📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 13:12
What does 1 Corinthians 13:12 mean?
"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."
— 1 Corinthians 13:12 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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
Paul is describing the limits of human understanding compared to the fullness of knowledge we will one day have. In plain language, he's saying that right now our perception of spiritual reality is like looking at a blurry, indirect reflection, but someday we will see clearly and directly. Right now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, but a day is coming when we will know fully, in the same way that we are already fully known by God.
The context here matters a great deal. Paul wrote this as part of 1 Corinthians 13, the famous "love chapter," addressed to the church in Corinth, a congregation that was deeply impressed with spiritual gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues. Paul's larger point in chapter 13 is that these gifts, however impressive, are partial and temporary, while love is permanent and supreme. In verse 12 specifically, he uses an image his readers would have understood well: Corinth was known for producing bronze mirrors, which, unlike modern glass mirrors, gave a dim, distorted, imperfect reflection rather than a crisp image. Paul draws on this everyday object to make a spiritual point about the difference between our present experience of God and truth versus what is coming.
Theologically, this verse teaches something important about the nature of present Christian knowledge: it is real but incomplete. We know God through revelation, through Scripture, through the Spirit, and through spiritual gifts, but even the best of this knowledge is indirect, like a reflection rather than a direct encounter. Paul contrasts this "now" with a future "then," pointing to
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