To recognize that one’s "knowledge is partial ", "vision through a glass, darkly" - is an every day exercise. No matter how clear we could have seen evident objects, we cannot say we have reached a perfect knowledge, that we understood the intention in its plenitude, that we acknowledged the sense. Time, as a component of our existence, brings its correctives in all...
To recognize that one’s "knowledge is partial ", "vision through a glass, darkly" - is an every day exercise. No matter how clear we could have seen evident objects, we cannot say we have reached a perfect knowledge, that we understood the intention in its plenitude, that we acknowledged the sense. Time, as a component of our existence, brings its correctives in all.
What seemed to us to be a point yesterday, will become a straight line today, but already tomorrow will turn out to be a flat figure. After again a certain time it will turn out that all this is just a shadow, and then we shall see the volume, the shape and the color, then we shall realize that the object moves and changes.
So we perceive the world and all which lives inside. God opens to us also gradually Who He is. Although it seems to us today that the knowledge opened to us is finished and completes, it is simply a pale shadow of what we know, even when the glass, darkly will become clearly - when the window will open we shall see the One, Who called us to His wonderful Light; the One, Who is beyond any knowledge, because He is the Truth.
13 The necessity of love is shown, Co1 13:1-3.
The nature and properties, Co1 13:4-7.
The duration of it, Co1 13:8-13
13:8 Love never faileth - It accompanies to, and adorns us in, eternity; it prepares us for, and constitutes, heaven. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail - When all things are fulfilled, and God is all in all. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease - One language shall prevail among all the inhabitants of heaven, and the low and imperfect languages of earth be forgotten. The knowledge likewise which we now so eagerly pursue, shall then vanish away - As starlight is lost in that of the midday sun, so our present knowledge in the light of eternity.
13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part - The wisest of men have here but short, narrow, imperfect conceptions, even of the things round about them, and much more of the deep things of God. And even the prophecies which men deliver from God are far from taking in the whole of future events, or of that wisdom and knowledge of God which is treasured up in the scripture revelation.
13:10 But when that which is perfect is come - At death and in the last day. That which is in part shall vanish away - Both that poor, low, imperfect, glimmering light, which is all the knowledge we now can attain to; and these slow and unsatisfactory methods of attaining, as well as of imparting it to others.
13:11 In our present state we are mere infants in point of knowledge, compared to what we shall be hereafter. I put away childish things - Of my own accord, willingly, without trouble.
13:12 Now we see - Even the things that surround us. But by means of a glass - Or mirror, which reflects only their imperfect forms, in a dim, faint, obscure manner; so that our thoughts about them are puzzling and intricate, and everything is a kind of riddle to us. But then - We shall see, not a faint reflection, but the objects themselves. Face to face - Distinctly. Now I know in part - Even when God himself reveals things to me, great part of them is still kept under the veil. But then I shall know even as also I am known - In a clear, full, comprehensive manner; in some measure like God, who penetrates the centre of every object, and sees at one glance through my soul and all things.
13:13 Faith, hope, love - Are the sum of perfection on earth; love alone is the sum of perfection in heaven.