1 Corinthians 13 — Summary & Meaning

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⚙ Annotations & References ▾

Passage sections 1 ▾

Themes 6 ▾

Love 1-2, 4, 6-7, 12-13 Worship 1 Faith 2 Wisdom 2 Truth 6 Hope 12-13

Historic voices 24 ▾

Catechism of the Catholic Church 9× 1-8, 12-13 Homilies on the First Epistle to the Corinthians 4× 1, 3, 8-9 Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews 3× 1, 3, 5, 12 Commentary on the Gospel of John 2× 1, 12 Summa Theologica 15× 1, 3-5, 8-10, 12-13 Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses) 3× 2, 9, 13 Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 4× 2, 5, 7, 9-11 Confession of Dositheus 2× 2 Homilies on Matthew 4× 3-4, 9-10 Homilies on the Gospel of John 2× 3, 5 On the Unity of the Church 1× 3 1 Clement (Letter to the Corinthians) 1× 4, 7 Heidelberg Catechism 2× 6, 9 Confessions 4× 7, 12 On Christian Doctrine (De Doctrina Christiana) 1× 8, 13 City of God 4× 9-12 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 1× 10 Stromata (Miscellanies) 1× 12 Epistle to the Ephesians 1× 13 Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 1× 13 Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible 1× 1-13 John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible 1× 1-12 Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary 1× 1, 4, 8 Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary 1× 2-13

Manuscript witnesses 6 ▾

Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325 Codex Alexandrinus A c. AD 400-440 Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus C c. AD 450 Codex Claromontanus D2 c. AD 500-550 Papyrus 46 (Chester Beatty II) P46 c. AD 175-225

Cross-references 247 ▾

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What is 1 Corinthians 13 about?

Placing love above every gift, Paul shows the Corinthians a more excellent way. Though one speak with the tongues of men and angels, prophesy, know all mysteries, or give his body to be burned, without charity he is nothing and gains nothing. Love suffers long and is kind, envies not, seeks not her own, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and never fails—while prophecies, tongues, and knowledge shall pass away, for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Faithful Christians differ over whether 'when that which is perfect is come' refers to Christ's return or to the completed Scriptures, yet all confess that faith, hope, and charity abide, and the greatest of these is charity.

Historical backdrop

Corinth was a Roman colony, refounded by Julius Caesar in 44 BC on the ruins of the Greek city Rome had leveled a century before. It straddled the narrow isthmus between two seas, and its two harbors made it the customs house of Greece, crowded with freedmen, sailors, and the traffic of the whole Mediterranean. Ships too heavy to risk the long voyage round the Peloponnese were dragged across the isthmus on the paved diolkos, and every other year the Isthmian games filled the streets with athletes and crowds. Paul wrote from Ephesus to a church living in that boomtown under Nero, where a sanctuary of Aphrodite crowned the Acrocorinth above the city.

Matthew Henry on 1 Corinthians 13

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on 1 Corinthians 13

The Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 13

Cited by the confessions

¹If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. ²And 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 have not love, I am nothing. ³And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. ⁴Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, ⁵doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; ⁶rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; ⁷beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. ⁸Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. ⁹For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;

¹⁰but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. ¹¹When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. ¹²For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. ¹³But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

What is 1 Corinthians 13 about?