I am going to use a translation of the Bible [NENT] which is more faithful to the Greek text than the KJV.   I will also be comparing it to the Greek text for verification.  Information obtained from the Greek is in [brackets].

  The last verse of Chapter 12 of I Corinthians actually sets the stage for Chapter 13. "And I show you moreover an excellent way."   What is that more excellent way? 13:1, "If with the tongues of men I speak, and of angels, but have not love {agape}, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal."  Notice, here, that  there is a comparison between some action and Agape love.  "And if prophecy I have, and all the mysteries I know and all knowledge; and if all faith I have, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

  Now let me ask you, has all knowledge ceased, and how about faith?  It's the same kind of comparison.  If this could be construed to say that tongues and prophecy vanished, it would also say that knowledge and faith suffered the same fate, and we know that is not the case.

  "And if I dole out all my goods, and if I give my body that I may glory, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.  Love suffereth long, is kind; love envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, is not unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; covereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall be done away.  For we know in part, and prophesy in part; but when the perfect is come, what is in part shall be done away."   Who is the "perfect" spoken of here? Who was in part?

   The following verse answers this question: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, thought as a child, reasoned as a child: when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.  For now we see by a mirror darkly; [or through a glass in obscurity] but then face to face: now I know in part [partially or imperfectly]; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.  But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greater of these is love.

   Can you see by the many uses of the personal pronoun "I," that Paul was speaking of himself. We Christians are the ones who are imperfect, (in part), and when we are face to face with the Lord, we will have been changed into perfection.  So we will be the "perfect."  Are any of us perfect yet?   The "perfect" here could not refer to Jesus, because He was never "in part," or "imperfect."

   I have highlighted the word "love" in red each time it appears to make it easier to see that the purpose of this whole chapter was to emphasize that love is the greatest attibute of all.

   Now as further proof that Paul was not denigrating the Spiritual gifts, read the first verse of

I Corinthians Chapter 14.  "Pursue LOVE and be emulous of spirituals, but rather that ye may prophecy.  For he that speaks with a tongue, not to men speaks, but to God for no one hears; but in spirit he speaks mysteries."