Paul of antiquity wore his brilliance like a robe of fluttering butterflies. His hand penned much of the New Testament, and in his words we read the divine revelation he received as a convert to the new faith of Christianity.
Paul’s butterfly robe was often hard for others to conceptualize. The people around him saw their Roman oppressors, lack of food, mistreatment by Jewish officials, and everyday disease in a clearer way.
Paul understood their inability to grasp the truths revealed to him by God, and in 1 Corinthians 13:11-12, he gave us a glimpse of his butterfly brilliance:
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
“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.”
Both of these verses say the same thing, because this passage was important to Paul. The Great Orator understood a tool still used in modern education. Restate, restate, restate. We teach our lesson, then to make sure everyone gets it, we reteach it in a different way; and we continue until the lesson is learned.
So, let’s break Paul’s words into before and after to see exactly what he meant.
When I was a child… Imagine being in a lighted room at night. We pull the curtain back, and we try to see outside. If we get close enough to the glass, we can block some of the light inside the room, but not all, allowing us to make out only a small amount through the window. We can improve our vision by cupping our hands around our face, but the view will always be clouded by the darkness. This is the way children view their world. They try to make out what’s around them, but so much of life is cloudy and dark, and they can’t understand it. Spiritually, we are the same. If we press firmly to the window, we can make out a bit of spiritual truth, but the darkness hides much of what’s out there.
But when I became a man… This requires patience, time, and maturity. No child can wish for adulthood and have it just become. We are the same spiritually. On this earth, we’re looking through the darkened glass of our human condition as we search for the truth of the spiritual world. It will never be clear to us until the night has passed. Then, we’ll stand face to face with Jesus, we’ll see the truth of his spiritual perfection, and we’ll have no more need of the childish crutches we use to survive our immature earthly existence.
After we are transformed, we will have moved from our present condition of childhood and into the coming resurrection of maturity in our Christ and our God. These are the butterflies Paul described to us, in all their fluttering and iridescent beauty. His vision of our eternal glory comes alive in his masterful words, and they draw us ever closer to the Christ whom we adore.
It’s our vision of Christ that causes us to desire to become like him.
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Code: FGO.L.20.15.vp.kjv