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1 Corinthians 13

Paul places love above spiritual achievement and shows why it remains when partial knowledge and gifts pass away.

Paul addresses the Corinthian church about spiritual gifts and the love that must shape their use. He imagines extraordinary speech, knowledge, faith, and sacrifice, then declares each worthless without love. He describes love through its conduct toward others, including patience, kindness, and delight in truth. The closing movement contrasts present, partial knowledge with a future fullness, using the images of growing into adulthood and seeing face to face. Love outlasts the gifts.

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1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2If 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.
3If 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.
4Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
5doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
6doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
8Love 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.
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
11When 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.
12For 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.
13But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
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Key verses
1 Corinthians 13:1The opening contrast establishes that even extraordinary speech becomes empty noise when love is absent.
1 Corinthians 13:4Patience and kindness begin Paul's portrait of love, while envy and boasting expose conduct that contradicts it.
1 Corinthians 13:12The dim mirror names the limits of present knowledge and points toward the fullness still to come.
Where this chapter reaches

Galatians and Colossians share this chapter's emphasis on love as central to Christian conduct, while 1 John also joins love with truth. Ephesians shares the pairing of patience and love, and 2 Corinthians uses the related contrast between present sight and what is still unseen.

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After reading the whole chapter

Which part of Paul's description of love most challenges your understanding of spiritual maturity?

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How might the limits of present knowledge shape the way you handle a disagreement?

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Questions people ask about 1 Corinthians 13

Is 1 Corinthians 13 about marriage?

Paul addresses a church, and his examples concern spiritual gifts, knowledge, faith, and sacrifice. The chapter describes the love that must govern life among believers. Its teaching applies to marriage, but the passage itself does not mention spouses or a wedding.

What does “that which is complete” mean in 1 Corinthians 13?

The phrase describes the fullness that will replace partial knowledge and prophecy. Paul connects it with seeing face to face and knowing as he has been known. Christians differ over its precise referent and timing; the chapter emphasizes the contrast between present limits and coming fullness.

Does “believes all things” mean trusting everyone?

The phrase belongs to a description of love that also rejects unrighteousness and rejoices with truth. It therefore cannot require accepting every claim or ignoring evidence of harm. Paul portrays love's readiness to trust and hope; he does not command blind trust or continued exposure to abuse.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).