Fathers

1 Corinthians 13

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If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

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What the Fathers say

1 Corinthians 13:11

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child; but now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things." Next he points out also how great is the distance between the two, and that our deficiency is no small one.

Homily on 1 Corinthians 34 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Having said that with the coming of the perfect "that which is in part" will be done away with, he at the same time presents an example by which he explains how great the difference is between present and future knowledge. For now we are like infants, but then we shall be men. "Then I spoke as a child." This corresponds to languages. "I thought as a child." This corresponds to the prophecies. "I reasoned as a child." This corresponds to knowledge. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗

Clement of Alexandria

"When I became a man," again Paul says, "I put away childish things." It is not incomplete size of stature, nor a definite measure of time, nor additional secret teachings in things that are manly and more perfect, that the apostle, who himself professes to be a preacher of childishness, alludes to when he sends it, as it were, into banishment; but he applies the name "children" to those who are under the law, who are terrified by fear as children are by bugbears; and "men" to us who are obedient to the Word and masters of ourselves, …

The Instructor Book 1 ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

Then when he says: When I was a child, he clarifies what he had said above: first, he clarifies the major, namely, with the coming of the perfect the imperfect ceases; secondly, he clarifies the minor, namely, that knowledge and prophecy are imperfect (v. 12). He shows the first by a likeness of the perfect and imperfect found in bodily age. Hence, he first describes the imperfect state of bodily age, saying: When I was a child, namely, in age, I spoke as a child, i.e., as befitted a child, by babbling. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗