Love: The Superior Way
1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, w I am a noisy gong x or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy y and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains z but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, a love is kind. Love does not envy, b is not boastful, is not arrogant, c 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, d is not irritable, e and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. f 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures g all things.
8 Love never ends. h But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 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 put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. i Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, j as I am fully known. k 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, l and love—but the greatest of these is love.
13:1–3. Once more Paul pauses to insert a section that interrupts his direct reply in order to clarify the grounds on which his response rests. He has said that the gifts are given for the “common good” (12:7), but this goal will not be reached apart from a motive to guide and direct their exercise. Thus, “if I speak human or angelic tongues,” and love does not motivate the control of my speech, “I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (13:1)—instruments that produce a variety of sounds to command attention but only frustrate their audience unless accompanied by music or words that interpret their meaning. Similarly, to have “the gift of prophecy” (which conveys insight into the mysteries of God’s activity [1 Co 2:7] and knowledge about God himself [1 Co 8:4]) or a “faith so that I can move mountains” (cf. Mk 11:23) is of no value unless these abilities are motivated by love as they are used within the body of Christ (13:2). So also the offering of “all my possessions” in sacrificial service to the poor or the offering of “my body in order to boast” (or “to be burned”; see the CSB footnote) in the sacrifice of martyrdom is of no lasting benefit apart from the motivation of love (13:3).
13:4–7. This love comes to expression in different ways at different times, through patience and kindness that elevate others (13:4). It does not express itself through the envy, boastfulness, or pride that keeps attention centered on self. On the same basis, the rudeness, the pursuit of self-gain, the anger, and the vindictiveness that express themselves at the expense of others are never characteristic of love (13:5). For love cannot be identified with the enjoyment that is achieved for ourselves by such means; its enjoyment consists in acknowledging the truth, of which our perception and interest are only a part (13:6). Such love always protects the interests of others, always trusts in their intentions, always hopes for their good, and always perseveres in its attempt to do these things (13:7).
13:8–10. Such love also “never ends”—whether in the past, the present, or the future—among those who belong to God (13:8). It will continue to do so even after prophecies, tongues, and knowledge cease (there is no indication here that Paul thought any of these events likely before the time when God’s kingdom is perfectly or completely manifested, 13:10; cf. 15:20–28). For our knowledge of God and our words spoken in worship in the light of what we know (whether our knowledge is expressed in words of prophecy or in tongues) are only a part of what they should be, and when perfection in thought and expression arrives, the imperfect always “come[s] to an end” (13:9–10).
13:11–13. It is this way in our own experience, for childhood speech and thought inevitably give way to different patterns in adulthood (13:11). Similarly, the poor reflection of anything seen in a mirror (such as those manufactured in first-century Corinth) could not be compared to the experience of seeing the same thing “face to face” (13:12). For now, then, these analogies should caution us that our present knowledge of God (and, by implication, the worship such knowledge initiates) will change and pale when we come to know God as completely as he now knows us. In view of this, three things can be trusted to remain unaltered by the enlargement of our knowledge: “faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love” (13:13).