1 Corinthians 13

Ships sailed in and out of Corinth. It was a busy port city in Greece. The church there was young.

Paul was far away in Ephesus. News reached him from Corinth. The church was full of quarrels.

The believers were eager for spiritual gifts. So Paul wrote that every gift comes from the same Spirit (12:4). Then Paul compared the church to a body. No part of a body can say to another part, "I do not need you" (12:21).

Then Paul wrote, "And now I will show you the most excellent way" (12:31).

Paul used himself as the example. He described some "what if" cases. Suppose he could speak every human language, and even the language of angels. Without love, he said, "I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal" (13:1).

This is a comparison. A gong and a cymbal are very loud. But noise alone helps no one.

Suppose he could speak God's messages and understand every mystery. Suppose his faith could move mountains. Without love, "I am nothing" (13:2).

Moving mountains is an exaggeration. It means the strongest faith anyone could have.

Suppose he gave everything he owned to the poor. Suppose he even gave up his own body. Without love, "I gain nothing" (13:3).

Then Paul described love. "Love is patient, love is kind" (13:4).

Patient means not giving up on someone, even when you have to wait. Kind means doing good to them.

The Greek word Paul used for love is agape. Here it means a love that gives. It looks for the other person's good.

In this chapter, love is something you do. It is more than a feeling.

Many couples choose this chapter for their wedding. The chapter fits weddings well. But Paul first wrote it to a whole church. He wrote about how people live together.

Next Paul listed what love does not do. Love "does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud" (13:4). Envy is being upset that someone else has something good. To boast is to brag.

Love "is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs" (13:5).

Self-seeking means always putting yourself first. Keeping an account of wrongs means keeping a list of every wrong, to throw back at someone.

"Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth" (13:6).

This list fits the problems Paul named earlier in the letter. Some of the believers had become proud, and they quarreled (4:18, 1:11).

Then Paul said love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (13:7).

This line means love does not give up on people. It does not mean staying where someone hurts you. Love still rejoices in the truth, as verse 6 says.

"Love never fails" (13:8), Paul wrote.

Then he compared love with the gifts the Corinthians prized. Prophecy will stop someday. Speaking in tongues will stop. Knowledge will pass away.

These gifts are good. God gives them. But the gifts are for this life only. Love is different. Love never ends.

Paul gave the reason. "For we know in part and we prophesy in part" (13:9). Even the best gifts show only part of the truth.

Someday what is perfect and complete will come. Then the partial things will not be needed.

Many Christians read this as the day Jesus comes again. Gifts are for now. Love lasts forever.

Paul gave an example from his own life. As a child, he talked, thought, and reasoned like a child. When he grew up, he set childish ways aside.

One likely meaning: our gifts now are like a child's talk. They are good. But they are not the finished thing.

Then Paul gave another comparison. "Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face" (13:12).

Mirrors back then were made of polished metal. Paul says what we see in a mirror is a dim reflection. We know God now in a dim way, like that reflection. We see some things, but not clearly. Someday we will see God face to face.

Then Paul wrote, "Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (13:12). God already knows us completely.

Paul ended with three things. "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love" (13:13).

Faith trusts God. Hope waits for what God has promised.

One likely reason love is the greatest: someday we will see God face to face. Then we will see what we now trust by faith. What we hope for will come true. But love will go on forever.

In the very next line, Paul wrote, "Earnestly pursue love" (14:1). In the same verse, he told them to still desire spiritual gifts.

The Corinthians were eager for spiritual gifts. Paul had promised to show them the most excellent way. Now he had shown them. The most excellent way is love.