For we see now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face; now I know partially, but then I shall know according as I also have been known.
Paul compares two conditions: what we can take in now, and the fulness we will have in glory. So what limits our sight today, and what changes when we see "face to face"?
The mirror
Seeing "in a mirror" means seeing a reflection, not the thing itself. That shapes how we learn spiritual things now.
At present we see as through a mirror, in a riddle, but then face to face. Spiritual things now are learned with the help of reflections, types and symbols. Faith must of course be at work, to discern as far as it can what all these teaching aids mean. It is not like seeing the object itself, but its reflection as in a mirror.
Partial, not doubtful
Some read the verse as if Paul were unsure of what he knew. Commentators say the opposite.
The point of the passage is not to cast doubt on how much we know now. It is to show that our knowledge is only partial, compared with the fulness in glory… The way we see now must be imperfect, so what we see is more or less dark. Later it will be direct sight, and I shall know fully, as I was also fully known. The difference is not only one of measure, but of manner too.
When learning ends
If we know only "in part" now, then learning itself belongs to this stage and not the next.
Knowledge now is in degree, "we know in part"; all that kind of learning will pass away. Learning is a proof of ignorance, and this will not be then. Even in divine things we learn, and all that is testimony to ignorance. It shows how small man is in that respect. All these partial means of communicating will end when I know as I am known: which is, I believe, God's way of knowing.
The limit of "as I am known"
The phrase promises a knowledge modelled on God's knowledge of us. Commentators are careful about how far that promise reaches.
But our partial knowledge of the truth will give way to knowledge in the measure in which "I am known." This is in no way omniscience (knowing all things). It is knowing all that relates to my position and condition as a man, as God knows it. This of course involves far more than we see on the surface. Then we will see it all in perfect perspective, no longer shaped by our present limited, unbalanced condition.
A second limit lies in us, not in what is shown.
We shall yet know vastly better than we do know now but we shall still be finite. God cannot make us infinite, and only the infinite can comprehend deity.
Our own story understood
We will also know our own past fully. One writer ties it to the moment believers stand before Christ in the light.
In our bodies of glory, we will not be able to feel anything like fear or unhappiness. But when we are shown in the light, we will have perfect knowledge, according to the mind of Christ, of every moment of our past history. We will know the value He sets on it, and the praise He gives… We will leave His judgment seat in wondering praise at the patience that bore with our ways in the wilderness, and brought us safely to glory.
The longing that stays
Knowing in part does not dull the desire to know Him. It feeds it.
All who have eternal life "know Him." They know God, and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent — yes, even babes in Christ know Him. And yet the man who knew Him best could cry, Oh, "to know Him!"… Down here nothing will ever satisfy that craving. The better we know Him, the more we long to know Him better still.
Summary
- Mirror — Now we learn by reflection: types, symbols and pictures, read by faith. We never see the object itself.
- Part — The limit is in the way we see, not in the truth itself. Paul does not doubt what we know. He measures it against the fulness in glory.
- Then — "Face to face" means direct sight. Learning proves our ignorance, so learning ends when that ignorance ends.
- Known — We will know as God knows us: our whole position and condition, seen in perfect perspective. Yet we stay finite creatures.
- Wonder — Christ's light will show our whole past. The result is not fear but praise for the patience that carried us home.