---
title: 1 Corinthians 13:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-13-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-13-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 13:10
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 13:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.

## JW Usage

rs explicitly rejects the standard Reformed cessationist reading that "when the perfect comes" refers to the closed biblical canon. Instead, the rs book treats "the perfect" as a still-future eschatological reality. JW commentary thus leaves 13:10's cessation text in limbo — pointing to a future fulfilment rather than a past one — while the rs book simultaneously needs to argue that tongues have already ceased.

## Protestant Usage

13:10 is where the rs argument breaks. The rs book (move #6) says "the perfect" is still future — which means tongues have not yet ceased by Paul's own timing. But rs (move #4) simultaneously claims tongues DID cease at the end of the apostolic era, on the basis of Acts 8 and 19. Both cannot be true. And Acts 10:44-48 breaks move #4 on its own — the Spirit fell on the Gentile household while Peter was still speaking, before any laying-on-of-hands. At the door: "If 'the perfect' is still future, when did tongues cease? And if they ceased because the apostolic channel did, what about Acts 10, where the Spirit falls without any apostolic mediation?"

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Tongues — The Watchtower Case Breaks on Acts 10](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/tongues-cessationism-rebuttal.md) — Acts 10:44-48 / 1 Corinthians 14:39 / 14:2 [Practice]