1 Corinthians 13:10 Meaning and Explanation
“But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”
King James Version (KJV)
This study note uses an AI-assisted editorial workflow with source, duplication, and quality checks. See how verse explanations are prepared.
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Readers have long asked what Paul means by that which is perfect, and the answers offered have shaped whole discussions about spiritual gifts. Before settling that question, it helps to notice what the verse plainly says: the partial ends by being overtaken, and the reason for its ending is arrival rather than exhaustion. Something comes, and the fragment gives way.
A time is coming when completeness arrives, and at its arrival the partial arrangements pass away. Paul promises the end of fragmentary knowing through the coming of something whole.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 13:10
The verse completes the thought begun in verse eight, where prophecies fail, tongues cease, and knowledge vanishes away while charity never fails. Verse nine supplies the reason those gifts are temporary, and verse ten supplies the moment of their ending. Paul then illustrates with two pictures. Verse eleven describes a man setting aside the speech and thinking of childhood. Verse twelve contrasts the dim view through a glass with a face to face meeting, and pairs knowing in part with a knowing that matches how we are known. Verse thirteen closes by naming faith, hope, and charity as what abides.
What Does 1 Corinthians 13:10 Mean?
Everything hangs on the small clause when that which is perfect is come. The verb is one of arrival, so the perfect is treated as something that appears rather than as a quality gradually achieved. The word rendered perfect carries the sense of complete or fully grown, which is why the illustration of a child reaching adulthood follows so naturally. Done away renders a verb Paul also used in verse eight for knowledge vanishing away, tying the two statements together. Notice also the timing marked by then. The partial persists until the complete arrives, so nothing here suggests the fragment fails on its own before that moment.
Within the chapter the verse serves Paul's ranking of charity above the gifts. Charity abides because it belongs to the completed state as much as to the present one, while prophecy and knowledge in their partial form belong to a season with an end. Interpreters have differed over when that season closes, and the text itself sets the marker at the coming of the perfect rather than at a date. Verse twelve strongly suggests the face to face meeting with God, since that is the change Paul names next. Reading the verse as a promise about the future keeps the emphasis where Paul places it, on what lasts.
The New Testament regularly describes the future in terms of a coming, and the one who comes is Christ. 1 John 3:2 promises that at his appearing we shall be like him, since we shall see him as he is, which matches the seeing and knowing promised in verse twelve. On that reading, the arrival of the perfect and the appearing of the Lord belong to one event. The gifts serve the church until then, doing real work through people who see dimly. Their eventual setting aside is a mercy rather than a loss, since the reason they are laid down is that the one they pointed toward has come.
1 Corinthians 13:10 in the Original Language
teleion (τέλειον), 'perfect' -- complete, finished, or brought to its intended end; the same word family describes a grown adult, which suits the picture of maturity Paul uses in the next verse.
Bible Verses Related to 1 Corinthians 13:10
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
- 1 John 3:2
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”
- Ephesians 4:13
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”
- Philippians 3:12
Where 1 Corinthians 13:10 Echoes in Scripture
Philippians 3:12 shows Paul applying the same vocabulary to himself, admitting that he had yet to be made perfect while pressing on to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of him. The completeness he speaks of there lies ahead, secured by Christ and pursued in the meantime. Set beside this verse, the echo suggests that Paul thought of perfection as a state God brings about at a definite point, and of the present as a stretch of faithful pursuit before that point arrives.
How to Apply 1 Corinthians 13:10 Today
Living between the fragment and the fullness has a practical shape. We can use what we have been given without pretending it is everything, and we can wait for the rest without growing cynical about the present. When a question about God stays unanswered after years of study, this verse offers a horizon rather than a rebuke. It also keeps our expectations of one another realistic, since no teacher, book, or experience will deliver the completeness that only the coming can bring. Meanwhile the love described earlier in the chapter is already fully available, and it will still be in use on the other side.
Reflection & Prayer
If the completeness Paul promises arrived this evening, what would we be glad to set down, and what would we carry through unchanged? A prayer: Lord Jesus, we thank you that the partial has an ending and that the ending comes with you. Steady us in the waiting, keep our love warm, and let hope shape how we use what you have entrusted to us now. Amen.