1 If I were to have eloquence in human languages—even the language of angels—but have no love, then I would only be an echoing gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 If I were to speak prophecies, to know every secret mystery and be completely knowledgeable, and if I were able to have so much faith I could move mountains, but have no love, then I am nothing. 3 If I were to donate everything I own to the poor, or if I were to sacrifice myself to be burned as a martyr, and have no love, then I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud. 5 Love does not act improperly, or insist on having its own way. Love is not argumentative and doesn't keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love takes no delight in evil but celebrates the truth. 7 Love never gives up, keeps on trusting, stays confident, and remains patient whatever happens. 8 Love never fails. Prophecies will come to an end. Tongues will become silent. Knowledge will become useless. 9 For our knowledge and our prophetic understanding are incomplete. 10 But when completeness comes, then what is incomplete disappears. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I grew up I left behind such childlike ways. 12 At the moment we peer into a mirror's dim reflection, but then we shall see face to face. For now I only have partial knowledge, but then I shall know completely, just as I am completely known. 13 Trust, hope, and love last forever—but the most important is love.
1 Corinthians · Free Bible Version
1 Corinthians 13 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (13)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Timothy 1:5; 1 Peter 4:8; Galatians 5:22; 1 Corinthians 13:8; Galatians 5:6
- 2 1 John 4:8; 1 Corinthians 13:3; 1 John 4:20–21; Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:21
- 3 James 2:14–17; John 15:13; Matthew 23:5; Matthew 6:1–4; Matthew 7:22–23
- 4 1 Peter 4:8; Ephesians 4:32; Galatians 5:21–22; Proverbs 10:12; Colossians 3:12
- 5 1 Corinthians 10:24; Philippians 2:3–5; 1 John 3:16–17; James 1:19; Philippians 2:21
- 6 Romans 12:9; 3 John 3–4; 2 John 4; Romans 1:32; 2 Thessalonians 2:12
- 7 1 Peter 4:8; 1 Corinthians 13:4; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Timothy 2:24; Proverbs 10:12
- 8 1 Corinthians 13:13; 1 Corinthians 13:1–2; Galatians 5:6; Acts 2:4; 1 Corinthians 13:10
- 9 Colossians 2:2–3; Ephesians 3:18–19; 1 Corinthians 2:9; Psalm 139:6; 1 Corinthians 13:12
- 10 1 Corinthians 13:12; Isaiah 60:19–20; 2 Corinthians 5:7–8; Isaiah 24:23; Revelation 22:4–5
- 11 1 Corinthians 14:20; 1 Corinthians 3:1–2; Galatians 4:1; Ecclesiastes 11:10
- 12 1 John 3:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 Corinthians 13:9–10; Philippians 3:12; Revelation 22:4
- 13 1 Corinthians 16:14; Colossians 3:14; 1 John 4:7–18; 1 Corinthians 13:1–8; Galatians 5:6
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Thus, whereas he had showed, that both faith and knowledge and prophecy and tongues and gifts and healing and a perfect life and martyrdom, if love be absent, are no great advantage; of necessity he next makes an outline of its matchless beauty, adorning its image with the parts of virtue as with a sort of colors, and putting together …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 12 (1889)
As the apostle has said on this point, that, when other things have been done away, then these three, "faith, hope, and charity, shall endure." For faith, which has respect to our Master, endures unchangeably, assuring us that there is but one true God, and that we should truly love Him for ever, seeing that He alone is our Father; …
Of Thy eternal life I was now certain, although I had seen it "through a glass darkly." Yet I no longer doubted that there was an incorruptible substance, from which was derived all other substance; nor did I now desire to be more certain of Thee, but more stedfast in Thee.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
"For when," saith He, "that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away:" even as it befell the old law through the new.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Thus much we will hear Paul say about it, that we know in part and we prophesy in part. This and the like to this are the confessions of one who is not rude in knowledge, who threatens to give proof of Christ speaking in him, the great doctor and champion of the truth.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)