“then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes.
We often hear this text quoted to support the idea for recognizing our loved ones in Heaven. While this is a comforting notion, and may be true, it can hardly be supported by this text. In popular Christianity this text gets banded around much like another one of Paul’s sayings: “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15:31). Neither mean what popular usage intends. (Here, I use the word “popular” in the sense of: cultural ideas intended for or suited to the taste, understanding, or means of the general public, rather than specialists or intellectuals.) Preachers are guilty of preaching to reach the masses and far too often take liberties with the text in order to press a certain notion upon their hearers. Theologians, on the other hand, are concerned with the actual meaning, and intended effect of the author of the text. As a consequence, the preacher and the theologian (teacher) often get crossways to each other. When an exegesis is performed on both texts it is discovered that though the popular understandings serve a purpose, they are not what the Apostle intended by his statements. When he wrote “I die daily,” Paul did not mean that he died out to sin on a daily basis (the way it is understood in popular circles), but that he resigned himself to die physically each day for the cause of Christ; when he wrote “then shall I know even as also I am known” he does not mean that in Heaven he would know men and women as he knows them in this life (too often the way it is understood in popular circles), but that in Heaven the mysteries of this life will be removed and his understanding of the Creator’s intent and purposes for his life will be understood as clearly as God, Himself, and the holy Angels know the things that puzzled him in his present life.
Although I introduced 1 Corinthians 15:31 (“I die daily”) into the discussion, that text is not our focus here. However, it does serve the purpose of demonstrating the genre of text we are discussing. Our intended focus is 1 Corinthians 13:12.
When considering our text, an understanding cannot be reached without consideration of the context of the particular text. So, then, when considering 1 Corinthians 13:12 we must take into account the context. The context begins in verse 8 and runs through verse 13. Here, I give the complete passage in its context.
1 Corinthians 13:8-13
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 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. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Paul’s real subject is love (charity) — He begins the passage with “Charity never faileth,” and ends with the summary “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” To sum up the excellences of charity, it is preferred not only to gifts, but to other graces, to faith and hope. (And now abideth faith, hope, charity.) Faith fixes its hope on the divine revelation, and gives its assents to that revelation, though only partially understood (For we know in part, and we prophesy in part), relying on Christ to make all things clear in the end. Hope fastens on future happiness, and waits for that; but in heaven, faith will be swallowed up in actual substance, and hope in fulfilled in the joy of that substance. There, love (charity) will be made perfect. There, we shall perfectly love God. And there we shall perfectly love one another. Blessed state! How much superior is that to the best we have here! God is love, 1 John 4:8,16. Where God is to be seen as He is, “face to face,” there, charity is in its greatest height; there only will it be perfected.
When the present life is compared to the eternal future, this state is but a state of childhood, whereas the future heavenly state is that of adulthood. (When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.) The views of children are confused notions when compared to those of adults. Many things in life are dark and confused now, compared with what they will appear in the eternal state. The most natural idea conveyed by Paul is that of seeing objects by an imperfect medium, by looking "through" something in contemplating them. At present we can only perceive life and its mysteries, like a person peering through an obstacle that disfigures what is on the other side. (For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.) Paul, here, makes use of this illustration to show the imperfection of our knowledge while in the present state. Compared with what it will be in the future world, it is like the imperfect view of an object which we have in looking through an obscure and opaque medium, compared with the view which we have when we look at it "face to face.”
It is true that some commentators see Paul’s reference to a “glass” as meaning a mirror. However, this does not seem to me to meet the requirements of the text. We know that glass was in quite common use in New Testament times, as has been proved by the remains that have been discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii (AD 79). There is, therefore, no impropriety in supposing that Paul is here alluding to the imperfect and discolored glass which was then in extensive use, for we have no reason to suppose that it was then as transparent as that which is now made. It was, doubtless, an imperfect and obscure medium, and, therefore, well adapted to illustrate the nature of our knowledge here compared with what it will be in heaven.
Paul used the Greek “ἐν αἰνίγματι” - “en ainigmati” (translated in the KJV as “darkly”), the word means a riddle; an enigma; then an obscure intimation. In a riddle a statement is made with some resemblance to the truth; a puzzling question is proposed, and the solution is left to conjecture. Hence, it means, as here, obscurely, darkly, imperfectly. Little is known, much is left to conjecture, a very accurate account of most of that which passes for knowledge. Compared with heaven, our knowledge here much resembles the obscure intimations in an enigma, compared with clear statements and manifest truths. What is seen appears as riddle, but hereafter our knowledge will be free from all obscurity and error. “But then” - in the fuller revelations in heaven. It is the light of heaven only, that will remove all clouds and darkness that hide the face of God from us. “Face to face” - as when one looks upon an object openly, and not through an obscure and dark medium. It here means, therefore, "clearly, without obscurity.”
The events of this life and world that make no sense to us now, such as sufferings and injustices, then will be clearly understood.
I should not leave this subject without a word concerning the hunger of every child of God to “know” God, as He knows us. The Incarnation is a divine mystery that in so many ways transcends human ability to fully comprehend. The holy Scriptures afford us a glimpse, from time to time, of the majesty that is the Incarnation. It is as if an Archangel pulls back the curtain of the holy of holies and allows a momentary ray of illumination to escape from the Mercyseat of Heaven, where Christ is enthroned in Light unapproachable. The Apostle writes: “now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known.” It is in that partial knowing that we find both rapture and melancholy. Rapture, for knowing a relational God, Whose love for us lowly men compelled Him to become one with us - melancholy, because of our human inability to fully comprehend the consequences of Heaven’s investment.
One is not to despair, however, concerning biblical evidence of saints recognizing one another in Heaven. The Scripture does, indeed, give us such assurance. The Bible records the “spirits of just men made perfect” who bear witness to the Christians’ lives in this present state (Hebrews 12:1, 23). For that to happen individual recognition is assumed. Also, there is the narrative of Lazarus and Dives (Luke 16:19-31): Dives recognized Lazarus far away in Abraham’s Bosom; plus, Moses and Elijah visited Christ and three of the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration and spoke of intimate things (Matthew 17:1-9).
Apostolically Speaking,
☩☩ Jerry L Hayes
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