1 Corinthians 13 is Paul's celebrated exposition on love (agape), set within his larger argument about spiritual gifts. After listing the gifts in chapter 12 and before returning to their regulation in chapter 14, Paul inserts this passage to demonstrate that love is the indispensable context for all spiritual gifts. Without love, even the most spectacular abilities — tongues, prophecy, mountain-moving faith — are empty. Paul personifies love with fifteen characteristics (vv. 4-7), then argues that love alone endures when all other gifts pass away. The chapter closes with the triad of faith, hope, and love, declaring love the greatest.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
This chapter is often read in isolation at weddings and funerals, but its original context is a rebuke. The Corinthians were using spiritual gifts competitively, and Paul's praise of love is simultaneously an indictment of their lovelessness. The fifteen attributes of love in verses 4-7 are all verbs in Greek — love is defined by what it does, not what it feels. Several of the negative descriptions ('love does not envy, does not boast, is not arrogant') directly mirror the Corinthian problems catalogued elsewhere in the letter. The 'mirror' image in verse 12 refers to the polished bronze mirrors of Corinth, famously manufactured there but yielding only dim reflections.
Translation Friction
The Greek agape is rendered 'love' throughout, not the KJV's 'charity' (which reflected Latin caritas via the Vulgate). While 'charity' in 1611 could mean 'love,' in modern English it means 'almsgiving,' which distorts Paul's meaning. The verb forms in verses 4-7 resist smooth English translation; we preserve the verbal character as much as possible.
Connections
This chapter bridges chapters 12 and 14, which together form Paul's extended treatment of spiritual gifts. The eschatological vision of 'seeing face to face' (v. 12) echoes Moses's face-to-face encounter with God (Exodus 33:11, Numbers 12:8). The triad of faith, hope, and love appears also in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 5:8, and Colossians 1:4-5.
In classical Greek, agape was rare and colorless. The Septuagint and New Testament writers filled it with new content: a self-giving, other-directed love modeled on God's own character. Paul's usage here is distinctly theological, not romantic or sentimental.
Translator Notes
Paul begins with an extreme case: even angelic speech without love is mere noise. The Greek chalkos echon ('sounding bronze') and kumbalon alalazon ('wailing cymbal') evoke the percussion instruments of pagan worship in Corinth — the sound is loud but meaningless. The KJV's 'tinkling' is too gentle; alalazon means 'wailing, clashing.'
And if I have prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
KJV And 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Paul escalates: prophecy, comprehensive knowledge, and miracle-working faith — all gifts the Corinthians prized — count for nothing without love. The mountain-moving faith echoes Jesus's teaching (Mark 11:23). The blunt 'I am nothing' (outhen eimi) is a deliberate shock, deflating the Corinthian fascination with spectacular gifts.
And if I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
KJV And 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The SBLGNT reads kauchesomai ('that I may boast') rather than kauthesomia ('to be burned'), which is a variant reading reflected in the KJV. The critical text suggests that even martyrdom motivated by self-glory rather than love is worthless. The verb psomiso ('I feed by hand, I dole out') emphasizes the laborious, hands-on nature of the giving — and still it profits nothing without love.
Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy. Love does not boast, it is not arrogant.
KJV Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Paul now defines love with fifteen verbs — love is described by what it does, not by what it feels. The first two are positive (patient, kind), then a cascade of negatives follows. The Greek perpereuesthai ('to boast, brag') occurs only here in the New Testament. The word physioutai ('is puffed up') echoes 4:6, 18, 19 and 8:1, targeting the Corinthians' specific vice.
It does not act dishonorably, it does not seek its own interests, it is not provoked, it does not keep a record of wrongs.
KJV Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase ou zetei ta heautes ('does not seek its own') directly echoes 10:24 and 10:33, where Paul made the same point about himself. The verb logizetai ('reckon, calculate') is an accounting term — love does not maintain a ledger of offenses. The KJV adds 'easily' before 'provoked,' softening what in Greek is absolute: love is not provoked.
1 Corinthians 13:6
οὐ χαίρει ἐπὶ τῇ ἀδικίᾳ, συγχαίρει δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ·
It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices together with the truth.
KJV Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The prefix syn- in synchairei ('rejoices with/together') suggests communal celebration — love joins in the truth's triumph rather than savoring another's failure. The contrast between adikia ('wrongdoing, injustice') and aletheia ('truth') pairs moral and intellectual integrity.
1 Corinthians 13:7
πάντα στέγει, πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ἐλπίζει, πάντα ὑπομένει.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
KJV Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The fourfold panta ('all things') creates a powerful rhetorical climax. The verb stegei can mean 'covers' (as a roof covers a house) or 'bears' (as in bearing a load) — both senses apply. The sequence moves from passive endurance (bears) through trust and hope to active persistence (endures). Love's coverage is total.
Love never falls. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside.
KJV Charity 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb piptei ('falls') means 'collapses, fails' — love never loses its structural integrity. Paul now contrasts love's permanence with the temporary nature of gifts the Corinthians most valued. The verb katargeo ('to abolish, set aside, render inoperative') indicates that prophecy and knowledge serve a purpose that will be completed, after which they are no longer needed. Tongues 'will cease' (pausontai) uses a different verb, but Paul is not making a theological distinction between different modes of cessation.
The phrase ek merous ('from a part, partially') frames all present knowledge and prophecy as incomplete. This is not false or wrong but fragmentary — we see truly but not fully.
However, when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be done away.
KJV But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The Greek to teleion ('the complete, the perfect, the mature') is neuter, referring to a state or condition rather than a person. In context, this refers to the eschatological consummation when face-to-face knowledge replaces partial knowledge (v. 12). We render it 'the complete' rather than 'the perfect' to avoid confusion with moral perfection.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I set aside childish things.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The analogy does not demean childhood but illustrates the natural supersession of one stage by another. The three verbs — speaking, thinking, reasoning — correspond loosely to the three gifts mentioned in verse 8 (tongues, prophecy, knowledge). The word aner ('adult male, man') is rendered 'adult' here since the contrast is maturity versus immaturity, not gender.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known.
KJV For 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The Greek esoptron ('mirror') refers to the polished bronze mirrors for which Corinth was famous — clear enough to show a reflection but never as sharp as direct sight. The phrase en ainigmati ('in a riddle, dimly') echoes Numbers 12:8 (LXX), where God speaks to Moses 'not in riddles' but face to face — the very vision Paul anticipates for all believers at the consummation. The shift from ginosko ('I know') to epiginosko ('I will fully know') marks the difference between partial and complete knowledge.
[TCR Cross-Reference] Draws on Numbers 12:8. Consult the TCR rendering of that passage for the underlying Hebrew and the rationale for key translation choices.
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
KJV And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The triad of faith, hope, and love is a Pauline signature (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 5:8). The verb menei ('remains, abides') contrasts with the passing away of gifts in verse 8. Why love is greatest is debated: perhaps because God himself is love (1 John 4:8), or because love alone continues unchanged into eternity while faith becomes sight and hope becomes possession. The declaration 'the greatest of these is love' is the climax of the entire three-chapter argument on spiritual gifts.