Week 51
Face to Face
1 Corinthians 13:8–13
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.”
1 Corinthians 13:8–13 (NKJV)
Love never fails, though gifts needed for the church’s present life will one day reach their appointed end. Prophecy, tongues, and partial knowledge serve a world still awaiting completion.
We know in part. Christian confidence does not require pretending to comprehend God exhaustively or to possess answers He has not revealed.
Our present sight is like an ancient mirror—real but indirect and incomplete. Scripture truly reveals God, yet the infinite Lord can never be contained by a finite mind.
When completeness comes, we will see face to face. The deepest Christian hope is personal communion with God, not merely improved conditions or expanded information.
Paul says he will know more fully, even as he is fully known. Our future knowledge rests inside God’s present and perfect knowledge of us.
Being fully known is fearful if we imagine God without grace. In Christ, the One who knows every hidden thing is the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Faith, hope, and love remain, and love is greatest. Knowledge of God reaches maturity not in cold mastery but in holy love for Him and for those made in His image.
Live humbly within partial sight. Hold revealed truth firmly, mysteries reverently, and people lovingly until the day when shadows give way to face-to-face joy.
In Conversation with A. W. Tozer
Tozer emphasized that God is incomprehensible: we may know Him truly because He reveals Himself, but never exhaustively as though the infinite Creator could be mastered by thought.
Paul joins this humility to hope. Partial knowledge is not permanent; those already fully known in Christ await a personal fullness described as seeing face to face.
A Prayer
Holy God,
God whom no mind can contain, thank You for making Yourself truly known in Jesus Christ.
Keep me humble in what remains partial, faithful to what You have revealed, and loving toward those whose understanding differs from mine.
Hold me in the grace of being fully known until faith becomes sight and I behold You face to face. Amen.
Dwell This Week with God
Awaken to His presence.
Return often to 1 Corinthians 13:8–13. Read without hurry, and allow the truth of who God is to become larger than every lesser concern.