1 Corinthians 13

Love Is Indispensable

1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
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 put the ways of childhood behind me.
12 For now we see only a 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.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

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Cross References 26

  • 1. ver 8; S Mark 16:17
  • 2. ver 8; S Ephesians 4:11; S Acts 11:27
  • 3. 1 Corinthians 14:2
  • 4. S 2 Corinthians 8:7
  • 5. 1 Corinthians 12:9
  • 6. Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:21
  • 7. Luke 19:8; S Acts 2:45; Matthew 6:2
  • 8. Daniel 3:28
  • 9. 1 Thessalonians 5:14
  • 10. 1 Corinthians 5:2
  • 11. S 1 Corinthians 10:24
  • 12. S Matthew 5:22
  • 13. Job 14:16,17; Proverbs 10:12; Proverbs 17:9; 1 Peter 4:8
  • 14. 2 Thessalonians 2:12
  • 15. 2 John 4; 3Jn 3,4
  • 16. ver 8,13
  • 17. ver 2
  • 18. ver 1
  • 19. ver 12; S 1 Corinthians 8:2
  • 20. Philippians 3:12
  • 21. Psalms 131:2
  • 22. Job 26:14; Job 36:26
  • 23. Genesis 32:30; Job 19:26; 2 Corinthians 5:7; 1 John 3:2
  • 24. 1 Corinthians 8:3; Galatians 4:9
  • 25. Romans 5:2-5; Galatians 5:5,6; Ephesians 4:2-5; Colossians 1:4,5; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Hebrews 6:10-12
  • 26. Matthew 22:37-40; 1 Corinthians 16:14; Galatians 5:6; 1Jn 4:7-12,16

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Or "languages"
  • [b]. Some manuscripts "body to the flames"

1 Corinthians 13 Commentaries

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