Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 13:11

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things." — 1 Corinthians 13:11 (ASV)

When I was a child. The idea here is that the knowledge we now possess, compared with what we will have in heaven, is like the knowledge of infancy compared with that of manhood. As we advance in years, we lay aside as unworthy of our attention the views, feelings, and plans we had in boyhood, which we then esteemed to be of such great importance. Similarly, when we reach heaven, we will lay aside the views, feelings, and plans we have in this life, which we now esteem so wise and valuable.

The word child here (νήπιος) properly denotes a babe, an infant, though without any definable limitation of age. It refers to the first periods of existence, before the period we call boyhood or youth. Paul here refers to a period when he could speak, though evidently a period when his speech was scarcely intelligible—when he first began to articulate.

I spake as a child. Just beginning to articulate, in a broken and most imperfect manner. The idea here is that our knowledge at present, compared with the knowledge of heaven, is like the broken and scarcely intelligible efforts of a child to speak, compared with the power of utterance in manhood.

I understood as a child. My understanding was feeble and imperfect. I had narrow and imperfect views of things. I knew little. I fixed my attention on objects which I now see to be of little value. I acquired knowledge that has vanished, or that has been superseded by the superior intelligence of riper years. "I was affected as a child. I was thrown into a transport of joy or grief on the slightest occasions, which manly reason taught me to despise."—Doddridge.

I thought as a child. Marginal note: reasoned. The word may mean either. I thought, argued, or reasoned in a weak and inconclusive manner. My thoughts, plans, and argumentations were puerile and what I now see to be short-sighted and erroneous.

Thus it will be with our thoughts when compared to heaven. There will doubtless be as much difference between our present knowledge, plans, and views, and those we will have in heaven, as there is between the plans and views of a child and those of a man.

Just before his death, Sir Isaac Newton made this remark: "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself by now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."—Brewster's Life of Newton, pp. 300, 301, edit. New York, 1832.