Spiritual Gifts
Paul Said “The Perfect” Was Coming. What Was He Talking About?
Why the book argues that Paul’s “perfect thing” was the completed apostolic Word rather than Christ’s return.
START WITH PAUL’S CONTRAST
Something partial was giving way to something complete.
Paul names prophecy, tongues, and knowledge among gifts that would not remain permanently. In the book’s reading of 1 Corinthians 13, those gifts belonged to a period in which the apostolic message was still being revealed, communicated, and confirmed.
That makes Paul’s contrast important. He does not merely say that certain gifts would stop. He places their disappearance alongside the arrival of what is complete.
LOOK AT THE WORD PAUL USED
The manuscript argues that Paul wrote about a perfect thing—not a perfect person.
The book places special weight on the Greek expression to teleion. It argues that the expression is neuter and therefore points to a completed thing rather than identifying the arriving subject as Christ Himself.
On that reading, the question becomes: what complete thing would replace partial prophecy, tongues, and supernatural knowledge? The manuscript answers: the completed apostolic deposit preserved in the written Word.
THE GIFTS SERVED THE FOUNDATION
The tools were temporary because the foundation was not.
The book reads 1 Corinthians 13 alongside passages describing the church as built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ as the cornerstone. Paul also said that he had laid a foundation and that no other foundation could be laid.
Its illustration is simple: the miraculous gifts were scaffolding used while the house was being built. Once the foundation and written apostolic message were complete, the scaffold had accomplished its purpose.
PAUL EXPECTED COMPLETION
The argument does not stop with one verse.
The manuscript connects 1 Corinthians 13 with Jude 3, which speaks of the faith delivered once for all, and with 2 Peter 1:3, where Peter says that everything pertaining to life and godliness had been granted through the knowledge of Christ.
It also points to Ephesians 4:11–13, where apostles, prophets, and other foundational ministries are described as functioning until maturity and full knowledge are reached.
THE QUESTION BEHIND THE QUESTION
If the complete apostolic deposit arrived, what remained unfinished?
This is why the identity of the “perfect thing” matters so much to the book’s larger argument. If Paul expected an authoritative completion of the apostolic message, later claims of additional revelation must be tested against what had already been delivered.
The manuscript therefore treats 1 Corinthians 13 not as an isolated proof text, but as one part of a larger New Testament pattern of foundation, revelation, confirmation, and completion.
Why It Matters
For Don L. Wood’s argument, the decisive contrast is between the partial and the complete. Prophecy, tongues, and supernatural knowledge belonged to the period in which the apostolic foundation was being laid. The “perfect thing” is presented as the completed Word those temporary gifts were serving. That conclusion becomes the bridge to the next question: if the foundation was complete, why would the miraculous scaffolding remain?