1 Corinthianschapter 13
13 verses · Paul · AD 54 or 55 · Paul's letters
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.
Introduction
Paul, Paul's letters, 1 Corinthians Overview.
Paul wrote this chapter in the middle of an argument about spiritual gifts, to a church proud of its speech and its knowledge. It is the most loved passage he ever wrote, and it is read at weddings far from the quarrel that drew it out. He sets aside the question of which gift is greatest and names something greater than them all. Listen for the three conditions that open it and the three that remain at its close. Listen also for how much of what love does is said as what it will not do. Read it as the way Paul promised at the end of chapter 12.
Context
- Who
- A gifted, quarrelsome congregation being shown what all their abilities are worth without love.
- What
- Paul's description of love, its worth above every gift, its conduct toward others, and its lasting when the gifts come to an end.
- Where
- Written from Ephesus to the church at Corinth, within the answer on spiritual gifts that runs from 12:1 to 14:40.
- When
- About AD 54 or 55, during Paul's long stay at Ephesus.
- Why
- To show a church divided over its gifts that the gifts are worth nothing without love, and that love is the more excellent way.
Historical context
The noisy gong and clanging cymbal were instruments of pagan worship, used in the ecstatic cults to work a crowd up. Describing gifted speech that way, to people who had grown up around those rites, was pointed.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Corinth was famous for its bronze, and polished bronze mirrors were among its products. A bronze mirror gave a real but dim and slightly distorted image, which is exactly the comparison Paul makes for present knowledge against seeing face to face.
The list of what love is and is not reads like a diagnosis of the letter's problems: not jealous, not boastful, not arrogant, not insisting on its own way. Every item has an address earlier in the letter.
"Giving my body to be burned" (some manuscripts read "that I may boast") refers to the most extreme act of self-sacrifice imaginable in that world. Even that, Paul says, is worth nothing without love.
Significance
The first hearers were not being handed a poem about romance. They were being told that tongues, prophecy, mountain-moving faith, and giving away everything they owned added up to zero without love, and they were the ones ranking each other by exactly those things.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The permanence argument closed it. Prophecy, tongues, and knowledge all belong to the partial present; faith, hope, and love remain, and the greatest of these is love.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Tongues, Prophecy, Martyrdom: and Still Nothing
If I speak in the tongues: The chapter answers the more excellent way promised at 12:31 and starts from the gift Corinth prized most, the tongues of men and of angels. Without love that speech is only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1
“If should speak with the tongues of men. He begins with eloquence, which is, it is true, an admirable gift, considered in itself, but, when apart from love, does not recommend a man in the estimation of God. When he speaks of the tongue of angels, he uses a hyperbolical expression to denote what is singular, or distinguished.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Corinthians 13:1
“Though I speak with all the tongues - Which are upon earth, and with the eloquence of an angel. And have not love - The love of God, and of all mankind for his sake, I am no better before God than the sounding instruments of brass, used in the worship of some of the heathen gods.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 13:1
“Though I speak with the tongues of men - Though I should be able to speak all the languages which are spoken by people. To speak foreign languages was regarded then, as it is now, as a rare and valuable endowment; compare Virgil, Aeneas vi. 625ff. The word “I” here is used in a popular sense, and the apostle designs to illustrate, as he often does, his idea by a reference to himself, which, it is evident, he wishes to be understood as applying to those whom he addressed.”
1 Corinthians 13:1
“It is the charitable heart, not the voluble tongue, that is acceptable with God. The apostle specifies first this gift because hereupon the Corinthians seemed chiefly to value themselves and despise their brethren. Prophecy, and the understanding of mysteries, and all knowledge.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 13:2-3
If I have the gift: The ladder climbs through the highest gifts, all mysteries, all knowledge and faith to move mountains, and the verdict is I am nothing, ouden. Verse 3 reaches sacrifice itself, giving all to the poor and surrendering the body, and without love I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2
“And Paul in like manner declares, "Love is the fulfilling of the law:" and [he declares] that when all other things have been destroyed, there shall remain "faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of all is love;" and that apart from the love of God, neither knowledge avails anything, nor the understanding of mysteries, nor faith, nor prophecy, but that without love all are hollow and vain; moreover, that love makes man perfect; and that he who loves God is perfect, both in this world and in that which is to come.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IVpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:2
“It is what Chrysostom calls the "faith of miracles," and what we term a "special faith," because it does not apprehend a whole Christ, but simply his power in working miracles; and hence it may sometimes exist in a man without the Spirit of sanctification, as it did in Judas.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
If I give all I possess to the poor: Copies differ here by one letter. The oldest read a verb meaning to boast, which the Berean renders exult, and many later copies read a verb meaning to be burned. Chrysostom and Hodge expound the burning, a martyr's surrender of the body to fire without love, which gains nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:3
“Give all my goods to feed the poor, yea, though I deliver up my body to be burned - Rather than I would renounce my religion. And have not the love - Hereafter described. It profiteth me nothing - Without this, whatever I speak, whatever I have, whatever I know, whatever I do, whatever I suffer, is nothing.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
4 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:3
“For he was the first to import into Rome from Asia this kind of heretical pravity, a man in other respects of restless disposition, and above all inflated with the pride of confessorship simply and solely because he had to bear for a short time the annoyance of a prison; on which occasion, even "if he had given his body to be burned, it would have profiled him nothing," not having the love of God, whose very gifts he has resisted and destroyed.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Praxeaspatristic
1 Corinthians 13:3
“They're worthless without love because love is the sine qua non of all virtue.”
1 Corinthians 13:3
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,.... Of which the Jews give us instances; they say (n), that R. Ishcab stood, והחליק כל נכסיו לעניים, "and distributed all his goods to the poor"; and a little after they say the same of King Monbaz, that he stood and gave away, or dispersed, "all his goods to the poor"; and elsewhere (o) they say of R.”
1 Corinthians 13:3
“There may be an open and lavish hand, where there is no liberal and charitable heart. The external act of giving alms may proceed from a very ill principle. Vain-glorious ostentation, or a proud conceit of merit, may put a man to large expense this way who has no true love to God nor men.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
What Love Actually Does
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is patient, love is kind: Love is described in fifteen verbs in verses 4 to 7, by what it does and refuses to do. The last clause here, ou logizetai to kakon, is an accounting phrase: it keeps no account of wrongs.
1 Corinthians 13:4
“The love of God, and of our neighbour for God's sake, is patient toward, all men. It, suffers all the weakness, ignorance, errors, and infirmities of the children of God; all the malice and wickedness of the children of the world: and all this, not only for a time, but to the end. And in every step toward overcoming evil with good, it is kind, soft, mild, benign.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:4
“Charity is the bond of brotherhood, the foundation of peace, the holdfast and security of unity, which is greater than both hope and faith, which excels both good works and martyrdoms, which will abide with us always, eternal with God in the kingdom of heaven. Take from it patience; and deprived of it, it does not endure. Take from it the substance of bearing and of enduring, and it continues with no roots nor strength. The apostle, finally, when he would speak of charity, joined to it endurance and patience.”
Cyprian · written before 258 · Treatise IX. On the Advantage of Patience.patristic
1 Corinthians 13:4
“Extending good to others. Compare with love's features here those of the "wisdom from above" (Jas 3:17). envieth--The Greek includes also jealousy. vaunteth not--in words, even of gifts which it really possesses; an indirect rebuke of those at Corinth who used the gift of tongues for mere display. not puffed up--with party zeal, as some at Corinth were (1Co 4:6).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
It is not rude: Rude translates aschemonei, behaving in an unseemly or shameful way. Easily angered is paroxynetai, from which English takes paroxysm, a sudden fit of anger. Hodge describes a love that stays patient and kind under provocation.
1 Corinthians 13:5
“Doth not behave itself unseemly - (οὐκ ἀσχημονεῖ ouk aschēmonei). This word occurs in 1Co 7:36. See the note on that verse. It means to conduct improperly, or disgracefully, or in a manner to deserve reproach. Love seeks that which is proper or becoming in the circumstances and relations of life in which we are placed.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:5
“Nay, sometimes the lover of mankind seeketh not, in some sense, even his own spiritual advantage; does not think of himself, so long as a zeal for the glory of God and the souls of men swallows him up. But, though he is all on fire for these ends, yet he is not provoked to sharpness or unkindness toward any one.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 13:6-7
Love takes no pleasure in evil: Love finds no joy in another's fall and gladly partners with the truth. In verse 7, bears, stegei, means roofing over what it could expose, and endures, hypomenei, is the soldier's word for holding ground.
1 Corinthians 13:6
“Rejoiceth not in iniquity - Yea, weeps at either the sin or folly of even an enemy; takes no pleasure in hearing or in repeating it, but desires it may be forgotten forever. But rejoiceth in the truth - Bringing forth its proper fruit, holiness of heart and life. Good in general is its glory and joy, wherever diffused in all the world.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:6
“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 (1707-1721)puritan
It bears all things: The four clauses form a frame. Bears and endures stand at either end and speak of carrying loads, while believes and hopes in the middle speak of how love sees people.
1 Corinthians 13:7
“He that has this charity fears nothing, for charity casteth out fear; and fear being thus banished and thrown aside, charity beareth all things, endureth all things. He who by charity endures all things, cannot fear martyrdom; and so in another place he speaks as a conqueror at the end of his course, The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Letter 78, To Horontianuspatristic
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:7
“Where it cannot even excuse, it hopes God will at length give repentance unto life. Meantime it endureth all things - Whatever the injustice, the malice, the cruelty of men can inflict. He can not only do, but likewise suffer, all things, through Christ who strengtheneth him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 13:7
“Beareth all things - Compare the note at 1Co 9:12. Doddridge renders this, “covers all things.” The word used here (στέγει stegei) properly means to “cover” (from στέγη stegē, a covering, roof; Mat 8:8; Luk 7:6); and then to “hide,” “conceal,” not to make known. If this be the sense here, then it means that love is disposed to hide or conceal the faults and imperfections of others; not to promulgate or blazon them abroad, or to give any undue publicity to them.”
1 Corinthians 13:7
“Compare Jas 3:17, "easy to be entreated"; Greek, "easily persuaded." hopeth--what is good of another, even when others have ceased to hope. endureth--persecutions in a patient and loving spirit.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Now We See Dimly; Then, Face to Face
1 Corinthians 13:8-10
Love never fails: , while prophecy, tongues and knowledge belong to the time when we know in part. Verse 12 places the perfect, to teleion, at full sight in the Lord's presence, so the gifts serve the church until that day (1:7).
1 Corinthians 13:8
“Love never faileth - It accompanies to, and adorns us in, eternity; it prepares us for, and constitutes, heaven. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail - When all things are fulfilled, and God is all in all.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:8
“This living principle of all duty and obedience is the more excellent way of which the apostle speaks, preferable to all gifts. Nay, without this the most glorious gifts are nothing, of no account to us, of no esteem in the sight of God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
we know in part and we prophesy in part: In part translates ek merous, a piece taken from a whole. Knowledge and prophecy, the gifts Corinth prized, give true pieces of God's truth, and the whole waits for a later day. Hodge takes the verse to describe the limits of every believer's present knowledge.
1 Corinthians 13:9
But as for us, we still dwell upon the earth, and have not yet sat down upon His throne. For although the Spirit of the Saviour that is in Him "searcheth all things, even the deep things of God," yet as to us "there are diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, and diversities of operations;" and we, while upon the earth, as Paul also declares, "know in part, and prophesy in part."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:9
“Our best knowledge and our greatest abilities are at present like our condition, narrow and temporary. Even the knowledge they had by inspiration was but in part. How little a portion of God, and the unseen world, was heard even by apostles and inspired men!”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 13:9
“And even the prophecies which men deliver from God are far from taking in the whole of future events, or of that wisdom and knowledge of God which is treasured up in the scripture Revelation.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
but when the perfect comes: The perfect translates to teleion, what is complete or full grown. Hodge, Godet and Edwards read it as the life to come, when believers see face to face.
1 Corinthians 13:10
“But when that which is perfect - The state of eternal blessedness; then that which is in part - that which is imperfect, shall be done away; the imperfect as well as the probationary state shall cease for ever.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:10
“But when that which is perfect is come - At death and in the last day. That which is in part shall vanish away - Both that poor, low, imperfect, glimmering light, which is all the knowledge we now can attain to; and these slow and unsatisfactory methods of attaining, as well as of imparting it to others.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 13:10
“For now we know in part and understand in part. But then we shall be able to comprehend what is perfect, when not the shadow but the reality of the majesty and eternity of God shall begin to shine and to reveal itself unveiled before our eyes.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Death of Satyrus 2.32patristic
1 Corinthians 13:10
“But when that which is perfect is come,.... When perfect knowledge of God, of Christ, and of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven shall take place; which will not in this life, but in that which is to come.”
1 Corinthians 13:11-12
When I was a child: The child who talks like a child figures the partial outgrown when the mature state of verse 10 arrives. Verse 12 fixes the time: now a dim reflection as in a mirror, di esoptrou en ainigmati, then face to face.
1 Corinthians 13:11
"When I was a child"—that is, fresh from committing to memory the first elements of the divine Word—"I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But now that I have become a man"—that is, and am hastening to attain the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ—"I have put away the things of a child."
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · Concerning Faithpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:11
“When I was a child - The idea here is, that the knowledge which we now have, compared with that which we shall have in heaven, is like that which is possessed in infancy compared with that we have in manhood; and that as, when we advance in years, we lay aside, as unworthy of our attention, the views, feelings, and plans which we had in boyhood, and which we then esteemed to be of so great importance, so, when we reach heaven, we shall lay aside the views, feelings, and plans which we have in this life, and which…”
1 Corinthians 13:11
“In our present state we are mere infants in point of knowledge, compared to what we shall be hereafter. I put away childish things - Of my own accord, willingly, without trouble.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror: The wording echoes Numbers 12:8, where God spoke with Moses face to face, clearly and with no riddles. Paul promises that believers shall see and know that way, in place of a dim reflection in a mirror. Fully known translates epiginosko, a stronger verb for knowing.
1 Corinthians 13:12
“Now we see - Even the things that surround us. But by means of a glass - Or mirror, which reflects only their imperfect forms, in a dim, faint, obscure manner; so that our thoughts about them are puzzling and intricate, and everything is a kind of riddle to us.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:12
“Now we see through a glass, darkly - Δι’ εσοπτρου εν αινιγματι. Of these words some literal explanation is necessary. The word εσοπτρον which we translate a glass, literally signifies a mirror or reflector, from εις, into, and οπτομαι, I look; and among the ancients mirrors were certainly made of fine polished metal. The word here may signify any thing by which the image of a person is reflected, as in our looking, or look in glass. The word is not used for a glass to look through; nor would such an image have suited with the apostle’s design.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 13:12
“But, before I take up the matter itself of the profession of faith, the following warning should be given: It is impossible to express in one word or one concept, or to grasp with the mind at all, the majesty and glory of God, which is unutterable and incomprehensible, and the Holy Scripture, although for the most part employing words in current use, speaks obscurely 'as through a glass (1 Cor 13.12),' even to the clean of heart. They have been promised to those who are accounted worthy in the life to come.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · Commentary (church-history corpus)patristic
And now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love remain, set against the in-part gifts of verse 8, and the greatest of these is love. Faith will become sight and hope possession, while love is the life of heaven already begun.
1 Corinthians 13:13
“And now abideth - “Remains” (μένει menei). The word means properly to remain, continue, abide; and is applied to persons remaining in a place, in a state or condition, in contradistinction from removing or changing their place, or passing away. Here it must be understood to be used to denote “permanency,” when the other things of which he had spoken had passed away; and the sense is, that faith, hope, and love would “remain” when the gift of tongues should cease, and the need of prophecy, etc.; that is, these should survive them all.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 13:13
“Faith, hope, love - Are the sum of perfection on earth; love alone is the sum of perfection in heaven.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A praise of love in three movements: love's worth above the gifts (verses 1 to 3), love's conduct (verses 4 to 7), and love's permanence (verses 8 to 13), as Hodge classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| But have not love | Verses 1, 2 and 3 each set a great gift or sacrifice under an if, and each ends with the same words, but have not love. The refrain stands three times, and each time the verdict falls lower: a noise, nothing, and no gain.The chapter's text counted from the store, The Berean Standard Bible text of 1 Corinthians 13:1 to 3 (translation id 3). | 1 Corinthians 13:1, 1 Corinthians 13:2, 1 Corinthians 13:3 |
| What love does and will not do | Verses 4 to 7 describe love by fifteen verbs, and eight of the Berean clauses in verses 4 to 6 carry not or no. Four closing clauses in verse 7 each end in all things. Several of the faults love will not commit are faults the letter has already found in the church, such as boasting at 4:18 and being puffed up at 5:2.John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 13:4. | 1 Corinthians 13:4, 1 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Corinthians 13:7 |
| In part and face to face | The words in part stand three times in verses 9 to 12, set against the perfect that comes, the man who has set aside childish ways, and seeing face to face. Each pair sets the present against the time to come.The chapter's text counted from the store, The Berean Standard Bible text of 1 Corinthians 13:9 to 12 (translation id 3). | 1 Corinthians 13:9, 1 Corinthians 13:10, 1 Corinthians 13:12 |
The debated reading: when the perfect comes
5 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 10 says that when the perfect comes, the partial passes away, and readers differ on what the perfect is. Charles Hodge reads it as the state of glory after this life, when the saints see face to face (An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 13:10). John Chrysostom also reads it of the life to come, when knowledge in part gives way (Homilies on First Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 13:10). Some later readers take the perfect as the completed New Testament, so that prophecy and tongues ceased when the canon was closed, and verse 12's face to face is set against that reading by those who hold the first.
The reading of verse 3
The Berean text reads exult in the surrender of my body. Many Greek copies read that I may be burned, which the King James follows, and the oldest copies read that I may boast. The two Greek words differ by a single letter. The committee's reasons for each reading are set out in Bruce Metzger's A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 13:3.
Faith, hope and love
The three stand together at verse 13, and Paul joins them again at 1 Thessalonians 1:3 and 5:8 and Colossians 1:4 to 5. Here love is named the greatest of the three, and chapter 14 opens with the command to pursue it.
Keep studying
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Words12
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon and Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits.
The form and classifications
Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 13:1 and Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits.
The exposition
Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Frederic Godet, Commentary on First Corinthians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.