1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 13: The Love Chapter
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1 Corinthians 13 · 13 verses
Read the passage
1 Corinthians 13 · 13 verses
1 Corinthians 13
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, vaunteth...: or, is not rash
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; in the truth: or, with 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. fail: Gr. 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. done away: Gr. vanish 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. thought: or, reasoned put away: Gr. vanish away
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. darkly: Gr. in a riddle
13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
The Corinthian church was a church of gifts and factions — tongue-speakers, prophets, knowledge-proud intellectuals, each faction claiming the higher endowment, none of them notably kind to one another. Into the heat of that dispute Paul drops the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians like a burning coal. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. He does not say the gifts are worthless — he says the gifts without love are empty noise. He then gives the most searching portrait of love in all of literature: suffereth long, is kind, envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. And then the close: faith, hope, charity, these three — but the greatest of these is charity. The greatest, because love will outlast everything that is partial, everything that is temporary, everything that knows in part. Love is what God is. Love is what heaven will be full of.