What Does 1 Corinthians 13:12 Mean?

(12) **For now**—*i.e.,* in this earthly life, the “for” connecting the previous statement with that which it illustrates. **Through a glass, darkly.**—Better, *through* *a* *mirror in a dark saying.* The illustration here is from a mirror when the image appears far behind the mirror itself. If we remember the imperfect metal surfaces which formed the mirrors of those days, we can imagine how imperfect and enigmatical (the Greek word is “in an *enigma”*) would the image appear; so that the Apostle says, “Like that image which you see when you look at an object in a mirror far off, with blurred and undefined outline, such is our knowledge here and now; but *then* (*i.e.,* when this dispensation is at an end) we shall see as you see a man when you stand before him face to face. (See Numbers 12:7-8 for a similar thought, but a different illustration of it—“mouth to mouth.”) The word for “glass” here is the same as in James 1:23, and must mean a mirror, and not, as some commentators suggest, a pane of transparent stone or horn, such as was then used, for which a quite different word would have been employed.