Through A Glass Dimly

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul details various concepts regarding spiritual gifts for his recipients to be aware of as they navigate these new experiences.

In essence, his instructions seek to provide unity within his audience, warning against the temptation to view these spiritual attainments as personal achievements, for personal use, or the idea that one gift is superior to another.

Though these verses are familiar to many, it seems readers are generally unaware of the presuppositions that underlie the Apostle’s words, and the Jewish mystical worldview from which they originate.

The primary verse for this focus is found in chapter 13 where Paul makes a deeply mystical statement about the spiritual state of mankind. He writes:

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways. For now we see through a glass dimly, but then we will see face to face.  
- 1 Corinthians 13:9-10

In this last line, Paul expresses the spiritual limitations of all of humankind in its current state. This idea recognizes that humankind is [currently] in a state of deficiency, but will one day be elevated to see the Creator “face to face.”

According to Jewish tradition, this state of deficiency is the result of the sin of Adam.

To unpack this, we will focus on two particular elements of this passage.

1. What it means to be 'face to face' [with G_D].

2. What Paul means by the phrase, to “see through a glass, dimly.”

1. Face to Face

The phrase 'face to face' is found in the Torah in multiple places, notably the reality into which Adam was created in the Garden of Eden¹. Being Face to Face [with the Creator] is not meant to be taken literally, instead, it is Rabbinic vernacular for a rare state of spiritual enlightenment.

However, after the sin in the Garden, mankind was cast into a new reality, one that added layers of physical and spiritual separation. Paul refers to this state as, “Under Sin²,” a state all of humankind are subject to.

For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
– Romans 3:9 

All of humankind endured this reality unabated for many generations until Abraham was tapped as the forerunner of a new path to restoration.

Tradition indicates that Abraham and his descendants, over time, and through many trials, had achieved a degree of spiritual purification, allowing them to close some of the gap between themselves and the Creator in their time.

 This spiritual ebb and flow would undulate through each generation of his descendants until the nation was ultimately taken from Egypt to a mountain called Sinai.

In this frame, the instructions given at Mount Sinai (the Torah), provided the nation of Israel with the means to attain holiness and remediate certain types of impurity when it occurred.

Spiritual gifts like prophecy, deeper insights, healing, and enlightenment are not random or isolated occurrences - they are the result of spiritual proximity to the Creator.