1 Corinthians 13 #5
Paul's "love chapter" — the definition of love read at more Christian weddings than any other biblical text, written not as a poem about romance but as a corrective to a fractured, competitive church.
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Charity 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.
9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11When 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.
12For 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.
13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13, King James Version. “Charity” translates the Greek agape.
Paul writes this chapter in the middle of a long letter correcting a congregation split by rivalry, lawsuits, sexual immorality, and — in the chapters immediately surrounding this one — a dispute over which spiritual gifts mattered most. Read in that context, 1 Corinthians 13 is not a detached meditation on love in general but a direct answer to the Corinthians’ specific argument: whatever gift you’re proud of — prophecy, knowledge, tongues, even self-sacrifice — is worthless without love, because love, not gifting, is what will still exist when the gifts have run their course.
Structure
The chapter falls into three movements. Verses 1-3 argue that spiritual gifts and even sacrificial acts count for nothing without love. Verses 4-7 define love by what it does and doesn’t do — patient, kind, not envious, not self-seeking, not easily angered — describing action rather than emotion throughout. Verses 8-13 then contrast love’s permanence with the gifts’ expiration: prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are partial and will “vanish away,” but love “never faileth,” which is why Paul closes by ranking it above even faith and hope.
Why It Endures
Its most familiar use — read aloud at weddings — is in some tension with its original purpose as a rebuke to a quarreling church, but the description of love it gives translates just as directly to marriage, friendship, and any relationship under strain, which is exactly why it has outgrown its original argument to become the New Testament’s single most quoted statement on what love actually requires.
Key References
- 1 Corinthians 13:1-13