1 Corinthians 13:12 is a part of the famous “love chapter” of the Bible. The familiar KJV reads, “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.” There has always been a mystery about God. The Apostle Paul speaks of how that mystery has now been solved for us through the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. There is still much that we don’t know about God but we now know enough through Jesus to be saved from our sins. We now know that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one. And we know that rather than being a God of wrath and vengeance as sometimes described in the Old Testament that God is in realty a God of love, forgiveness, grace and mercy. Still, we only know him “in part”. When we get to heaven, we will know him more fully.
As I reflect upon this text, it is not only God who we know “In part” but it is true also of our knowing others. In reality we only know other people “in part”. Even husbands and wives admit from time to time that they experience or see in their spouse something that that had not seen or recognized before.
Sadly, it is at funerals that we learn more about a person than we previously knew. We may have thought that we knew them. Then, in a funeral service we come to know much more than we knew. Such a revelation is always enlightening and deepens our understanding of a friend or family member but it also reminds us that we did not know all that we thought we knew. We knew only “in part”
The lesson for us to learn is that we all can be and need to be more proactive in knowing, getting to know and appreciating one another. Paul said of Christ, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10)
We can all benefit in having the same desire to know Christ as Paul expressed to the Philippians. Likewise, we must increase our desire to know those with whom we associate regularly. Every person we know has qualities that can enrich our own lives. The better we know each other, the richer our lives become. As we serve Christ together in and through the church, knowing each other better not only enhances our friendships, it greatly benefits the Kingdom of God. Why do we have to wait until someone dies to wish that we knew them better?
In His Love,
Charles
