Tantrums and Feelings or Thoughts and Facts?
"Swing Set Bokeh" by Photos By Dlee is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:9-12 (NASB)
It’s not the part of 1 Corinthians 13 that typically gets quoted or written about. We hear a lot about love and that’s what this chapter of this book in the Bible is typically known for. However, a small and subtle part of it often gets overlooked when love is the focus. We only know in part. We don’t know it all, though we might think we do.
The partial will be done away. We are the partial. We know only a part of the story. That which we hold in our minds, our understanding of how things work, is incomplete. That might be offensive to some. To others, it might seem like a very plain truth. But what’s the point?
The point is simple. We might think we know what we need to know, but there is a portion of the information about anything we do not know. Sometimes that portion is large, and sometimes it is small. The key is that we don’t know everything. Why not? Well, with people because we cannot see into a person’s heart. Why is that important?
Understanding we know in part rather than in full should leave room for the unknown, or that which we are unsure about could be fact. In short, we could be wrong. Oh, that is a tough pill to swallow, the idea that we might be wrong. We might be wrong. About what? It could be anything. But why is this segment of scripture important if it means we might be wrong about something?
We put away childish things, like acting like children. We no longer stand on a playground with some bully hogging the ball or the swings not giving us a turn. We are grown-ups responsible for our actions, decisions, and the consequences that go along with those things. We read scripture, stuffing those words through the filter of our life experiences, and out of the other side, we make judgment calls about actions, decisions, people, and things. Based upon those judgment calls, we do things. Rather than stomping our foot with our lip poked out when something doesn’t go our way, we should entertain the idea that other people might be right. Where possible, we should allow them to have the latitude to live their lives as they see fit, just as we want to live our lives as we decide best.
The key to getting along on the grand playground of the universe is the idea that I can be walking God’s path, and so can that other person. They just have a different task from mine that I don’t fully understand. I don’t have to understand it. It is important that they do and that God does. It wouldn’t be my decision if they were right or wrong. It’s God’s decision, and I’m content to let Him decide.
10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
11 For it is written, “AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.”
12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.
Romans 14:10-13 (NASB)
Isaiah 45:23
Philippians 2:10