to show the superiority of love to prophecies, tongues, and knowledge; and even to faith and hope.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
In the course of making this argument, the apostle states that tongues, knowledge, and
prophecy are all temporary gifts. No Christian should argue this point; the apostle states it directly. And so, no Christian should deny that tongues, knowledge, and prophecy were deliberately temporary gifts, gifts of limited "shelf-life," if you will.And I think you should grant that all these are revelatory gifts, according to the Bible. "Tongues" is the miraculously-given ability to speak in unlearned human languages. "Prophecy" is the reception and communication of direct, inerrrant, binding revelation from God (Exodus Exodus 4:14-16; 7:1; Deuteronomy 18:15-22). "Knowledge" is exegetically more problematic, but I take it to be revelatory understanding of theological truth (1 Corinthians 12:8).
Now, where Christians part company is the time by which those gifts will pass. The apostle clearly says that the contributions of knowledge and prophecy are piecemeal, they are bit-
by-bit (ἐκ μέρους, v. 9); and he says that the piecemeal will be replaced by the complete or perfect (τὸ τέλειον, to teleion, v. 10). Now, I have argued that the best contextual counterpart to the bit-by-bit process of revelation is the completed product, which would be the completed Canon of Scripture. But that is definitely a minority-opinion today, and (like the other views, by the way) it has its problems.Regardless, what you must agree is that these were designed to be temporary gifts. You cannot take the position that they are permanent. Whether you think they function with full canonical authority until Christ's return (which, I think, is the worst position), or cease at some time previous (better), you must admit that they are temporary. Paul says so.
And that is the thing about 1 Corinthians 13:8-13.