1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)

What does 1 Corinthians 13:11 mean?

1 Corinthians 13:11 uses growing up as a picture of a change in understanding. Paul compares the limited ways he spoke and thought as a child with the fuller perspective he gained as an adult. The picture helps explain the contrast between what is partial now and what will be complete.

Paul describes the change in the first person: “when I became a man, I put away childish things.” His example gives the readers in Corinth a familiar way to picture the change introduced in verse 10.

The Greek behind 1 Corinthians 13:11

• “child” — νήπιος (nēpios): This word can mean a very young child. It gives Paul’s comparison the sense of an early stage of development.
• “understood” — φρονέω (phroneō): This word can refer to one’s way of thinking or outlook. In the verse, it points to a child’s frame of mind, not just to knowing facts.
• “put away” — καταργέω (katargeō): This word carries the sense of bringing something to an end or leaving it behind. Paul uses it to describe how his childhood ways ceased to govern him as an adult.

Why 1 Corinthians 13:11 matters

• Paul’s example explains why something limited can give way to something fuller. His readers can recognize that childhood has its own ways of speaking and thinking, even though adulthood brings a change.
• The example belongs to Paul’s discussion of partial knowledge, not simply to a lesson about age. Verse 12 continues the comparison by contrasting seeing dimly with seeing “face to face.”
• Paul includes speech as well as thought in the picture. His words “I spake as a child” connect the example to the passage’s concern with speaking and knowing.