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1 Corinthians 13:10
"But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."
KJV

 

Comments:

There is a lot of controversy in Christendom over what "that which is perfect" really is.  When examining passages such as this it is important to consider both the immediate context and what the entire body of scripture supports.  God's will on any subject is to be understood in light of what everything bearing on that subject has to say about it.  With that said, we'll first look at more of the context and then examine what we learn from it.    

1 Corinthians 13:8-10
"8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."

First of all we need to take notice of the fact that verse 10 is looking to the arrival of something in the future so we can rightly conclude that whatever it is that is yet to come has not arrived yet. 

Second, we need to understand that what is yet to come is going to serve as a permanent replacement of what is "in part" and will serve in its place more completely.  Both that which is "in part" and "that which is perfect" are not going to co-exist.   Therefore an identification of that which is "in part" will be significant in identifying "that which is perfect".  What is to pass away was only a temporary thing to serve a specific purpose until such time that its more complete replacement arrived on the scene.  When this happened, the temporary would be obsolete and be done away with. 

The immediate context in view is prophecies, tongues and knowledge.  Verse 9 says that "we", meaning the body of all Christians individually had partial knowledge and partial prophetic ability.  In other words, no one person had all knowledge and could prophecy completely.   Tongues and Prophecy was in connection with the miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit, therefore we conclude that knowledge is also miraculous knowledge.  There is a more complete listing of all the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit earlier in 1 Corinthians 12:7-10:

"7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to another the interpretation of tongues :"
KJV

So at the time of the writing of Pauls 1st letter to the Corinthians that which is "in part" would be replaced in the future with something more complete, permanent and better able to serve in the same capacity.  Miraculous knowledge and prophecy served as a source for the will of God in the infancy of the church before the scriptures had been written, hand copied, distributed and made available throughout the known world.  without the written record of God's will, first century Christians had no way of knowing the complete will of God.  They knew part of it but not all of it because none of them had complete knowledge with the exception of the apostles.  So until this was accomplished the Holy Spirit helped them along with partial knowledge and prophecy.  When the need for this was no longer necessary the gifts of the Holy Spirit would be replaced with a complete written record of God's will for man.  

In the account of Simon the sorcerer we learn that the gifts of the Holy Ghost were passed to others only from the hands of an apostle as recorded Acts 8:18-19, "And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost."  Simon recognized the fact that he could not pass the gifts of the Holy Spirit on and he wanted to buy that ability.  Philip the evangelist traveled to Samaria with the gospel but he was not an apostle.  The Samaritans could not receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost until Peter and John arrived to lay their hands on them.  So we know from scripture that the miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit have passed from the scene because 20 centuries removed, there can be nobody left alive who received these gifts from an apostle. 

We know that the miraculous gifts were temporary.  We know that only an apostle could pass them on.  We know that the miraculous gifts of knowledge and prophecy served in an instructional capacity for the first century Christians.  So the question then becomes, what is it that would serve in an instructional capacity to Christians which would be complete and permanent?  The answer to that question is the identification of "that which is perfect".  We understand this to be the complete written record of God's will for man.