1 Corinthians 13

October 22, 2025

1 Corinthians 13 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Discussion Questions:

1)  (Verses 1-3) What was the problem for the Corinthian brethren if love was missing from:

• their gifts of the spirit,
• their knowledge
• and their service?

2)  (Verses 4-7) How should love be practically manifested within the ecclesia in Corinth?

3)  (Verses 8-13)  Why is love superior? 

Discussion Summary:

Verses 1-3:  In previous chapters Paul has dealt with various problems and issues the brethren in Corinth were dealing with (divisions, celibacy, meat offered to idols).  Paul will continue in this letter to address further questions (order in the meetings, doctrinal errors).  He wants the brethren to operate under the law of liberty in Christ and not be bound by rules and laws of conduct.  In this chapter the Apostle is saying that if the brethren would develop love in its fullness of expression all of these problems would dissolve.  The growth of love is shown in the picture of how a child acts and how a man acts.

Love in its maturity cannot be broken down into action versus feeling.  The action leads to a feeling which leads to an actions which leads to a feeling.  It should be a continuous, growing cycle within us and within our congregations.

Verses 4-7:  Paul descriptions of love cannot be improved upon!  Other scriptures bring out the way in which love should guide interactions between brethren.

1 John 3:16-18:  “lay down our lives for the brethren”  “if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”

Romans 12:9-16: “let love be genuine” “outdo one another in showing honour” “contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” “do not be haughty” “never be wise in your own sight”

Verses 8-13:  The more excellent way Paul is speaking of is the difference between the gifts of the spirit and the fruits of the spirit.  Gifts were bestowed by the hands of the apostles and therefore gradually died away.  They were needed to establish early Christianity.  Paul says that even faith will be realized and prophecy will become reality and knowledge will no longer be accumulated but attained.