Maybe you can also go into more detail about 1Corinthians 13:9
Sorry I totally ignored your statement..
This may be enlightening I hope
"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. " 1cor 13:9
"For we know in part"
We have here but little knowledge even of
earthly, and much less of
heavenly, things. He that knows most knows little in comparison of what is known by angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. And as we
know so very little, how deficient must we be if we have not much
love! Angels may wonder at the imperfection of our knowledge; and separate spirits may wonder at the perfection of their own, having obtained so much more in consequence of being separated from the body, than they could conceive to be possible while in that body. When Sir Isaac Newton had made such astonishing discoveries in the laws of nature, far surpassing any thing that had been done by all his predecessors in science from the days of Solomon; one of our poets, considering the scantiness of human knowledge when compared with that which is possessed by the inhabitants of heaven, reduced his meditations on the subject to the following nervous and expressive epigram:--
Superior beings, when of late they saw A mortal man explain all nature's law, Admired such wisdom in an
earthly shape, And show'd our NEWTON as
we show an
ape. These fine lines are a paraphrase from a saying of Plato, from whom our poet borrows without acknowledging the debt. The words are these:
ανθρωπονοσοφωτατοςπροςθεονπιθηκοςφανειται. "The wisest of mortals will appear but an ape in the estimation of God."
"We prophesy in part"
Even the sublimest
prophets have been able to say but little of the heavenly state; and the best
preachers have left the
Spirit of God very much to supply. And had we no more religious knowledge than we can derive from men and books, and had we no farther instruction in the knowledge of God and ourselves than we derive from preaching, our religious experience would be low indeed. Yet it is our duty to acquire all the knowledge we possibly can; and as preaching is the
ordinary means by which God is pleased to instruct and convert the soul, we should diligently and thankfully use it. For we have neither reason nor Scripture to suppose that God will give us that immediately from himself which he has promised to convey only by the use of
means. Even this his blessing makes effectual; and, after all, his
Spirit supplies much that
man cannot teach. Every preacher should take care to inculcate this on the hearts of his hearers. When you have learned all you can from your ministers, remember you have much to learn from God; and for this you should diligently wait on him by the reading of his word, and by incessant prayer.