This corresponds to knowledge.
1 Cor. 13:11. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.
That is, in the future age I will have a more mature knowledge; then the small and infantile knowledge that we have here will be abolished. Then he continues.
1 Cor. 13:12. Now we see as through a dim glass, enigmatically.
He explains what was said about the infant, and shows that our present knowledge is something dark, whereas then it will be most clear. For, he says, now we see in a mirror. Then, since a mirror shows the object reflected in it quite distinctly, he added: "dimly," in order to show with the greatest precision the incompleteness of this knowledge.
1 Cor. 13:12. But then face to face.
He says this not because God has a face, but in order to show through this the clarity and directness of knowledge.
1 Cor. 13:12. Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, just as I have been fully known.
He doubly humbles their pride, showing that present knowledge is incomplete and that it is not our own. It is not I, he says, who knew God, but He Himself knew me. Therefore, just as He Himself has now known me and Himself condescended to me, so I too shall attain Him then far more than now. As one sitting in darkness, as long as he does not see the sun, does not himself reach toward its beautiful ray, but the ray shows itself to him by its radiance, and when he receives the sunlight, then he himself also reaches toward the light. Thus the words "even as I am known" do not mean that we shall know Him as He knows us, but that just as He has now condescended to us, so we too shall attain to Him then. A comparison: someone found an abandoned child, noble and fair; on his part he recognized it, lifted it up and took it to himself, bestowed care upon it, raised it nobly, and finally endowed it with wealth and brought it into the royal palace. The child, while it is young, feels none of this and is not aware of the benevolence of the person who lifted it up. But when it comes of age, it immediately recognizes its benefactor and loves him worthily. Here you have an example to clarify what is expressed obscurely in what has been said.
1 Cor. 13:13. And now abide these three: faith, hope, love; but love is the greater of them.
There exist also the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and understanding, and although they are transient, with the spread of faith among all they will be completely abolished. Faith, hope, and love are more enduring than these (for this is what is meant by the words: "but now abide," that is, the continuance of these three); but even among these themselves, love is the greatest, because it continues also in the age to come.