1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing. 3If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don't have love, it profits me nothing. 4Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, 5doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; 6doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. 13But now faith, hope, and love remain--these three. The greatest of these is love.
The Book of1 Corinthians 13Chapter XIII 13
· 13 verses · 2 minute read
About this chapter
1 Corinthians 13 — The Chapter of Love
First Corinthians 13 is rightly called "The Chapter of Love." Yet we must grasp its context to feel its full force: Paul was writing to the Corinthian church, where believers were quarreling over spiritual gifts—each convinced their own gift was the greatest. Into this heated dispute, Paul inserts a pause, a sacred interruption. He tells them plainly: even if you speak with the tongues of men and angels, even if you prophesy with perfect insight, move mountains by faith, give away everything you own to the poor, even surrender your body to be burned—without love, you are nothing. The love Paul describes here is not phileo, the warmth of friendship, nor eros, the fire of romance, nor storge, the comfort of family affection. It is agape—love as a choice, love as action, love that persists whether or not it receives anything in return. Paul unfolds fifteen marks of this love: it suffers long and is kind; it envies not, vaunts not itself, is not puffed up; it behaves not unseemly, seeks not its own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; it rejoices not in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Notice those final three verbs—they are present and active, not passive. Love is always working, always reaching, always persisting. The chapter closes with a meditation on time itself: now we see through a glass, darkly, in riddles; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then shall I know even as also I am known. Three things remain eternal—faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.
Written to the young, fractious church at Corinth around 55 AD. Chapters 12–14 address the proper use of spiritual gifts; Chapter 13 stands as a love-hymn, an interlude of grace in the midst of doctrinal instruction.
Read this when you are at a wedding, in the midst of family conflict, or tempted to wound someone—and ask yourself: Am I loving this way?
Key verses in 1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 13:4 · High comfort1 Corinthians 13:131 Corinthians 13:5
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