WHEN THE PERFECT COMES

"But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." (1 Corinthians 13:10)

Devotion 9 of 17

WHEN WE KNOW AS WE ARE KNOWN

"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known" (1 Cor 13:12). The evidence of completion, or "when that which is perfect is come," is when we "know as we are known." That is subjective, not objective. It deals with our experience, not with resources made available to us. It is something personal, not something impersonal or provisional. Notice, the text does not say that provision will be made for us to know, but that we shall know.

Those who imagine that point has already been reached give evidence of being dishonest. Whether we are speaking of knowledge in particular, or our eternal inheritance in general, we have not yet apprehended that for which we have been apprehended (Phil 3:13). Our capacities have been made brittle by sin, and are limited because of our earthen vessels. No matter how far we advance while we are "in the body," it simply is not possible to get beyond knowing in part. That is axiomatic, and really needs no proof. It is something to be humbly acknowledged.

When "perfection comes," we will be mature in our understanding and seasoned in discernment. Someone has well said, "The body tends to clog the operations of the mind." That truth is involved in our Lord's pronouncement, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt 26:41).

No matter how far we advance in the faith, whether we be novice or Apostle, at the very peak of spiritual understanding in this world, we must shout, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Rom 11:33). Our hearts cry out for fuller knowledge--to see the scope of truth as the Lord sees us. Like the great universe in which we reside, the more we look into the truth, the larger it becomes. Great vistas of spiritual reality continue to unfold to us. There is "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" to the things of God that extends beyond the boundaries of mortality and finite minds.

But it will not always be this way. The perfect is coming! Its coming is contingent upon the partial leaving. It is waiting until the Lord changes the heavens and the earth like a man changes his raiment (Psa 102:26). Like a gigantic scaffold, the realm of the seen obscures the realm of the unseen. But in yet a very little while, we will "see Him as He is." No more partiality and imperfect knowledge then. We will have access to vast fields of reality that may be explored with expectation and without hindrance.

Presently God sees every aspect of us. Nothing about us is inaccessible to Him. As staggering as it may be to consider, we are headed for an eternal inheritance that includes that kind of access to the Living God. In ways unimaginable, we will have access to Him. We will not always be children in knowledge, praise the Lord! "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."

PRAYER POINT: Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank You for holding such a glorious future before us. I long for the perfect to come, that I may know even as also I am known.

-- Tomorrow: DOING VERSUS BEING --