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.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:11KJV
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1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)

What does 1 Corinthians 13:11 mean?

1 Corinthians 13:11 uses the example of growing from childhood to adulthood to show how understanding and behavior change as a person matures. Paul is saying that, just as people leave behind childish ways as they grow up, there are ways of thinking and acting that should be set aside as believers mature in faith and love.

Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, explaining how love is the greatest quality in the Christian life. In this verse, Paul uses his own experience to illustrate the difference between immature and mature ways of thinking, speaking, and reasoning. The verse is part of a larger section where Paul describes how spiritual gifts and knowledge are only partial now, but love is the lasting, mature way.