1 Corinthians 13 · Passage · Love
Love Is Patient
Paul describes love in fifteen statements of what it does and does not do, written to a divided church at Corinth.
Paul told the Corinthians to eagerly desire the greater gifts, and a few lines later he wrote that love does not envy, with the same Greek verb in both places.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
- The passage
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 to 7
- Book
- 1 Corinthians
- When
- AD 57 (proposed)
- Hold in memory
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 to 7
Summary
The list of 1 Corinthians 13:4 to 7 has four parts. Two statements say what love does toward others, eight deny something of it, one names what it rejoices in, and four say that it bears, believes, hopes and endures all things. Paul wrote the list for a church proud of its gifts, as the most excellent way, and the people of Scripture show each quality on it or its opposite.
- All fifteen statements are Greek verbs in the present tense, so Paul describes love by what it keeps doing.
- Eight statements deny something of love, and several of them name faults Paul had already rebuked in the same letter, among them pride and seeking one's own good.
- Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things, and Paul says that it never fails.
Fifteen Statements in Four Verses
Paul sets the list between two commands to desire spiritual gifts and gives every statement a verb.
First Corinthians 13:4 to 7 is Paul's list of what love does and what it refuses to do. Love is the value Scripture commands of God's people toward Him and toward one another, and these four verses describe how it behaves toward others. Each statement is short enough to learn by heart, and each can be measured against the way a person treats the people around him.
The question this study answers is where each statement can be seen in Scripture before it is asked of a believer. It answers with a table of the fifteen and with sections that read the list in its parts, show the faults at Corinth that the list answers, and give the teachers who have preached it.
But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.Paul tells a church that ranked its members by their gifts to desire the greater gifts and then promises a way above them all, which the next chapter names as love.
Before the list Paul says that tongues, prophecy, knowledge and faith are nothing without love. He adds, "If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Love is the subject of every verb, and five of them carry a middle or passive form in the tagged Greek text, among them chresteuetai and phusioutai. The word for love, agape, stands three times in verse 4 and nine times in the chapter.
Two of the verbs stand nowhere else in the Greek New Testament. Chresteuetai, is kind, means to show oneself useful or to act with kindness, and perpereuetai means to boast.
Each Statement in God and in His People
The examples come from both Testaments, from Moses and Ruth to Barnabas and Paul.
Each of the fifteen statements is shown first in God's own dealing and then in a person of Scripture.
| The statement and its Greek verb | God shows it first | A person of Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Verse 4 | ||
| Love is patient (makrothumei) | The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). | Hosea, told to show love to his wife again though she was an adulteress (Hosea 3:1). |
| Love is kind (chresteuetai) | He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked (Luke 6:35). | David, who told Jonathan's son, surely I will show you kindness (2 Samuel 9:7). |
| It does not envy (zeloi) | Jesus gave His disciples the glory the Father gave Him (John 17:22). | Jonathan gave David his robe, his sword and his bow (1 Samuel 18:4), while Saul kept a jealous eye on David (1 Samuel 18:9). |
| It does not boast (perpereuetai) | Christ emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7). | John the Baptist, who said, He must increase; I must decrease (John 3:30). |
| It is not proud (phusioutai) | Jesus said, I am gentle and humble in heart (Matthew 11:29). | Moses, a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3). |
| Verse 5 | ||
| It is not rude (aschemonei) | Jesus turned toward the woman His host had called a sinner and said, Do you see this woman? (Luke 7:44). | Boaz, who called Ruth from the field to eat bread with his harvesters (Ruth 2:14). |
| It is not self-seeking (zetei) | Even Christ did not please Himself (Romans 15:3). | Ruth, who would not leave Naomi and said, wherever you go, I will go (Ruth 1:16). |
| It is not easily angered (paroxunetai) | The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger (Psalm 103:8). | Jonah shows the opposite when he tells God that he is angry enough to die (Jonah 4:9). |
| It keeps no account of wrongs (logizetai) | God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's trespasses against them (2 Corinthians 5:19). | Paul, deserted at his first defense, who wrote, May it not be charged against them (2 Timothy 4:16). |
| Verse 6 | ||
| Love takes no pleasure in evil (chairei) | I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). | David, who tore his clothes and wept for Saul, the king who had hunted him (2 Samuel 1:11 to 12). |
| It rejoices in the truth (sugchairei) | There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7). | John the elder, who had no greater joy than to hear that his children were walking in the truth (3 John 4). |
| Verse 7 | ||
| It bears all things (stegei) | Jesus washed the disciples' feet at the supper where Judas sat, knowing what Judas would do (John 13:2 to 5). | Paul, who wrote, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:12). |
| It believes all things (pisteuei) | Jesus prayed that Simon's faith would not fail and told him to strengthen his brothers when he had turned back (Luke 22:32). | Barnabas, who brought Saul to the apostles when all the disciples were afraid of him (Acts 9:26 to 27). |
| It hopes all things (elpizei) | The LORD said of rebellious Israel, How could I give you up, O Ephraim? (Hosea 11:8). | Paul, who asked for Mark at the end of his life because he is useful to me in the ministry (2 Timothy 4:11). |
| It endures all things (hupomenei) | Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). | Job, whose perseverance James holds up to the church (James 5:11). |
Verse 5, It is not rude (aschemonei), It is not self-seeking (zetei), It is not easily angered (paroxunetai), It keeps no account of wrongs (logizetai), Verse 6, Love takes no pleasure in evil (chairei), It rejoices in the truth (sugchairei) and 5 more
Patient and Kind
The list opens with two things love does, the patience that bears with wrong and the kindness that does good.
The first verb, makrothumei, is defined in the STEP Bible lexicon based on Abbott-Smith as to be long-spirited, forbearing or patient. The second, chresteuetai, is to act with kindness. Patience waits under a wrong, and kindness does active good to the one who gave it.
Paul pairs the two again in the fruit of the Spirit, and in another letter he commands kindness with forgiveness.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,The two qualities that open Paul's list of love stand fourth and fifth here, so Paul counts them as the work of God within a believer.
Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.Paul commands kindness and forgiveness toward one another and gives God's forgiveness in Christ as the pattern.
Chrysostom taught that long-suffering is the root of the whole list.John Chrysostom, Homily 33 on 1 Corinthians
“Thus, whereas he had showed, that both faith and knowledge and prophecy and tongues and gifts and healing and a perfect life and martyrdom, if love be absent, are no great advantage; of necessity he next makes an outline of its matchless beauty, adorning its image with the parts of virtue as with a sort of colors, and putting together all its members with exactness. But do not thou hastily pass by, beloved, the things spoken, but examine each one of them with much care, that thou mayest know both the treasure which is in the thing and the art of the painter. Consider, for example, from what point he at once began, and what he set first, as the cause of all its excellence. And what is this? Long-suffering. This is the root of all self-denial. Wherefore also a certain wise man said, ‘A man that is long-suffering is of great understanding; but he that is hasty of spirit is mightily foolish.’ And comparing it too with a strong city, he said that it is more secure than that. For it is both an invincible weapon and a sort of impregnable tower, easily beating off all annoyances. And as a spark falling into the deep doth it no injury, but is itself easily quenched: so upon a long-suffering soul whatever unexpected thing falls, this indeed speedily vanishes, but the soul it disturbs not: for of a truth there is nothing so impenetrable as long-suffering. You may talk of armies, money, horses, walls, arms, or any thing else whatsoever; you will name nothing like long-suffering. For he that is encompassed with those, oftentimes, being overcome by anger, is upset like a worthless child, and fills all with confusion and tempest: but this man, settled as it were in a harbor, enjoys a profound calm. […]”
John Chrysostom · Homily on 1 Corinthians 33 · on 1 Corinthians 13:4Patristic
The Faults at Corinth
Several of the things love does not do are faults Paul had already named in the church at Corinth.
The church at Corinth was divided over its teachers and proud of its knowledge and its gifts. The denials of verses 4 and 5 use words Paul had already used of that church earlier in the letter.
Zeloo also stands in 1 Corinthians 12:31, 14:1 and 14:39, where the church is told to be zealous for spiritual gifts. Zeal aimed at another believer's place is the envy that love refuses.
Earnestly pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.Right after the chapter on love Paul tells the church to pursue love first and only then to desire spiritual gifts.
The verb for proud, phusioo, means to inflate or puff up. It stands seven times in the New Testament, and six of them are in this letter. The Berean text renders it take pride in 1 Corinthians 4:6, arrogant in 1 Corinthians 4:18 and puffs up in 1 Corinthians 8:1.
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.Paul sets knowledge that puffs up against love that builds up, using the verb he later denies of love in chapter 13.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.The four denials of verse 5 turn to the way love treats others, in its manners, its aims, its temper and its memory of wrongs.
The verb of not self-seeking, zeteo, is the one Paul used three chapters earlier in his rule for eating food offered to idols.
No one should seek his own good, but the good of others.Paul's rule for a believer's freedom is to seek the good of others, which is what love does in 1 Corinthians 13:5.
The last denial of verse 5 uses logizetai, which the STEP Bible lexicon glosses as to take an inventory, so love takes no inventory of the harm done to it.
1 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Corinthians 10:24
From Truth to Endurance
Love will not take pleasure in evil, it rejoices with the truth, and it carries all things to the end.
Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.The verse sets the last denial beside the one thing love rejoices in, so the list ties love to the truth.
In the Greek the first verb is chairei, rejoices, and the second is sugchairei, rejoices with. Love will not be glad at another's sin and is glad together with the truth.
“And is not falling into sin the greatest calamity that can befal one? How inconsistent is it with Christian charity, to rejoice at such fall! Affirmatively: It rejoiceth in the truth, is glad of the success of the gospel, commonly called the truth, by way of emphasis, in the New Testament; and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on 1 Corinthians 13:6Puritan
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.The list ends with four verbs that each take all things as their object, the widest claims Paul makes for love.
Stegei, which opens verse 7, first meant to roof over or cover, and from that it came to mean to bear or endure patiently. Peter uses the picture of covering when he writes of love and sin.
Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.Peter ranks this work of love above all else among believers, and it is the first of the four all things of 1 Corinthians 13:7 put into practice.
Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.Paul commands believers to carry one another's burdens, the daily form of the love that bears all things.
Verse 7 stands right after the words rejoices in the truth, so the love that believes and hopes all things does not call evil good. It keeps believing and hoping for the person who has done the wrong.
1 Corinthians 13:7, 1 Peter 4:8, Galatians 6:2
How Teachers Have Taught the List
John Calvin and Charles Spurgeon each taught on the list, Calvin in his commentary on verse 5 and Spurgeon in a sermon on verse 7.
1509 to 1564 · John Calvin
Calvin taught that love for others does not come to us by nature.
The reading1 paragraph
John Calvin, commenting on 1 Corinthians 13:5, wrote that "we are naturally prone to have love and care for ourselves, and aim at our own advantage". He drew from this how far love is from being implanted in us by nature.
1834 to 1892 · Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon taught that love is the everyday dress of every believer.
The reading1 paragraph
Charles Spurgeon preached on 1 Corinthians 13:7 in 1881, in Sermon No. 1617, Love's Labours, and warned his hearers against treating the chapter as a model for a few. He said, "This charity is the common, everyday livery of the people of God. It is not the prerogative of a few; it must be the possession of all."
Love Never Fails
The list sets out love as God has shown it, and Paul asks the church to live it toward one another. Thomas a Kempis wrote of this love in The Imitation of Christ, book 3, chapter 5, in William Benham's translation, and called it a great thing which alone makes every heavy burden light. Henry Drummond, in an address on the chapter that D. L. Moody first heard in England in 1884, wrote that "The Spectrum of Love has nine ingredients". He named them patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, guilelessness and sincerity, his own grouping of Paul's fifteen statements. Right after the list Paul says that love outlasts the gifts the Corinthians prized.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.Love never fails while prophecies, tongues and knowledge come to an end, so the qualities of verses 4 to 7 are the ones that last.
The rest of the chapter, with its question of what Paul meant by the perfect in verse 10, is taught on The Love Chapter and on Speaking in Tongues.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- John Chrysostom, Homily 33 on 1 Corinthians, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 12.
- Cornelius Aherne, Epistles to the Corinthians, The Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908)
- The tagged Greek text of the New Testament, with Strong's numbers, morphology and glosses.
- STEP Bible TBESG, the brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922), entries g3049, g3114, g4068, g4722, g5448 and g5541 (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on 1 Corinthians 13:6.
- Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, book 3, chapter 5, translated by William Benham.
- John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 13:5, translated by John Pringle (Calvin Translation Society)
- C. H. Spurgeon, Love's Labours, Sermon No. 1617, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (1881)
- Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World and Other Addresses, with D. L. Moody's introduction.
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