The word for face here means "the front (as being towards view)." To the lost, the OT has a veil over it - with the NT (and salvation), it is not a glass darkly (enigma, riddle - something hard to figure out), but something we can view clearly now.
Here is the same word used:
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Obviously the glass here is the Word of God - as we see the Lord in the Bible, we are transformed into His image by the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Same word for face.
James 1:23-25 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Same word for face, and the glass is again obviously referring to the Word of God - which is called here "the
perfect law of liberty."
It fits "when that which is perfect is come."
I may not be explaining it very well in this thread - but the two other places where glass is used in the NT, it is referring to the Bible. Some of the same words are used in all three passages - why would this one passage be referring to something totally different?
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I certainly don't believe that sign gifts are in use today, but this verse doesn't present a strong argument to me for that.
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Verses 8-12 all refer to the same thing - the doing away with the sign gifts. I am certainly not trying to make verse 12 stand alone and teach something the rest of the context is not.
I don't say this to make you accept my position, but it is interesting to note that David Cloud, Oliver B. Greene, D.A. Waite, Charles Spurgeon, Dennis Corle, and various other solid men of God hold to this same position (though I may not have explained it as well as them).
Here is part of the study referred to one page one of this thread:
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1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
The word for "see" here means "to behold; perceive." "Glass" means "mirror", and is a compound word. The second part (Strong's #3700) means "to gaze (i.e. with wide-open eyes, as at something remarkable.)" This is in contrast with Strong's #3708, which means "to stare at, i.e. (by implication) to discern clearly (physically or mentally)." "Darkly" is from the Greek word that we get "enigma" from. Webster's defines enigma as "A dark saying, in which some known thing is concealed under obscure language; an obscure question; a riddle." In other words, something that we haven't figured out yet, or that we don't have the whole picture. This corresponds to having only part of the New Testament written at this point in time. (Remember that the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, letter he penned.)
"Face to face" doesn't necessarily mean that we see someone's face, but that we see the front of an object, i.e. that it is towards our view. (#4383) "Now" means "just now; this day (hour); present." The first word for "know" (know in part) is "ginosko" which means "be aware (of), feel, (have) know(-ledge), perceived, can speak, be sure, understand." In other words, at that point in time the believers only had partial revelation, partial knowledge.
The second word for "know" is "epiginosko", and means "to know upon some mark, i.e. recognize; by implication, to become fully acquainted with, to acknowledge." This doesn't have to refer to when we get "full knowledge" in Heaven, but when we get the finished (perfect), full canon of Scripture, which was completed when the Apostle John wrote the final book of the Bible: the book of Revelation. Now that we have the complete Bible we can understand the types and pictures of Christ, prophecies, etc. in the Old Testament which were just enigmas to us before. We need the New Testament to completely understand and properly interpret the Old Testament. Up until the end of the first century, believers were missing part of the picture; they only knew in part. Now we can know fully what the Lord intends to reveal to His children, by interpreting the Old Testament in light of the New. (See 2 Peter 1:3-4 and Deuteronomy 29:29) There will not be further revelation beyond the complete (perfect - Psalm 19:7; James 1:25) Bible. (See the warning at the end of the Bible: Revelation 22:18-19)
James 1:22-25 is a perfect capstone to this train of logic, and is a parallel passage of Scripture speaking about the same things.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Here we have many of the same Greek words again. "Beholding" (#2657) means "to observe fully:--behold, consider, discover, perceive." "Face" is Strong's #4383 again. The idea here is being face to face with our own reflection, not face to face with the Saviour. I believe the first passage I covered is referring to the same thing. And James said that as we look into the Scriptures we "observe fully" ourselves. The word for "looketh" in verse 25 means "to bend beside, i.e. lean over (so as to peer within); look (into)."
Finally, there is one more parallel passage:
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The word for "open" means "to unveil." Face is the same word. To "behold as in a glass" means "to mirror oneself, i.e. to see reflected (figuratively)." We are seeing ourselves (our own reflections) in the glass (mentioned in all three passages.) As we see ourselves as we really are, and as we see Jesus Christ in the Scriptures we are changed into His image, His likeness. We are transformed, "metamorphosized" (Strong's #3339) through the reading and studying of God's Word! (See Romans 12:2 and Colossians 3:10)
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