Last night (Wednesday) at Connect Group we had, as usual, a very stimulating discussion and sharing time. We also had a lot of laughs and some pretty deep wrestling with some of the biblical texts in our study guide. As usual there was a rabbit hole, or two, that we went down together and these are always most rewarding times of discovery. You never do know what’s at the end of a rabbit hole, right? But often, in our group (and it’s probably the case in other groups, too), some of the best discussions and discoveries come to light after we’ve just prayed to conclude our night together. This happened again last night.
Someone just asked a question about 1 Corinthians 13. There was a particular passage that they had been mulling over in their daily Bible reading time, and they wanted the group’s take on it. The passage in question is below. As we read it together and unpacked it wonderful revelation was given to us. I share some of this here.
1 Corinthians 13:9-10 & 12 (NIV)
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 12 … For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
Another translation renders it this way …
1 Corinthians 13:9-10 & 12 (NLT)
“Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. … 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
The apostle is explaining that the worldly and spiritual reality in which we live right now – even as born agains with the mind of Christ is not fully knowable right now. There is so much about which we do not know. At best we have fuzzy or blurred understanding despite our own amazing brilliance. Compared to God, for us it’s all partial. He uses the analogy of looking into a mirror and still only seeing reality in a puzzling or unclear way. Of course, the kind of mirror to which Paul is referring is not the kind of mirror in our bathrooms at home which we take for granted today. At best (and these were not cheap, either) mirrors in Paul’s day were highly polished bronze plates (or some other kind of polished metal, not glass) by which one could make out their image in general – enough to comb hair or adjust clothing. However, depending on the quality of those mirrors one could see a rough outline and some kind of semblance of one’s face, or a bit more if you paid enough money for a high-quality item. But none of these were anywhere near as good as what we use today. Crystal clear did not exist in everyday life. And so, Paul makes the point that we would look into that kind of mirror and know that we were looking at ourselves, and that we could recognise ourselves quite confidently, but never in the kind of detail that is fully knowable. Now, he says, we look into one of these mirrors and we see enough to know something of reality, but it’s only ever partial. It’s not 100% clear and some fuzziness or inconclusiveness remains.
That’s what reality is like to us right now even with all of our modern technologies and so on. Our ability to know and discern in this world – and the spiritual environment - right now is limited. We see just a bit, and that’s all.
The context of these verses in the whole of Corinthians 13 is his revelation about the quality of love – Christ’s perfect love. Basically, what Paul is writing here is a poem about Christ’s love – it’s magnificent qualities, it’s nature and what it does. It’s as if his spirit catches a glimpse of the Saviour, or that Christ is sitting for Paul as the apostle paints the Lord’s portrait, except that Paul uses eloquent words to paint the picture. We see and experience something of Christ’s love for us, and as magnificent a picture or experience of that love is to us, it’s still only partial. There will come a time however when we will see and experience the fullness of Christ’s love face-to-face. There will be nothing partial. It will be complete and full. What a moment that will be!
But there’s a little bit more going on here in these few verses. For one thing, because we only ever partially see or partially understand reality at best (the whole gamut – spirit, soul and body dimensions), and there’s so much we do not and cannot know, we need faith. Faith completes what we cannot see. It catalyses and moves us in our circumstances along our discipleship pathway. We see enough to know something of God’s plan and purpose for our lives, for example, but we don’t see the full thing before we set out. And probably we never will. We are looking into a “glass darkly” as the King James Version puts it, or we see “puzzling reflections”, but it’s always only partial. We know enough, perhaps, to know something Christ expects of us, enough to be able to respond, to be obedient, but never the full thing upfront. For now, we see in part, and so we need to walk by faith as Paul would say to the Corinthians in his follow up letter.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)
“For we live by faith, not by sight.”
We are simply not going to know everything before we obey (and that can be a good thing!), but I think what the apostle is saying here amongst other things is that we can see enough for now and the rest requires obedient faith. That’s now. And then (sometime future) it all makes sense, we will know and see fully. Until then it’s faith. There are two things here: one is Paul’s prophetic statement that there will come a time when prophecies and spiritual gifts and so on will pass away and not be needed any more – that’s then – but love will not disappear, it will increase. For now, in faith, these are necessary. That’s the eschatological perspective – the “then” in eternity perspective. But there is another perspective in play here – the “now” perspective. Now requires faith for what we don’t know or cannot apprehend as Holy Spirit leads us day to day. Faith now, because of partiality, leads us to completeness there.
To summarise then, right now, humans know and understand spiritual things only in part (fragmentarily) because of human limits and sin. But when Christ returns that partial view will become full and clear. Faith is the means by which we successfully and confidently navigate this fragmentariness until Christ comes. This is how God’s people live and serve Him as we await the Lord’s return. This pleases Him.
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
Meditate on these things.
Ps Milton