BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
1 Corinthians 13 — The Hymn of Love
Paul argues that without love every spiritual gift and heroic sacrifice is worthless, then describes love's character and declares it greater than faith and hope.
Scripture
1If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
2And 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 have not love, I am nothing.
3And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
4Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;
6rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;
7beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.
9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
10but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.
11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.
12For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.
13But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
What this passage means
Verses 1–3 set up the argument: even the most impressive gifts — tongues of men and angels, complete prophecy and knowledge, mountain-moving faith, total generosity, and martyrdom — are empty or unprofitable without love. Love is the indispensable condition under which every other Christian virtue has value, not just a nice addition.
Verses 4–7 describe love not abstractly but through a catalogue of behaviors: patient kindness, freedom from envy and pride, refusal to insist on one's own way, a disposition that does not keep a ledger of wrongs, and active rejoicing with the truth. Love's endurance — 'beareth all things … endureth all things' — makes it more than a feeling; it is a sustained orientation.
Verses 8–13 conclude that love outlasts everything partial. Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will be 'done away' when 'that which is perfect' comes, but faith, hope, and love 'abide.' Of these three, love is 'the greatest,' because the others are intrinsically oriented toward a coming fullness that love already images.
Context
Chapter 13 stands between chapter 12 (on diverse spiritual gifts) and chapter 14 (on orderly worship, including tongues and prophecy). The provided material does not include neighboring chapters, so any reconstruction of the surrounding argument would go beyond the supplied text; the chapter itself, however, functions as a hinge that re-evaluates the gifts just introduced by asking what makes them valuable.
Key words in the original
- G0026 ἀγάπη (agapē) appears as the key noun of verses 1–3, governing the conditional clauses: every listed achievement is set against 'love' as the decisive element. The chapter does not define the word but enumerates its actions in 4–7.
- G3466 μυστήριον (mystērion) in verse 2 ('know all mysteries') is given by Paul as a marker of maximum knowledge; even complete knowledge of mysteries, apart from love, reduces the speaker to 'nothing.'
- G2950 κύμβαλον (kymbalon), 'cymbal,' in verse 1 finishes the metaphor for speech without love: sounding brass, a clanging cymbal — resonant but empty.
Related verses
- 1 Corinthians 16:14 Paul's later charge to the same church restates 13's thesis in a single sentence: 'Let all that ye do be done in love.' Love governs practice, not just gifts.
- Colossians 3:14 Love as 'the bond of perfectness' complements 13's portrait of love as the integrating virtue that holds the rest together.
- 1 John 4:7 The link 'love is of God … every one that loveth is begotten of God' parallels 1 Corinthians 13's claim that love outranks all gifts, recasting the priority theologically.
Common questions
Does 1 Corinthians 13 say prophecy and tongues will disappear?
The text says 'whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away' (v. 8), and links this to the coming of 'that which is perfect' (v. 10). It does not specify the timing or identify what 'the perfect' is; it does specify that love does not share this future cessation (v. 8, v. 13).
Is the chapter a stand-alone 'hymn'?
The provided material labels it only as 'Hymn of Love.' The chapter's poetic shape and self-contained flow have led many readers to treat it that way, but the provided text itself does not resolve whether it was originally composed as a hymn or whether Paul wrote it as a continuous letter passage. The provided text does not state a position on the question.
Why is faith and hope listed alongside love if love is greatest?
Verse 13 groups faith, hope, and love as the three things that 'abide,' setting them against the gifts that will be 'done away.' Even the two virtues that remain, then, are still partial in this life; Paul names love as greatest not because faith and hope fail but because they look toward a future fullness love already reflects.