In Part

In Part

We are exhorted in 1 Cor. 13:4-7 to partake of divine love: “Love suffers long . . . [it] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Further on, Paul writes in verse 9: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part.”

We who have become disciples of Jesus Christ, have been given exceedingly great and precious promises, that we may be partakers of divine nature. 2 Pet. 1:3-4. This means that we have been called to leave behind our constrained, human heart, which only seeks its own, and come into divine freedom—into a broad place—where we receive power to love and power to build up in the circumstances we are in.

When I begin putting these words of God into practice in the different situations in my life, it is easy to discover that things do not succeed the way I had hoped. The sin that dwells in me has such an effect that even though I feel as though I am bearing the one thing and the other, but I need to ask myself: do I bear all things—do I endure all things?

It is written about God that His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth. Isa. 55:9. These thoughts have the effect that “. . . He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matt. 5:45. And in Jas. 1:17 we read: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

Our calling is to come to such divine freedom, into divine nature! In order for this transformation to take place, I must acknowledge my sin, and recognize in every situation that I only see a part of the whole. Paul was aware of this when he wrote in Phil. 3:12-14: “. . . but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal . . . .”

Let us always maintain this humble acknowledgment that we understand in part, that there is more for us to see, and that we need to see even more clearly! When we have it in this way, we cannot relax or sit back. This creates a need in us—a need that enables us to see more of God’s goodness so that we are able to behold the glorious land that lies ahead. We have been called, together with all the saints, to possess as many of these glorious things as possible! Then this testimony in 2 Cor. 6:12 will become true in us: “There is no limit to our affection for you.” [AMP].