📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 13:10
What does 1 Corinthians 13:10 mean?
"but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with."
— 1 Corinthians 13:10 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
Explanation
This verse comes from the middle of Paul's famous discourse on love, where he is contrasting the temporary spiritual gifts of the present age with something greater that is yet to come. In plain language, Paul is saying that the partial, incomplete things believers currently rely on will one day be set aside once something whole and complete arrives. The verse itself doesn't name what "the complete" is, but the surrounding context makes clear what Paul has in mind.
To understand this properly, we need to look at the verses just before and after it. In verses 8-9, Paul says that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge—all spiritual gifts operating in the Corinthian church—will "be done away with" or "cease," because "we know in part, and we prophesy in part." These gifts, however valuable, are incomplete and imperfect ways of knowing and experiencing God. Then in verse 12, Paul explains further: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will fully know, even as I was also fully known." This makes clear that "the complete" refers to a future state of full, direct knowledge and relationship with God—most naturally understood as the fullness believers will experience in Christ's presence, whether at his return or in the life to come.
Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, a congregation that was deeply impressed with spiritual gifts, particularly speaking in tongues and prophecy, and had begun to treat these gifts as marks of spiritual status, causing division and pride. Paul's purpose in chapter 13 is to reor
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