Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

What does 1st Corinthians Chapter 13 mean?

Much of 1 Corinthians 12 corrected misunderstandings about spiritual gifts among the Christians in Corinth. Apparently, some believed that those able to speak in tongues or prophesy were more spiritual than the others. This may have created yet another reason for division in the church, along with jealousy or a sense of inferiority. Paul insisted that every spiritual gift was given by God for a reason and was essential to the church, the body of Christ. He did urge them, though, to desire that the “higher” gifts of apostle, prophet, and teacher be given to the church. But he concluded by promising to show them “a still more excellent way” to serve each other (1 Corinthians 12:31).

The words of this chapter have a different tone and rhythm than Paul’s other writing in this letter. Chapter 14 seems to start where chapter 12 left off, leading some to think Paul inserted these words into his letter. They might have been something he had composed at another time, or added before the message was sent.

Paul begins this chapter by describing just how useless, even destructive, spiritual gifts are when not applied from the standpoint of love. Displays of tongues, prophetic powers, and supernatural spiritual knowledge may be impressive, but they are worthless if not used as intended by God, out of a heart of love for Him and other believers. Even the most spiritual of activities, selling everything to give to the poor and sacrificing one’s life to be burned for the sake of others, gains a person nothing if not given in love (1 Corinthians 13:1–3).

Paul describes the love he’s talking about. It’s not a love of swollen feelings that may come and go. It’s not the love of flowery or eloquent words. This is God’s love—from the Greek agape—often described as “unconditional love” by Christians. It is unconditional in the sense that it does not depend on the one being loved, but on the commitment of the one acting.

Paul uses 14 verbs, actions, to describe this love. Seven are positive statements about what love does, and the other seven are negative statements about what love does not do. In all cases, true Christian love is about setting one’s self aside for the good of other believers. Lack of love was at the heart of nearly all the problems Paul had confronted in this letter.

Love is patient and kind. It actively waits and actively moves for the good of others. On the other hand, love doesn’t envy or boast, not even regarding the spiritual gifts of one’s self or others. Love is not arrogant, convinced of one’s superiority over others. Love is not rude, meaning that it does not act indecently, sinning and breaking cultural norms to bring attention to one’s self.

Those who love like this have given up on seeking their own status and satisfaction first and foremost. Instead, they genuinely commit themselves to seeking good for other believers. Because of that, they don’t get irritable or provoked when other people get in their way. The other people are the point, not the obstacle. Love also means truly letting go of past hurts instead of storing them up and keeping a record or wrongs.

Love refuses to take any joy or pleasure from wrongdoing. Instead, it declares that which is true, and is worth celebrating above all. Love loves the truth. Love doesn’t set limits on love. Love does not declare, “This far and no further.” Love bears, or puts up with, all things for the good of other believers. That is true even if that means loving from a greater distance to avoid the active abuse of others.

Similarly, love believes all things, pushing the burden of truthfulness onto others instead of carrying the burden of uncovering falsehood. Love doesn’t stop hoping for other believers to do good, no matter the evidence of the past. Love doesn’t quit when the trials of life pile up. Love keeps going.

Paul sums it up: Love never fails. Christians may fail to love, as the Corinthians have clearly demonstrated, but God’s kind of love will always be effective. And unlike spiritual gifts, which will no longer be needed when Christ comes, love will last forever (1 Corinthians 13:4–8).

On that day, Christians will know even as God knows us now. Until then, spiritual gifts provide a partial knowledge of what is to come. Both now and then, love will remain the greatest of all the virtues (1 Corinthians 13:9–13).

Chapter Context
Paul’s teaching on love fits firmly into the context of 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14. These sentences have a somewhat different style than the surrounding words, suggesting Paul might have inserted something he’d written previously into this section. These are not meant to be a diversion, however. Lack of love was at the heart of most of the Corinthians’ problems and divisions. As Paul describes it, God’s kind of love sets self aside, over and over, endlessly, for the good of others. Spiritual gifts exist for the building up of the church now, but believers will live in love for eternity. Christ-like love is the greatest of all the virtues, and it should be the priority of every Christian.

Verse by Verse

Verse 1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Chapter 12 revealed another problem in the Corinthian church. They misunderstood the nature and purpose of spiritual gifts. The fact that some spoke in tongues and exercised more obvious gifts, while others did not, seems to have been yet another source of division among them. At the least, it led to the wrong idea that some were more spiritual than others. Paul carefully corrected their thinking, showing that every gift is needed in the church, especially those gifts that were exercised out of the view of others.

Paul ended those thoughts by encouraging his readers to desire that the higher gifts of apostles, prophets, and teachers be given by God to their church, lowering the importance placed on the perhaps more impressive-seeming gift of tongues. Then he promised to show them “a still more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).

Now Paul launches into one of the most loved and meaningful chapters in the Bible. It is brief, but it powerfully describes the very heart of what it means to live together as believers in Jesus. He begins by showing just how pointless even the most impressive spiritual gifts are without love. Even the God-given, supernatural ability to speak in a language one doesn’t know, even the language of angels, becomes as the sound of a noisy gong and clanging cymbal if it is not exercised with love. The specific word used here is agape, meaning a self-sacrificing and godly love.

The “tongues of men” are understood to be proper human languages. This is a gift given so that those who do not know the speaker’s language can understand the message given by God. The language of angels may very well refer to the actual language spoken among heavenly beings, who apparently participated in some way in the worship gatherings of the early church (1 Corinthians 11:10). Or, this might simply be a figure of speech Paul uses to make his larger point about the primacy of love.

No matter how impressive such a display would be, it becomes nothing but repulsive noise when practiced without love for other believers.

Context Summary
First Corinthians 13:1–13 is one of the most loved and well-known passages in the Bible, but Paul places it after his teaching on the spiritual gifts for a specific reason. Some of the gifts may seem impressive, but if attempted without self-sacrificing love for others, they become meaningless, even destructive. Paul uses 14 verbs to describe what love does and does not do. Love is the foundation for Paul’s teaching in the following chapter on prophecy, tongues, and even orderly worship. While this section is often quoted in romantic settings, such as a wedding, the concept in mind is that of agape: a self-sacrificing, godly love.

Verse 2. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Paul is demonstrating just how worthless the spiritual gifts are when attempted without love for other believers. The Corinthians valued these gifts highly, apparently elevating those among them with the gifts of tongues and prophecy as the most spiritual. Paul has declared that this is not true. All the gifts are needed in the church.

Now, though, he is showing something else. The gifts are meaningless when practiced without love. Even more, the loveless person displaying the gift is “nothing.” By this, Paul means the person is accomplishing nothing within the body of Christ. The gift is being wasted on him or her in that moment.

Paul says this is true even of the gift of prophecy or prophetic powers, which he described as one of the higher gifts in the previous chapter (1 Corinthians 12:28, 31). He puts that gift together with the gift of knowledge and the gift of faith, using hyperbole to describe a level of giftedness no Christian has ever had. Paul is not necessarily saying such a thing can happen—only that even if it could, it would not change the primacy of godly, self-sacrificing love.

Imagine a person, Paul writes, with the gift of prophecy and a full understanding of all the mysteries of God and an iron-clad faith that allowed him or her to move actual mountains. Jesus told his disciples they could move mountains with the amount of faith that would fit in a tiny mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). Even this imaginary person Paul describes, without love, is nothing. All those gifts become worthless when exercised without concern, compassion, and empathy for other believers.

Verse 3. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

The Corinthians, apparently, had decided that some among them were “spiritual” while others were not. Or, that some were less spiritual on the basis of having less-prestigious spiritual gifts. Paul has shown that to exercise even the most powerful and impressive spiritual gifts without love makes those gifts meaningless and the one using them “nothing.” Paul uses one of several Greek terms for love here: agape, referring to a godly love that puts others first.

Now Paul moves beyond spiritual gifts to the most profound acts of spiritual self-sacrifice a Christian may make. Jesus told a rich young ruler to sell all he had and give the money to the poor (Mark 10:17–22). Surely anyone who would actually do such a thing would have reached the height of Christian spirituality. And yet, Paul insists, to do so without love for others gains the giver nothing at all.

Then he moves to the ultimate sacrifice. What if a person gives his own body to be burned to death for the Lord? Again, Paul describes this sacrifice as meaningless if made without love for others.

Paul is not describing burning oneself to death in a kind of religious suicide to make a point. Instead, he seems to be referring to those who refuse to reject faith in Christ even to avoid the most painful death imaginable. Paul had made—and survived—such choices, as had others in the early days of the church.

Why would someone give away all their money or even their life if not out of love for Christ and others? Perhaps a person might do such a thing for pride or glory or in a foolish attempt to earn God’s favor. Love, though, is the only motive that makes such sacrifices worthwhile.

Verse 4. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 is much loved the world over. Even unbelievers are attracted to Paul’s eloquent description of love in these verses. These words are often quoted at weddings or in romantic settings and featured prominently in artwork and merchandise. It’s important to remember that Paul is not writing inspirational poetry. Nor is he penning something meant to be a simple starry-eyed mantra. He is driving home a pointed message to the divided, often selfish Christians in Corinth: This is how God expects believers to treat each other. Lack of Christ-like love was at the heart of every one of the problems described in 1 Corinthians so far.

The “love” Paul speaks of in these verses is from the Greek term agape. This is a selfless love, distinguished from sexual desire—eros—and from brotherly love—phileo. These verses include 14 descriptors of agape, all of them verbs. Godly love, from a godly perspective, is defined by what Christians do or do not do. It is not primarily about feelings; nor is it mostly the words which describe them. Love is action: the choice to do or not do in relationships with all other Christians.

Love is patient. Love actively waits for others without resentment. This would include being patient in the face of being hurt or mistreated.

Love is kind. Beyond mere politeness, kindness involves acting for the good of others even when it does not benefit ourselves.

Love does not envy. Envy was alive and active in the Corinthian church, perhaps including the envy of the spiritual gifts and financial success of others. Love sets self aside and celebrates the successes of Christian brothers and sisters.

Love does not boast. Boasting is the work of self-promotion in obvious and subtle ways. Love quits that job and goes to work praising God and other believers, instead.

Love is not arrogant or “puffed up.” Arrogance involves confidence in oneself above all others and the expectation that everyone else should feel the same way. Love removes the obstacle of self from the purpose of serving others well.

Verse 5. or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

Paul is describing what is so deeply lacking in the Corinthian church: true, Christ-like love. This missing ingredient is at the heart of nearly every problem the church is facing. Paul describes love as a series of actions verbs, seven positive and seven negative. These define the character of godly, self-sacrificing love, from the Greek term agape.

Love is not rude. To be rude is to act “indecently.” Rudeness was on display in the church in Corinth in their disorderly worship services and selfish communion meals (1 Corinthians 11:17–22), as well as in the man who was sleeping with his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5:1–2). Rudeness insists on self-expression and self-gratification at the expense of the feelings and experience of others.

Love does not insist on its own way. It is not self-seeking. Love yields. Much of the Corinthian church’s problems would have disappeared if they focused on looking for ways to meet each other’s needs before satisfying their own.

Love is not irritable or easily angered. A quick temper is often evidence of viewing other people as obstacles to reaching one’s own goals. Love views serving other people as the goal itself, removing one reason to flare up when they get in our way.

Love is not resentful. It does not keep a record of wrongs. Natural human instinct is to keep score, to get even, to hold on to hurt feelings against those who have mistreated us. Christlike love follows the pattern of Ephesians 4:32, recognizing the great sin God has forgiven in us through Christ and turning to do the same for those who sin against us.

Verse 6. it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Paul is describing true, Christlike love. This is from the Greek root word agape. That term means a godly, selfless love. This is distinguished from other terms such as phileo, meaning brotherly love, or eros, meaning sexual attraction. Paul provides 14 descriptors of agape love, half are positive and half are negative, to capture the essence of how believers should live in relationship with each other. Most of the problems Paul has addressed in this letter could be boiled down to the Corinthians’ refusal to love each other in this way.

Paul now adds to the list.

Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, or unrighteousness or injustice. In short, love does not delight in evil. Paul may have been referring to several specific issues among the Christians in Corinth, but this statement is true in all cases. Anytime a believer finds him- or herself tempted to root for or enjoy injustice or wrong choices, we can know we are not motivated by love for God or for each other.

Why would anyone rejoice over wrongdoing? Perhaps we root for someone who has been wronged to get revenge. Perhaps we pick a side and cheer for one believer to defeat another in a lawsuit (1 Corinthians 6:1–11). Perhaps we enjoy seeing two people connect in a romantic relationship despite its sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 5:1–2).

In such cases, our motive is not love for brothers and sisters in Christ.

Love does rejoice with the truth, however. The truth, no matter how difficult it may be, is always the best path through any situation. It is the way of and to Christ, who is the Truth (John 14:6). Wanting what is true to be understood and accepted by others is one way we express love.

Verse 7. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Paul is coming to the end of his concise description of what true love looks like. The Greek word used for love, agape, describes God’s unconditional love for His children and how He intends for us to love each other. After reading Paul’s letter, it cannot be said that these 14 descriptors are true of the Corinthians’ treatment of each other.

As Paul has piled on descriptors to show what Christian love does and does not do, it has become clear that love sets itself aside for the good of others. More precisely, those who love as Christ does set themselves aside to meet the needs of other Christians. It turns out, loving as Jesus loves is hard.

Now Paul shows that God’s love is, in a sense, inexhaustible. It places no limits on its commitment to other believers.

Love bears all things. Love doesn’t say, “this far and no further.” Love is not limited by what is reasonable or by what other people would be willing to put up with. This does not mean that someone should allow him- or herself to continually be wounded, physically or otherwise, by other believers or family members. Sometimes love bears pain from a safe and legal distance, but truly godly love doesn’t quit when others become annoying or difficult to deal with.

Love believes all things. Does this make love gullible? No, the choice to believe those who may be deceiving us removes the burden to catch others in the act of lying and projects onto them a respect they may or may not deserve. The one who is loved carries the burden to be truthful or to be held accountable to God, rather than to us.

Love hopes all things. Love roots for victory in others, for good to win, for truth to come out. In the Bible, hope is more than just a wish, it is a confidence that God will do as He says. Paul began this letter by saying to the Corinthians that Christ will “sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8). His confident hope for them was one evidence of his love for them.

Love endures all things. Christians face hard times. Those who choose to love as Jesus does do not stop loving when life becomes difficult. Love for God and others endures through tough days and long nights.

Verse 8. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Paul ends his description of God’s kind of love, using the Greek term agape. This is an unselfish, sacrificial, active love, different from romantic or brotherly love, which use the terms eros and phileo, respectively. Wrapping up this section, Paul introduces a statement that may make believers feel it is truly impossible to love as God does, after all: Love never fails.

However, the truth of this statement does not mean no human can ever love as Christ does. It is true that believers will sometimes fail to love. When we do choose to love in this selfless, sacrificing way, love will not fail to be effective. One person’s choice to love, selflessly, never fails to build up the church in a powerful way.

The other way in which love never fails is that love is eternal. Selfless love will continue in the Lord and in His people forever. It is absolutely the way we will live in relationship with each other in eternity. Examples of selfless love in the present are glimpses of the normal state of things in eternity.

This is not true of the spiritual gifts, Paul says. The gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will all pass away. By this, Paul means that eventually these gifts will not be needed.

Some Christians believe that the time for these specific three gifts has mostly come to an end already, that they were intended by God to help establish the church and show that the message of the gospel was from Him. All Christians understand that at the end of time, when we live with God in person (Revelation 21:1–5), there will be no need for these gifts. They exist only in human history for a limited time and purpose.

God’s love, though, and our reflection of it to each other, will go on endlessly.

Verse 9. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

Paul is showing that for believers to treat each other with self-sacrificing, Christ-like love is far superior than the exercise of spiritual gifts. He has just written that another way it is superior is that love is an eternal act. Spiritual gifts will eventually cease to be necessary and “pass away.”

Now Paul begins a thought that he will conclude in the following verse. For now, “we know in part and we prophesy in part.” He is referring to the spiritual gifts of knowledge and prophecy and showing that they are only partially effective.

Any knowledge given to the church by God through someone with the gift of knowledge is just a tiny slice of all there is to know of God. In a similar way, any revelation from God to the church through someone with the gift of prophecy only reveals a small window on the enormous picture of all there is to be told about who God is and what He will accomplish.

Our understanding of what is knowable, even as Christians in churches with gifted prophets during Paul’s day, is incredibly small. We know only “in part.”

Verse 10. but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

Paul is showing that love is eternal, while spiritual gifts are temporary. This is a reference to godly love: from the Greek agape, meaning sacrificial and selfless active love. What we know about God and what He will do in the world is relatively limited. Even through the revelation given to prophets and those with the “gift of knowledge” in Paul’s day, what is revealed to us even in Scripture is a tiny slice of what is knowable. For now, we know only “in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9).

That will change one day. When the perfect comes, Paul writes, the partial will pass away. We will no longer need to work to understand and wonder over the bit of knowledge we have about God and His ways. The perfect, which is Jesus Christ, will bring about the day when all is revealed to God’s children. When Christ returns, we will “know fully” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Verse 11. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

Paul has written that when “the perfect,” comes, meaning Christ, He will reveal all things to us. For now, our knowledge about God and His ways is partial. Then, when we’re with Him in eternity, we will know fully (1 John 3:1–2).

One reason God gives spiritual gifts to believers now is for us to build each other up. Those abilities are meant to “grow up” the church. Paul put it this way in Ephesians 4:11–12: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”

That passage shows that, eventually, the church will mature to the point that we reach the “fullness of Christ.” This will happen only after He arrives, but it is the course we are currently on. The gifts are needed to keep the process going until He comes, then they will be needed no longer.

To illustrate this idea, Paul refers to himself as first a child, who lived in childish ways, and then as an adult who put away that childish understanding of the world when he became a man. The same will happen for believers when Christ returns. Our partial understanding about God will become full, mature “knowing.”

Verse 12. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Paul has been describing our knowledge of God and His ways as incomplete or partial. The use of spiritual gifts, specifically gifts such as tongues, prophecy, and knowledge, gives only a glimpse of what may be known of God. As Paul wrote in Romans 11:33–34, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord.’”

Paul now describes this partial knowledge of God as seeing a reflection in a dim mirror. Some scholars suggest that he had in mind Corinth’s famous bronze mirrors, known for their imperfect reflections. After the coming of Christ, when the church is fully mature as He is, however, we will see God face to face, knowing Him in person instead of through partial revelation.

In fact, Paul adds, we will know God and His ways then as He knows us now. God, of course, is never limited in His knowledge. He knows everything there is to know about us, even what we do not see or understand about ourselves. In that day, when God comes to live among us (Revelation 21:1–5), we will know fully, as He knows us fully in this moment.

Verse 13. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Here is yet another famous verse of Scripture, often quoted, printed, and sung in the modern world. With this phrase, Paul wraps up this section explaining why godly, self-sacrificing love is required to fully express spiritual gifts. He concludes by mentioning love again with two other virtues often listed with it: faith and hope. Together, these three virtues “abide” or “remain.” Perhaps Paul means that, as is the case with love, faith and hope will continue into eternity after the need for spiritual gifts has long since passed.

Faith is essential to Christianity. Only by faith in Christ is it possible to come into relationship with God, at all. In a similar way, hope is the Christian conviction that God will keep His promises about the future. Without faith and hope, Christianity does not make sense. They are built in.

Still, Paul insists that love is greater even than these two bedrock virtues. It will abide, in a sense, even after our faith has become sight and our hope in eternity has been fully realized.

Paul’s bottom line in this chapter is that, of course, faith and hope are far more important than spiritual gifts and love is greater even than faith and hope. Spiritual gifts are essential for the church to grow, but the Corinthians had put too much emphasis on them as evidence of personal glory or achievement. The gifts must be applied with love, or they become meaningless or even destructive.

End of Chapter 13.

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