Know as we are Known

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1Co 13:12 AV)

 

The underlined portion above has so many different practical applications.  The immediate context is to know that which cannot be fully understood.  The fuller context is the word of God versus the sign gifts.  We can know far more from the written word than we can from revelation coming by way of the sign gifts.  Making this comparison, Paul reflects as we had partial knowledge through the sign gifts but became fuller from the written word, which cannot be compared to the knowledge that awaits compared to the written word we have now.  However, there is a different applications of the words ‘know’ and ‘known’.  That is, as we are known by God (in the fullest sense possible) we will come to know ourselves.  That being, as God sees us in the perfect righteousness of Christ now, we shall see ourselves in that righteousness as we have never seen ourselves before.  I shall know myself and God knows me!  What an awesome and liberating thought.

One of the ways I can explain it is how my parents raised me and how I raised my sons.  There are several ways one can motivate your child to mature.  One is the use of correction.  Which is appropriate.   Not all the time.  But it is necessary.  There is another tool in the parenting toolbox in which we see our children not as they are, but as what they will eventually become.  We interact with our children in the way in which we see them.  If we see them as grown, then we will transfer that goal to them and they will model that view.  If your child is five years old, speak to him as you would a six or seven-year-old and he will act that way.  In our teen years, this was immensely helpful.  My parents would not allow us to act our age.  They constantly treated us as though we were older and expected us to react to those standards.  They refused to allow us to see ourselves as we were, but rather, to envision what we would become.  The challenge is, that we cannot see ourselves as what we should be until we become that.  We could not see ourselves as being responsible as an adult would be until we had circumstances that solidified those benchmarks.

We can read the word of God and be encouraged with the eventual glorification of our souls.  We can read of Christ and know we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.  We can try to get that image in our heads of perfect holiness without any blemish whatsoever.  We can, and should, strive for that standard.  In so doing, we are learning the essence of Christ; sacrificial self-discipline.  We can imagine what a perfect body might be like.  Most of all, we can meditate on what it will be like to have a perfect will that never desires anything but the Father’s will.  We can know our account is clear, but actually seeing it is quite another.  Most of all, we can imagine what it might be like to look into the eyes of God Himself with His total approval and infinite love.  Imagining all this is one thing.  Experiencing it is something entirely different.  I think this might be one way in which the Apostle is applying this.  As God knows us intimately and perfectly without sin nor blemish, we will come to know ourselves.  Not in a purely academic sense, but in the reality of the glories of heaven.  What a day that will be!