Will We Know Each Other in Heaven?

Today, we're answering a listener question here, Will we know each other in heaven?
Will we know each other in heaven?
And the verse they cited here is 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 12.
This is where Paul wrote, let's find it here, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 12.
This is where Paul wrote, Then shall I know, even as also I am known.
This verse has somehow gotten twisted and turned around.
Most people attempt to quote it and say something like, We shall be known as we're known.
But it actually says, Then shall I know, even as also I am known.
A common twisting of scripture, and that's what happens when man gets an idea in his head and then runs to scripture to try to find a verse or a passage to support his idea.
Vain imagination.
So let's take a look at this verse by verse, 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
Let's start here in verse 8.
Charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.
Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.
Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Let's tackle this verse first before we get to the verse in question, because I often hear from those who say, If tongues have ceased, then are you saying knowledge has vanished?
Okay.
The answer is no.
But what I am saying is supernatural knowledge.
God giving supernatural knowledge has vanished.
Regardless of the false claims, no one today is hearing from God in an audible voice.
No one is hearing from Him in a still, small voice.
God has no need to.
He's not trying to tell us anything in burnt toast or crying or bleeding statues or by any other means.
He is not trying to tell you anything outside of His perfectly preserved Word as found in the King James Bible.
That's where He has already spoken.
It's complete.
Finished.
It's done.
Now all you have to do is read it.
I'll keep saying it.
You've heard me say it before.
If you want to hear from God, read His Word.
If you want to hear from God out loud, read it out loud.
Now back to our subject, then shall I know, even as also I am known.
That's the question for today.
A listener here is asking, does this mean that we'll know others and they'll know us when we get to heaven?
Okay.
We stopped at verse 8.
Here's verse 9.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
Well, know in part means knowledge, know.
Keep in mind at this time, at the time that this was written, Paul's revelation of the mystery was incomplete and still being given.
Verse 10.
But when that which is perfect is come, perfect, that means complete, when that perfect supernatural
knowledge from God has come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Well, if I had partial knowledge, but then received complete, perfect knowledge, then I no longer have partial knowledge.
It is done away.
And at that time I would have full knowledge, complete, perfect.
Verse 11.
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.
Paul here is comparing having partial knowledge with speaking like a child and thinking like a child.
But then he says, once I get the perfect, the complete revelation, I'll become a man.
Verse 12.
Okay.
Now we've come to the verse in question.
For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known.
So Paul says, now, at the time he was writing this, okay, his vision was darkened.
I know in part.
So he had partial vision, partial knowledge, but he's not done.
Then he says, but then shall I know, even as also I am known.
Hey, if you saw through a glass mirror darkly, if it was darkened, your face would be blurry, obscured.
But if you cleaned the mirror, your face would come through clearly.
In other words, when he says, but then shall I know, even as also I am known, he's saying, then it'll be as plain as the nose on my face.
So when we start connecting the dots, this begins to come together.
Let's line this up here.
God kept some information secret, Ephesians 3:9, to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.
And Romans 16:25, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.
But when it was time to reveal the secret, he chose Paul to do that through.
1 Corinthians 9:17, Paul wrote, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
Dispensation, information, data.
In this case, data that had been hid in God until revealed to and through the apostle
Paul.
So before Paul had received all this secret information, he was still in an incomplete state.
Hence the reason he said, for now we see through a glass darkly.
Christ met with Paul on several occasions, and that's why 2 Corinthians 12:7 says he received an abundance of revelations.
There was more than one.
And Paul goes on to say, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known.
The then he refers to here is after, after that last meeting with Jesus.
After Jesus had finished revealing the mystery to Paul, Paul would have been perfect in understanding,
having full and complete knowledge.
No longer looking through a darkened mirror, no longer knowing in part, but seeing face to face.
But then shall I know, even as also I am known.
This has nothing to do with knowing each other when we get to heaven.
Paul is simply saying, the way you Corinthians see me, as clearly as I am known among you, that's how I'll see and know this revelatory knowledge when Christ is done with me.
Then, when he and I have had our last meeting, I'll see myself in the mirror clearly.
Face to face.
No longer darkly.
No longer in part.
No, at that time, the that which is perfect will have come.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you.
Thank you for your grace and mercy, for giving us your complete and perfect word, for helping us use our spiritual eyes to understand what has been right here before us all along.
Thank you for allowing us to undo, to unlearn what religion wrongly taught us for so many years.
It's time to compare scripture with scripture, look at this clearly, and rightly divide the Word of Truth.
Listen, this is not talking about everyone knowing you when you get to heaven.
Now I'm not saying they won't, but what I am saying is this is not the verse, verse 12 here, this is not what this verse is telling us.
Not even close.
That's out of context.
The only way to make it say that is to make it say that, because it don't say it by itself.
You have to do some real scriptural gymnastics, some real twisting and turning, and we've got many preachers who have done just that.
That's why people have these sort of questions.
So will we?
Will we know each other in heaven?
I think so.
But this certainly is not the verse we should use to prove it, okay?
Now, when someone is saved, they then become a member of the church which is his body, the body of Christ church, and it's a mystery church found nowhere else in your Bible other than in the letters of the apostle Paul.
So you're placed into this body of believers, but we are all still individuals.
Each of us are distinct.
Now over in the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 17, starting at verse 1, and you'll see where Moses and Elias were both recognized by Peter, James, and his brother John.
They recognized them even though they didn't even live back there during their time.
So it's apparent to me that God supernaturally revealed their identity to these three disciples.
Now this doesn't prove that we, the church, the body of Christ, are going to know each other in heaven, but it does prove that the kingdom saints knew each other.
They actually knew others who had previously died in their earthly setting.
But let's see if we can find some information here showing that we, the church, the body of Christ, will know each other in heaven.
Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
Go there with me quickly here.
First Corinthians chapter 15, we're going to start here in verse 49, and as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
And for time's sake, skip down to verse 52.
In a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Verse 53, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
You see, we'll receive a glorified body just as Christ did.
And remember, when He received His glorified body, He was recognizable.
So why wouldn't we be?
While here in 1 Corinthians 15, look back up here at verse 5.
And notice that after the resurrection, Jesus was recognized by the 12 apostles.
And then the next verse, verse 6, says that more than 500 others also recognized Him.
And finally, there in verse 8, we see that Paul was the last person on earth to see and recognize Jesus.
So it only stands to reason when we follow this to its logical conclusion, those of us in Christ will most likely recognize one another.
Okay, one more, one more real quick before I go.
Look here at 1 Thessalonians, get 1 Thessalonians, and let's go to chapter 4, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.
Verse 15, For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto
the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord Himself shall ascend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
And watch, watch how our apostle here ends the chapter, verse 18, Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Okay?
These are indeed comforting words for anyone thinking about their loved ones.
Notice how Paul started out by saying, Sorrow not for those believers who have died.
Then he makes it a point to remind them that God is going to bring them with Him.
Then he says that we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together, together with them, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Sounds like a reunion to me.
And then he ends by saying, Comfort one another with these words.
Now what are we going to do with this?
Our job as ambassadors is to present to them the gospel of their salvation.
Do it every chance you get.
To me this sounds like we're not only going to spend eternity with saved loved ones and friends, but we will also know and recognize them, even though we're all going to have a new glorified body, God will make sure that our identities are revealed.
And here's the beautiful thing.
Each of us have saved people in our ancestry, those whom we've never had the opportunity to meet, but one day we will.
God is so wonderful.
Think about meeting family members in heaven that you didn't even know you had, and being able to serve and to worship God alongside them.
And not only will you meet family members you never met who went on, some perhaps hundreds of years before you, but you'll meet others that will come along after you're long gone.
Really makes you think about how important it is to unashamedly, to unapologetically tell them about the gospel that saves today.
Found in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 to 4, they just might wind up in heaven from a direct result of the seed you planted long before they were even born.
You only get two educations, the one you're given, and the one you give yourself.