1 Corinthians 13

Suppose I could speak in the languages of people, and even in the languages of angels. If I do not have love, all I am is a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

Note"Charity" here does not mean giving to the needy, which is what the word means in modern English. In 1611 it still carried its older sense, taken from the Latin caritas: love, deep regard for another person. The Greek word is agape. The KJV uses "charity" throughout this chapter where the same Greek word elsewhere in the KJV is translated "love." "Tongues" is the old word for languages. The Greek word means both the organ in the mouth and a language spoken, just as "tongue" once did in English. In the Corinthian congregation it also named a particular practice of speaking in unknown utterance, which Paul has been discussing in the two preceding chapters. "Sounding brass" is a bronze instrument or vessel that resonates when struck. A "tinkling cymbal" sounds delicate in modern English, but the Greek verb means clashing or clanging. Both images are of loud noise without meaning, not of faint sound.

2Suppose I could speak God's messages, and understand every hidden truth and everything there is to know. Suppose I had faith strong enough to move mountains. If I do not have love, I am nothing.

2And 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.

Note"Prophecy" in this letter means speaking a message given by God, whether about the future or about the present. It is not limited to predicting what will happen. "Mysteries" does not mean puzzles or unsolved cases. The Greek word names something that was hidden and has now been disclosed, a secret let out. "Remove mountains" was a proverbial expression in the ancient world for doing what looks impossible.

3Suppose I gave away everything I own to feed poor people, and even handed over my body to be burned. If I do not have love, I gain nothing from it.

3And 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.

Note"Bestow all my goods to feed the poor" means handing over everything I own, distributing it piece by piece to the hungry. "Though I give my body to be burned" translates a wording that the ancient manuscripts disagree about. Two Greek words differing by a single letter and one vowel sound lie behind the split: one means "that I may be burned," the other means "that I may boast." The KJV follows the first; many modern translations follow the second, giving a sense like "hand over my body so that I may boast." The evidence does not settle the question. "Profiteth me nothing" uses "profit" in its plain sense of gain. I come out with nothing.

4Love is patient when others are hard to bear, and love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love does not brag, and it is not full of itself.

4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Note"Suffereth long" is not about suffering in the modern sense. The Greek word describes a long fuse: slow to grow hot with someone, willing to go on putting up with a person. "Vaunteth not itself" means does not show off or talk itself up. "Puffed up" is the KJV's regular phrase for inflated self-importance. It is a favorite image of Paul's in this letter, of a person swollen with their own significance.

5Love is not rude. It does not insist on its own way. It does not get angry easily. It keeps no record of the wrongs done to it.

5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Note"Unseemly" means indecent or disgraceful in the way one acts toward others, closer to "rude" than to "unattractive." "Seeketh not her own" uses "her" only as a grammatical pronoun pointing back to "charity." No woman is in view. It means love does not go after its own interests. "Is not easily provoked" contains a word the Greek does not have. The Greek says simply "is not provoked," that is, not stung into anger. The translators of 1611 added "easily" to soften the claim. "Thinketh no evil" translates a bookkeeping term. The verb means to reckon up, to enter in a ledger. The sense is that love does not keep a running account of wrongs it has been dealt.

6Love takes no pleasure in what is wrong, but rejoices with the truth.

6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Note"Iniquity" is an old general word for wrongdoing and injustice, not a particular kind of sin.

7Love puts up with everything, trusts in everything, hopes for everything, and keeps going through everything.

7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Note"Beareth all things" translates a Greek verb built on the word for a roof. It can mean to cover over and so protect, or to bear up under a weight without giving way. Both senses were available to a first-century reader and translators divide over which is meant. "Believeth all things" is not a claim that love is gullible. The verb is the ordinary word for trusting, and the phrase describes a disposition to trust rather than an opinion that every statement is true.

8Love never comes to an end. But messages from God will stop; speaking in tongues will fall silent; and what we know now will be set aside.

8Charity 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.

Note"Faileth" carries its older sense of falling away, collapsing, coming to an end. It does not mean love is never unsuccessful. "Vanish away" and "fail" in this verse both render forms of one Greek verb meaning to be rendered idle, put out of use, set aside. The point is that these things are made obsolete, not that they evaporate on their own.

9What we know is only a part of the whole, and the messages we speak from God tell only a part of the whole.

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

10But when what is complete arrives, then what is only partial will be done away with.

10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

Note"That which is perfect" would be read today as morally flawless. The Greek word means complete, entire, brought to its full end, and it is also the word used of a person who has reached adult maturity. That second sense sets up the picture of the child and the grown man in the next verse.

11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I understood like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I grew up, I left childish ways behind.

11When 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.

12Right now we see only a dim reflection in a mirror. But then we will see face to face. Right now I know only a part. But then I will know fully, in the same way that I am fully known.

12For 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.

Note"Through a glass" does not mean through a window. "Glass" was the ordinary English word for a mirror, and ancient mirrors were sheets of polished bronze, which gave a real but dim and imperfect image. The Greek says we see "by means of" a mirror, that is, we see a reflection rather than the thing itself. Corinth was known in antiquity for manufacturing such mirrors. "Darkly" translates a Greek phrase meaning "in a riddle." The word is the root of the English "enigma." What is seen is obscure and needs deciphering, not merely poorly lit.

13So three things last: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of the three is love.

13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.