In Christ We Learn the Way of Love (Part Seven)

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

1 Corinthians 13:12b–13

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

CONSIDER THIS

Revelation is a powerful experience. One moment you’re sure you know everything there is to know about someone or something, then, in the next instant, a truth is revealed that changes the course of your life. It’s a revelation, from the root meaning “to reveal”—and it can be life-changing.

For some of us, coming to Jesus, or experiencing a moment of awakening to his love along our journey, was like that. One minute we knew him one way, and in the next, we were undone by a revelation of his person and glory. When we became aware that we had passed from one understanding of Jesus to another, we may have experienced an overwhelming sense of joy and humility. Recalling these times of God’s self-revealing can help us move away from residual, habitual, know-it-all attitudes to a renewed humility toward God and others.

I’ve always loved how C. S. Lewis described his conversion in his book Surprised by Joy. He writes about a trip during which he had a simple revelation: 

When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion. . . . It was more like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.¹

Lewis was describing his awakening to Jesus as an epiphany that was a long time in the making.

In 1 Corinthians 13:12b–13, Paul brings his chapter on love to a reflective conclusion: “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (v. 12b). His words speak of a reality that seems inherent to so much of his writing. He has received revelation from the Holy Spirit, but we sense that he knows there is so much more to come. For that reason, he writes with an undercurrent of humility. He seems to know that God could surprise him with another layer of insight at any moment.

Today’s passage has the fragrance of great humility and hope. Paul is aware, even knowing he has the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), that he knows the love of God “in part.” In other words, Paul knows that his revelation of Jesus and his love will one day come into a great and astounding fullness. 

We hear the beautiful reach for the “fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19) in his words when he writes about love. At times, he begins to shift almost into poetry and lyric as he writes words like, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39). 

We hear the brimming gratitude in his voice as he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

And here, at the conclusion of his great chapter on love, Paul communicates that there is a revelation of Jesus, of love, to come. It will be a watershed moment in which he will intimately and fully know the one who has loved him, just as he has been fully known by him. Love will come to its fullness. And if you follow Jesus today, you can expect this culminating revelation of God and his love for yourself as well.

I would encourage you to take time today to imagine the moment ahead when the veil is lifted and you see Jesus face-to-face. Like Lewis in his moment of simple revelation, we will shift from one state to another, from one posture of worship to another. Perhaps that new state of being will be indescribable as we gaze on the beauty of the one with whom we are united (Rom. 6:5; 1 Cor. 6:17). 

In verse 13, Paul talks about faith, hope, and love, in contrast with one another. Our assurance of things hoped for—faith (Heb. 11:1)—our trust in the eternal that is unseen—hope (2 Cor. 4:16–18)—will not compare to the eternal joy we will experience when love, in all its fullness, is revealed to us. Along the way, Christ’s love is what changes us, leads us, and forms the essential foundation for the gospel (John 3:16). His love is what compels us to serve others (2 Cor. 5:14–15) and leads them to trust in Jesus.

Fullness of love is the culmination of union with God in Christ. Love will “last into God’s new world.”²

In union with Christ, we can know love in a profound and increasing way as God’s Spirit moves within us. And there is a day coming, a day when every tear will be wiped away (Rev. 21:3–4) when we will see Jesus as he is. We will see him face-to-face.

On that day, we will know love in its fullness. We will know fully, even as we are fully known.

THE PRAYER 

Lord Jesus, I am in you and you are in me. I enter into your love story with me and with your people in a new way each day. Help me to pursue love. It is the “most excellent way” to live, and it is the goal of my faith—union with you and the fullness of your love. In Christ Jesus, I pray, amen.

THE QUESTIONS

Can you name a time when you knew something in part, but then it was revealed to you fully? How did that moment feel? Have you ever meditated on this passage before? As you sit with it now, what do you think it means that the “greatest of these is love”? 

For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt 

NOTES

1. C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (New York: HarperOne, 1955, reissue edition 2017), 290.
2. N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 179.

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