Bible League: Living His Word Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.— 1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT The kind of knowledge the Apostle Paul has in mind in our verse for today is primarily prophetic knowledge (See 1 Corinthians 13:2,8). Every Christian is a prophet. Every Christian, that is, has the ability to receive understanding from God through the Holy Spirit and to share it with others. The fact that we receive a deeper understanding from God, however, does not justify taking an arrogant, dogmatic, know-it-all attitude about it. Why not? It's because the nature of our prophetic knowledge is not completed. Unlike love, which lasts forever, our prophesying eventually becomes useless (1 Corinthians 13:8). Our verse for today gives us two reasons why this is the case. First, it becomes useless because it's partial and incomplete. The Lord only reveals pieces of the puzzle to us, not the whole puzzle. He gives us glimpses of the future of the kingdom of heaven, not complete pictures. Even those that have the spiritual gift of prophecy do not know everything. Indeed, according to Paul, "the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture" (1 Corinthians 13:9)! Second, our prophetic knowledge becomes useless because it's like a puzzling reflection in a mirror. Mirrors in Paul's day were not nearly as clear as the ones we have today. Paul meant that our prophetic knowledge is not only partial and incomplete, but also somewhat puzzling to us. It is enough to give us the assurance we need to live for Christ, but it is not as clear as we would prefer. However, when the prophesies we've been given come to pass, when Jesus comes again in glory, then everything will become clear. Instead of seeing it in an incomplete and puzzling fashion, we will see it directly, completely, and with clarity. The glimpses and hints the Lord has given us will have guided us in all righteousness, but at that point they will have become useless compared to the clarity of the reality we will have then. May we study and prophesy in humility as we wait anxiously for the day when the revelation will be complete! Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingAmos 7, 8, 9 Amos 7 -- Amos' Visions of Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line; Amos Accused by Amaziah NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Amos 8 -- Basket of Fruit and Israel's Captivity NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Amos 9 -- The Certainty of God's Judgment and Israel's Restoration NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Revelation 7 Revelation 7 -- The 144,000 Sealed; the Multitude in White Robes NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it's here a little while, then it's gone.Insight Life is short no matter how many years we live. Don't be deceived into thinking that you have lots of remaining time to live for Christ, to enjoy your loved ones, or to do what you know you should. Challenge Live for God today! Then, no matter when your life ends, you will have fulfilled God's plan for you. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Isaiah 48:8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened.It is painful to remember that, in a certain degree, this accusation may be laid at the door of believers, who too often are in a measure spiritually insensible. We may well bewail ourselves that we do not hear the voice of God as we ought, "Yea, thou heardest not." There are gentle motions of the Holy Spirit in the soul which are unheeded by us: there are whisperings of divine command and of heavenly love which are alike unobserved by our leaden intellects. Alas! we have been carelessly ignorant--"Yea, thou knewest not." There are matters within which we ought to have seen, corruptions which have made headway unnoticed; sweet affections which are being blighted like flowers in the frost, untended by us; glimpses of the divine face which might be perceived if we did not wall up the windows of our soul. But we "have not known." As we think of it we are humbled in the deepest self-abasement. How must we adore the grace of God as we learn from the context that all this folly and ignorance, on our part, was foreknown by God, and, notwithstanding that foreknowledge, he yet has been pleased to deal with us in a way of mercy! Admire the marvellous sovereign grace which could have chosen us in the sight of all this! Wonder at the price that was paid for us when Christ knew what we should be! He who hung upon the cross foresaw us as unbelieving, backsliding, cold of heart, indifferent, careless, lax in prayer, and yet he said, "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour ... Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life!" O redemption, how wondrously resplendent dost thou shine when we think how black we are! O Holy Spirit, give us henceforth the hearing ear, the understanding heart! Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Corinthians 2:10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.John 15:15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. Matthew 13:11 Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, • from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, • that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, • so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, • may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, • and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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