1 Corinthians 13
The chapter in full, then the passages inside it that are worth stopping on — what each one claims, what the Greek or Hebrew shows, and how the reading is arrived at.
1 Corinthians 13 WEB
- 1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
- 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing.
- 3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don't have love, it profits me nothing.
- 4 Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil.
- 6 doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
- 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
- 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
- 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
- 10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
- 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.
- 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
- 13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13 sits wedged between two chapters on spiritual gifts. Chapter 12 has just described the Corinthian church as one body with many members, some apostles, some prophets, some workers of miracles, not all with the same function (1 Corinthians 12:27-29). Chapter 14 will go on to regulate tongues and prophecy in worship. Paul closes chapter 12 by promising "a most excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31), and this chapter is that way — not a gift alongside the others, but the thing without which every gift is noise.
13:1 Sounding brass or a clanging cymbal
Paul opens with the most spectacular gift on the Corinthian list — tongues, here "the languages of men and of angels" — and empties it out: without love (ἀγάπη, agapē) it is χαλκὸς ἠχῶν, "sounding brass," or κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον, a clanging cymbal. Both images are instruments used at pagan festivals — noisy, percussive, meant to be heard rather than to communicate. The point is not that tongues are worthless but that spiritual eloquence, however impressive to an audience, produces mere noise if love is absent. Corinth prized ecstatic speech as proof of spiritual status (see 1 Corinthians 14:2); Paul relativizes it before he ever regulates it.
13:2-3 Though I have all faith... though I give my body to be burned
The escalation matters: prophecy, all mysteries, all knowledge, faith enough to move mountains, total self-sacrifice — even martyrdom — and still "I am nothing" (οὐθέν εἰμι) or "it profits me nothing" (οὐδὲν ὠφελοῦμαι). This is not Paul disparaging knowledge, faith, or generosity; each is commended elsewhere in his letters. The claim is narrower and harder: none of these, however extreme, is a substitute for love, and none guarantees its presence. A textual variant in verse 3 reads "that I may boast" (καυχήσωμαι) rather than "to be burned" (καυθήσομαι) in some manuscripts — a single-letter difference in Greek that shifts the image from martyrdom to self-display, though the sense of the verse holds either way: extremity of action without love profits nothing.
13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind
This is the most quoted paragraph in the New Testament outside the Gospels, and also the most domesticated — read at weddings as a description of romantic feeling, when the Greek verbs describe conduct, not sentiment. Every verb is active: μακροθυμεῖ ("is patient," literally "is long-tempered"), χρηστεύεται ("is kind"), οὐ ζηλοῖ ("does not envy"), οὐ φυσιοῦται ("is not puffed up" — the same word Paul uses elsewhere for Corinthian arrogance). Love here is not a feeling one has but a way one acts toward others regardless of what they deserve. The list ends "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (13:7) — four uses of πάντα, "all," which is not naivety about evil (the previous verse has just said love "rejoices with the truth," not with wrongdoing, 13:6) but endurance that does not calculate. Compare Galatians 5:22-23, where the same qualities appear as "fruit of the Spirit," not human achievement.
13:8-12 Then face to face
Paul now dates love against the other gifts. Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will be καταργηθήσεται/παύσονται — "done away with," "will cease" — but "love never fails" (13:8). The reason given is not that gifts are bad but that they are partial: "we know in part" (ἐκ μέρους, 13:9), fitted for a stage that will end when "that which is complete" (τὸ τέλειον) arrives. The child/adult analogy (13:11) and the mirror image (13:12) both press the same point: present knowledge, however real, is indirect — "through a mirror, in a riddle" (δι' ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι) — compared to what is coming, "face to face."
The disputed question is what τὸ τέλειον names and when tongues and prophecy actually cease. Cessationists read it as the completion of the New Testament canon or the apostolic age, concluding the miraculous gifts have already ended. Continuationists read it as the return of Christ or the consummation of the age, on the grounds that "face to face" and "know fully, even as I was also fully known" (13:12) describe a vision of God not yet given to anyone this side of glory — an experience the text nowhere claims has arrived. The grammar favors the second reading: τὸ τέλειον is contrasted not with "the apostolic era" but with ἐκ μέρους, "in part," and the following verse's "face to face" is the standard biblical idiom for seeing God directly (used elsewhere of Moses), not for reading a finished Bible. The chapter does not settle the modern argument about whether tongues operate today; what it does settle is that whatever gifts exist now, they exist under partial knowledge, and love does not.
13:13 Faith, hope, and love — the greatest of these is love
The triad "faith, hope, and love" recurs in Paul (compare 1 Thessalonians, though not cited here), but this chapter alone ranks them. Faith and hope, by nature, belong to a condition of not-yet — faith trusts what is not seen, hope waits for what has not come. Love, by contrast, is not provisional; it is what faith and hope are for, and what remains when both have done their work and given way to sight. This is why love outlasts even the most spectacular exercise of spiritual power: it is not one gift among the others but the shape the whole of Christian life is meant finally to take.
What the chapter asks
The chapter refuses to let religious performance — however doctrinally correct, however sacrificial, however spiritually impressive — stand in for love toward the people in front of you. It asks whether the gifts a person exercises, the knowledge a person holds, or the sacrifices a person makes have actually produced the patient, unenvious, non-self-seeking love described in 13:4-7, or whether they have simply been loud. And it asks this against the horizon of 13:12: everything known now is partial, seen dimly, so the one thing worth building a life on is the one thing that does not end when the partial gives way to the whole.
The verses this turns on
If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
Ἐὰν ταῖς γλώσσαις τῶν ἀνθρώπων λαλῶ καὶ τῶν ἀγγέλων, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, γέγονα χαλκὸς ἠχῶν ἢ κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον.
- Ἐὰν ἐάν conditional G1437
- ταῖς ὁ article · dative plural feminine G3588
- γλώσσαις γλῶσσα noun · dative plural feminine G1100
- τῶν ὁ article · genitive plural masculine G3588
- ἀνθρώπων ἄνθρωπος noun · genitive plural masculine G444
- λαλῶ λαλέω verb · present active subjunctive, 1st person singular G2980
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- τῶν ὁ article · genitive plural masculine G3588
- ἀγγέλων, ἄγγελος noun · genitive plural masculine G32
- ἀγάπην ἀγάπη noun · accusative singular feminine G26
- δὲ δέ conjunction G1161
- μὴ μή particle · nominative G3361
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- 1 Timothy 1:5 But the goal of this command is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith,
- 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
- Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
- 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
- Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
καὶ ἐὰν ἔχω προφητείαν καὶ εἰδῶ τὰ μυστήρια πάντα καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γνῶσιν, καὶ ἐὰν ἔχω πᾶσαν τὴν πίστιν ὥστε ὄρη μεθιστάναι, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, οὐθέν εἰμι.
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- ἐὰν ἐάν conditional G1437
- ἔχω ἔχω verb · present active subjunctive, 1st person singular G2192
- προφητείαν προφητεία noun · accusative singular feminine G4394
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- εἰδῶ οἶδα verb · perfect active subjunctive, 1st person singular G1492
- τὰ ὁ article · accusative plural neuter G3588
- μυστήρια μυστήριον noun · accusative plural neuter G3466
- πάντα πᾶς adjective · accusative plural neuter G3956
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- πᾶσαν πᾶς adjective · accusative singular feminine G3956
- τὴν ὁ article · accusative singular feminine G3588
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- 1 John 4:8 He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don't have love, it profits me nothing.
- 1 John 4:20 If a man says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn't love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
- Matthew 17:20 He said to them, "Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
- Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered them, "Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith and don't doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it would be done.
Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
Ἡ ἀγάπη μακροθυμεῖ, χρηστεύεται ἡ ἀγάπη, οὐ ζηλοῖ, ἡ ἀγάπη οὐ περπερεύεται, οὐ φυσιοῦται,
- Ἡ ὁ article · nominative singular feminine G3588
- ἀγάπη ἀγάπη noun · nominative singular feminine G26
- μακροθυμεῖ, μακροθυμέω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G3114
- χρηστεύεται χρηστεύομαι verb · present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular G5541
- ἡ ὁ article · nominative singular feminine G3588
- ἀγάπη, ἀγάπη noun · nominative singular feminine G26
- οὐ οὐ particle · nominative G3756
- ζηλοῖ, ζηλόω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G2206
- ἡ ὁ article · nominative singular feminine G3588
- ἀγάπη ἀγάπη noun · nominative singular feminine G26
- οὐ οὐ particle · nominative G3756
- περπερεύεται, περπερεύομαι verb · present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular G4068
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
- Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
- Galatians 5:21 envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God's Kingdom.
- Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.
- Colossians 3:12 Put on therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
οὐ χαίρει ἐπὶ τῇ ἀδικίᾳ, συνχαίρει δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ·
- οὐ οὐ particle · nominative G3756
- χαίρει χαίρω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G5463
- ἐπὶ ἐπί preposition G1909
- τῇ ὁ article · dative singular feminine G3588
- ἀδικίᾳ, ἀδικία noun · dative singular feminine G93
- συνχαίρει συγχαίρω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G4796
- δὲ δέ conjunction G1161
- τῇ ὁ article · dative singular feminine G3588
- ἀληθείᾳ· ἀλήθεια noun · dative singular feminine G225
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.
- 3 John 1:3 For I rejoiced greatly when brothers came and testified about your truth, even as you walk in truth.
- 2 John 1:4 I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father.
- Romans 1:32 who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:12 that they all might be judged who didn't believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
πάντα στέγει, πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ἐλπίζει, πάντα ὑπομένει.
- πάντα πᾶς adjective · accusative plural neuter G3956
- στέγει, στέγω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G4722
- πάντα πᾶς adjective · accusative plural neuter G3956
- πιστεύει, πιστεύω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G4100
- πάντα πᾶς adjective · accusative plural neuter G3956
- ἐλπίζει, ἐλπίζω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G1679
- πάντα πᾶς adjective · accusative plural neuter G3956
- ὑπομένει. ὑπομένω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G5278
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil.
- 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.
- 2 Timothy 2:24 The Lord's servant must not quarrel, but be gentle toward all, able to teach, patient,
- Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
Ἡ ἀγάπη οὐδέποτε πίπτει· εἴτε δὲ προφητεῖαι, καταργηθήσονται· εἴτε γλῶσσαι, παύσονται· εἴτε γνῶσις, καταργηθήσεται.
- Ἡ ὁ article · nominative singular feminine G3588
- ἀγάπη ἀγάπη noun · nominative singular feminine G26
- οὐδέποτε οὐδέποτε adverb · nominative G3763
- πίπτει· πίπτω verb · present active indicative, 3rd person singular G4098
- εἴτε εἴτε conjunction G1535
- δὲ δέ conjunction G1161
- προφητεῖαι, προφητεία noun · nominative plural feminine G4394
- καταργηθήσονται· καταργέω verb · future passive indicative, 3rd person plural G2673
- εἴτε εἴτε conjunction G1535
- γλῶσσαι, γλῶσσα noun · nominative plural feminine G1100
- παύσονται· παύω verb · future middle deponent indicative, 3rd person plural G3973
- εἴτε εἴτε conjunction G1535
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
- Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.
- Acts 2:4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
- 1 Corinthians 13:10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part;discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
ἐκ μέρους γὰρ γινώσκομεν καὶ ἐκ μέρους προφητεύομεν·
- ἐκ ἐκ preposition G1537
- μέρους μέρος noun · genitive singular neuter G3313
- γὰρ γάρ conjunction G1063
- γινώσκομεν γινώσκω verb · present active indicative, 1st person plural G1097
- καὶ καί conjunction G2532
- ἐκ ἐκ preposition G1537
- μέρους μέρος noun · genitive singular neuter G3313
- προφητεύομεν· προφητεύω verb · present active indicative, 1st person plural G4395
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 5
- Colossians 2:2 that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,
- Ephesians 3:18 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth,
- Psalm 139:6 This knowledge is beyond me. It's lofty. I can't attain it.
- 1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, "Things which an eye didn't see, and an ear didn't hear, which didn't enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him."
- 1 Corinthians 8:2 But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.discussed above
Greek Nestle 1904
ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος, ἐλάλουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐφρόνουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐλογιζόμην ὡς νήπιος· ὅτε γέγονα ἀνήρ, κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου.
- ὅτε ὅτε adverb G3753
- ἤμην εἰμί verb · imperfect middle or passive indicative, 1st person singular G1510
- νήπιος, νήπιος adjective · nominative singular masculine G3516
- ἐλάλουν λαλέω verb · imperfect active indicative, 1st person singular G2980
- ὡς ὡς adverb G5613
- νήπιος, νήπιος adjective · nominative singular masculine G3516
- ἐφρόνουν φρονέω verb · imperfect active indicative, 1st person singular G5426
- ὡς ὡς adverb G5613
- νήπιος, νήπιος adjective · nominative singular masculine G3516
- ἐλογιζόμην λογίζομαι verb · imperfect middle or passive deponent indicative, 1st person singular G3049
- ὡς ὡς adverb G5613
- νήπιος· νήπιος adjective · nominative singular masculine G3516
Punctuation is editorial — the manuscripts carry none.
See also 4
- 1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, don't be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature.
- 1 Corinthians 3:1 Brothers, I couldn't speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.
- Galatians 4:1 But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a bondservant, though he is lord of all,
- Ecclesiastes 11:10 Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
From the interpretive tradition
The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God.
To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.