1 Corinthians13chapter 13

1 Corinthians 13:1

the tongues of men and of angels: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels: the chapter opens inside the gifts discussion, not against it, chapter 12's last verse having promised a more excellent way, and Paul begins from the gift the Corinthians prized most, raised to its highest imaginable register, angelic speech. Without charity the speaker becomes sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, the noisy bronze of the pagan rites Corinth knew, sound without soul. The bench notes what the verse does and does not say: it does not disparage tongues, which Paul will thank God he speaks more than they all (14:18); it weighs the gift without love and finds it noise. Charity here is agape, and the old translators' choice of charity is defended by the commentators as love in its active, giving character.

1 Corinthians 13:2-3

Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and all faith so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing: the ladder climbs through the gifts Paul himself ranks highest, and the verdict is not that such a man has little but that he is nothing, ouden, the gift real and the man vanished. Verse 3 pushes past gifting into sacrifice itself, all goods bestowed to feed the poor, the body given to be burned, and without love it profiteth me nothing, the maximum of religion without its heart worth zero. The commentators state the doctrine plainly: gifts are the Spirit's instruments and love is the Spirit's fruit, and the instruments without the fruit profit the possessor nothing, which is the exact hinge on which chapter 12 turns into chapter 14.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5

Charity suffereth long, and is kind: the definition proceeds by fifteen verbs rather than adjectives, love described entirely by what it does and refuses to do, and the bench has long noted that the portrait is Christ's own conduct written small. Suffereth long is makrothymei, the long fuse toward persons; is kind, chresteuetai, active goodness; envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, the last word Corinth's own diagnosis, physioo, the puffing the letter has charged since 4:6. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, where the last clause is an accounting phrase, ou logizetai to kakon, love keeps no ledger of wrongs, the same verb Romans uses for righteousness not imputed.

1 Corinthians 13:6-7

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth: love's two joys are named negatively and positively, no pleasure in another's fall, glad partnership with the truth, and the bench notes how the pair forbids religious gossip in a sentence. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things: the four alls of verse 7 are love's weather, where beareth, stegei, carries the sense of roofing over, covering what it could expose, and believeth and hopeth all things is not credulity but the settled bias toward the best construction, and endureth, hypomenei, is the soldier's word for holding ground. The exposition keeps Edwards's summary in view, that love is the sum of all virtue because each clause is a virtue wearing love's face.

1 Corinthians 13:8-10

Charity never faileth: the contrast that follows is between love's permanence and the gifts' appointed span, prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, knowledge shall vanish away, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. The site teaches the reading the passage's own clauses require: that which is perfect, to teleion, arrives when we see face to face and know even as also we are known (13:12), the state of the Lord's presence and the resurrection, and the gifts serve the church until then. The reading that makes to teleion the completed canon, so that the gifts ceased when the New Testament was finished, is answered by verse 12 itself, since no one holding a Bible yet sees face to face or knows as he is known; the partial gifts end when the perfect state arrives, not before. Until that day the in-part gifts remain the church's equipment, exactly as 1:7 promised, that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:11-12

When I was a child: 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: the figure explains the passing of the partial, childhood's speech and thought not despised but outgrown when the mature state arrives, and the bench keeps the figure tied to verse 10's timing, the manhood in view being the perfect state, not a later century of church history. Verse 12 fixes the timetable beyond argument: now we see through a glass, darkly, di esoptrou en ainigmati, in a mirror, in a riddle, Corinth's own bronze mirrors giving the image; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. Face to face is Scripture's language for unmediated presence, and known even as I am known is a knowledge no book on a shelf confers; the exposition lets the verse date the perfect, and the site's confession of the Spirit's continuing gifts rests on the verse's own arithmetic.

1 Corinthians 13:13

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity: the chapter closes by ranking the abiding graces above the passing gifts, and then ranking within them. The commentators give the classic reason love is greatest: faith will become sight and hope will become possession, but love is the life of heaven already begun, the one grace that crosses the threshold unchanged, and it is greatest too because God is not called faith or hope but is called love. Now abideth sets the three against the in-part gifts of verse 8, and the bench notes the pastoral architecture of the whole chapter, standing between 12 and 14 not to silence the gifts but to give them their engine; 14:1 opens with both commands in one breath, follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts.