“…but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.” – 1 Corinthians 13:10 (BSB)
Some people believe that 1 Corinthians 13:10 refers to the Bible. Some say it refers to Jesus. But the writers of the letter, Paul and Sosthenes, don’t specify what “the perfect” is exactly. A clue about what they meant is in the following verses.
12Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
It’s important to understand the etymology of the word perfect in order to make sense of the verse. Modern language views perfect to imply flawlessness, or to an extreme, obsessive-compulsiveness. But the word’s original meaning, as Copilot explains, comes from Latin:
perfectus — “completed, finished, fully made”
From the verb perficere:
per- = “through, thoroughly”
facere = “to make, to do”
If we were to consider whether 1 Corinthians 13:10 was a prophecy about the Bible, we don’t have to go far to find arguments about it. By modern standards the Bible is certainly not flawless. For example, no one on Earth today really knows whether John 1:1-11 was thrown in surreptitiously or if writers agreed that it should be included. And every translation of the Bible has misinterpretations. (More on that some other time.) But countless people, who have applied its teachings to their own lives and some who have studied it intently, agree that the Bible is complete. In the original Latin meaning of perfect, the Bible is arguably perfect — not flawless, but complete.
Two more scriptural clues tell us what was to come that is supposed to be perfect. John 8:31-32 tells us that if we do what Jesus told us to do, we will know the truth that will set us free. And John 13:34 is Jesus’ words giving us a “new” commandment, to love one another. And these two clues align with 1 Corinthians 13:13 that the greatest among faith, hope, and love is love, or ἀγάπη (agapē), also known as unconditional love.
If we love one another unconditionally, walking like Jesus in our life’s choices, we will come to know the truth and be free. In this is the fullness of understanding what the purpose of our lives are. But it can only be truly understood by practicing love as it’s described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (BSB)…
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 6Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
The rest of the Bible helps us understand things like culture and gives us examples of what it meant to worship God in history. And there are examples for us to go by to figure out how to handle all kinds of situations. Here’s one: In Matthew 19:12, Jesus talks about eunuchs. Jesus doesn’t condemn, but he says at the end of the verse, “The one who is able to accept it, let him accept.” The literal translation of the word for accept, χωρεῖν (chōrein), is to have space, to make room, to hold, or to contain. In Mark 9:23, Jesus says that all things are possible to the one who believes, which includes having space in one’s heart for his statement about eunuchs.
We are all at different places in our faith journeys. And from Luke 6:37 and John 12:47 we know that we are not to be judging one another. Judging another person’s mistakes or missteps is not love. But love without fear (1 John 4:18) — without the confusion that religious dogma brings — is what will lead us to perfection, to wholeness, to completeness as an individual, and as a people. And then we will be ready for Jesus to return.