1 Corinthians · Majority Standard Bible
1 Corinthians 13 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
2 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 don’t have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
4 Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
6 doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
9 Now we know in part and we prophesy in part,
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.
12 Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
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)