Love Defined
Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 · Berean Standard Bible
Right now we're seeing God's reality only vaguely, like a cloudy reflection in a metal mirror, but someday we'll see God directly and completely, and God will know us just as thoroughly as God knows everything.
Paul is deepening the contrast between now and then. We're living by faith with limited understanding; we'll live by sight with complete knowledge. It's not that faith will be replaced with knowledge—we'll finally understand what faith was always about.
Paul, describing the dramatic difference between present and future understanding
This echoes the promise throughout Scripture that believers will see God face to face. Revelation 22:4 comes to mind—we'll see God's face directly, which is the goal of all spiritual experience.
Currently we possess only a clouded, indirect knowledge of God (like seeing a dim reflection in ancient mirrors), but eschatologically we will know God directly and completely, even as God perfectly knows us.
Paul develops his mirror metaphor: ancient metal mirrors (not glass) produced unclear reflections. 'Ainigmati' (in an enigma or riddle) suggests the opacity of present knowledge—we interpret fragmentarily, through theological concepts and spiritual gifts. But 'tote' (then, at the eschaton), vision becomes direct and unmediated—'prosopon pros prosopon' (face to face), echoing the Genesis account of Moses encountering God. The reciprocal knowledge—'I shall know fully, even as I am fully known'—emphasizes that eschatological union involves transparent mutual recognition, not unilateral comprehension.
Paul extends his illustration to its ultimate spiritual significance.
This construes the eschaton as epistemological transformation—the beatific vision described in Revelation 22:4 where God's people see His face. It fulfills the promise of 1 John 3:2: 'we shall see him as he is.'
10but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.
12Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
Read all of 1 Corinthians 13 — Read at every wedding, but written to a church tearing itself apart. Love looks less like a feeling and more like daily choices.
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