1 Corinthians 13

The Excellence of Love

1 If I speak with the 1tongues of men and of 2angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a 3clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of 4prophecy, and know all 5mysteries and all 6knowledge; and if I have 7all faith, so as to 8remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I 9give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I 10surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love 11is patient, love is kind and 12is not jealous; love does not brag and is not 13arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it 14does not seek its own, is not provoked, 15does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 16does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but 17rejoices with the truth;
7 18bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of 19prophecy, they will be done away; if there are 20tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we 21know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12 For now we 22see in a mirror dimly, but then 23face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also 24have been fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is 25love.

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Cross References 25

  • 1. 1 Corinthians 12:10
  • 2. 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 14:2
  • 3. Psalms 150:5
  • 4. Matthew 7:22; Acts 13:1; 1 Corinthians 11:4; 1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 Corinthians 14:1, 39
  • 5. 1 Corinthians 14:2; 1 Corinthians 15:51
  • 6. Romans 15:14
  • 7. 1 Corinthians 12:9
  • 8. Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:21; Mark 11:23
  • 9. Matthew 6:2
  • 10. Daniel 3:28
  • 11. Proverbs 10:12; Proverbs 17:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; 1 Peter 4:8
  • 12. Acts 7:9
  • 13. 1 Corinthians 4:6
  • 14. 1 Corinthians 10:24; Philippians 2:21
  • 15. 2 Corinthians 5:19
  • 16. 2 Thessalonians 2:12
  • 17. 2 John 4; 3 John 3
  • 18. 1 Corinthians 9:12
  • 19. 1 Corinthians 13:2
  • 20. 1 Corinthians 13:1
  • 21. 1 Corinthians 8:2; 1 Corinthians 13:12
  • 22. 2 Corinthians 5:7; Philippians 3:12; James 1:23
  • 23. Genesis 32:30; Numbers 12:8; 1 John 3:2
  • 24. 1 Corinthians 8:3
  • 25. Galatians 5:6

Footnotes 6

1 Corinthians 13 Commentaries

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