A prelude to chapter 15 lies hidden in these verses, acting as a bridge. Chapter 15 is the letter’s culmination: the believer’s bodily resurrection, being with our God Jesus for all eternity, who bodily rose from the dead. Something better is coming, not in this age where Jesus said we will have trouble. (John 16:33) Rather, the age to come is our better existence (8).
The spiritual gifts given by grace in this age are but the whiff of a baby’s breath compared to what is to come in the next age (9). “For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” (9-10)
Paul parallels the progression of human life to the Christian’s progression from this age to the age to come. Humans start as children, becoming adults as God programmed. The human child does not live like an adult, and an adult does not live like a child, though they are the same person. (11)
Similarly, the way a believer in Jesus is in this age will not be the same as it will be in the next, though we will be the same person. Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will cease because they are partial in nature (9) and will be unnecessary when what is complete has come (10). Now the Christian sees “a poor 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.” (12)
God is not through with us. He has just begun. Be patient and believe. Love is patient. (4) “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.” (James 5:7-8)
