1 Corinthians 13:11 Meaning and Explanation
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →A verse this familiar often gets quoted as general advice about growing up. Its actual work in 1 Corinthians 13 is more precise. Paul has been describing gifts that operate in part, and he reaches for the one experience every reader shares, the passage from childhood to adulthood, to explain what happens when the partial gives way to the complete.
Paul illustrates the difference between partial knowing now and full knowing later by describing growth. Childhood speech, understanding, and thought were real and right for their season, and maturity brought a natural setting aside.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 13:11
The Corinthian church prized spiritual gifts and argued about which of them ranked highest. Chapters 12 through 14 address gifts together, and chapter 13 sits in the middle as the description of charity that must govern them all. Verses 8 through 10 announce that prophecies fail, tongues cease, and knowledge vanishes away when that which is perfect is come. Verse 11 offers the first of two illustrations of that transition, and verse 12 offers the second with its glass and its face to face. Verse 13 then names faith, hope, and charity as what abides.
What Does 1 Corinthians 13:11 Mean?
Three verbs carry the first half of the sentence: spake, understood, thought. Paul lists speech, comprehension, and reasoning in order, covering the whole range of a person's mental life. Each is qualified the same way, 'as a child,' which describes fitness for a stage of life. A child speaks like a child because a child is a child. The second half turns on a single act, 'I put away childish things,' where the verb suggests deliberate laying aside once the season has passed. Paul speaks in the first person throughout, placing himself inside the illustration and sparing his readers any sense of being singled out.
Placed where it is, the illustration explains verse 10 rather than scolding anyone for immaturity. The gifts the Corinthians treasured belong to the present age the way a child's speech belongs to childhood: genuine, God-given, suited to now. What arrives when that which is perfect is come will relate to them as adulthood relates to childhood, a fullness that makes the earlier stage complete in its own time. Scripture often frames spiritual life in terms of growth, from milk toward strong meat in Hebrews 5:14, from infancy toward the measure of Christ's fullness in Ephesians 4:13. Growth honors the earlier stage while moving through it.
Jesus welcomed children and set a child in the middle of his disciples as a picture of the kingdom, so childlikeness itself keeps its honor in the gospels. What Paul lays aside here is the limitation of a child's grasp, the partial seeing that verse 12 will describe. Ephesians 4:13 gives the destination in Christ's own terms: growing up unto the measure of the stature of his fullness. The maturity Paul anticipates arrives as we are conformed to the Son, and it comes with charity as its mark, since chapter 13 has already made love the thing that never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:11 in the Original Language
katargeo (καταργέω), 'put away' -- to render inoperative, to bring to an end. Paul uses the same verb in verse 10 for what happens to the partial when the perfect comes, which ties the growing child directly to his larger point.
Bible Verses Related to 1 Corinthians 13:11
“But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”
- 1 Corinthians 13:10
“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
“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
- Hebrews 5:14
“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Where 1 Corinthians 13:11 Echoes in Scripture
Ephesians 4:14 picks up the same figure from the other direction, describing believers who are no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. Paul there sets childhood against instability and locates maturity in a body growing up into Christ its head. Placing that verse beside 1 Corinthians 13:11 shows the image doing steady work across his letters: childhood is a real and honored season, and the growth God intends carries his people beyond its limits.
How to Apply 1 Corinthians 13:11 Today
Growth in faith usually looks like quietly retiring things that once fit. A way of praying that has become mechanical, an argument we have won a hundred times in our heads, a habit of needing to be the most spiritual person in the room. Paul models the move without drama: he simply put those things away. We can ask what belonged to an earlier season of our discipleship and no longer serves the love this chapter describes. We can also extend patience to believers younger in the faith, remembering that a child's speech is exactly right for a child.
Reflection & Prayer
What am I still carrying that belonged to an earlier stage of my walk with God? A prayer: Father, thank you for the seasons you have already brought me through. Give me the grace to lay down what has served its purpose, the patience to grow slowly, and the love that outlasts everything partial. Grow me up into your Son. Amen.