1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church amid disputes over spiritual gifts, using his own past as a contrast to the maturity he expects of them now.

The words — νήπιος (nēpios) means "infant, suckling," not a young person; it is the same word Paul uses for the Corinthians themselves in 3:1 and 14:20. The verb ἐλαλοῦν (elaloun) is onomatopoeic, the sound of a baby's babbling rather than articulate speech.

The thread — The same νήπιος appears in 1 Corinthians 3:1 ("infants in Christ") and 14:20 ("stop thinking like children"), and Galatians 4:1 uses the heir-as-child image for believers under the law.

Why it lands — Paul names three faculties—speech, thought, reasoning—and marks all three as abandoned, so the call is not to suppress enthusiasm but to upgrade the quality of how a believer speaks, thinks, and argues.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

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.

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
1 Corinthians 3:1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.
Galatians 4:1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he is the owner of everything.
Ecclesiastes 11:10 So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.