1 Corinthians 13

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

The author states that speaking in tongues, possessing prophecy, fathomless knowledge, absolute faith, giving possessions to the poor, or surrendering one's body are meaningless without love. The text lists various characteristics, noting that love is patient, kind, enduring, and never fails, whereas prophecies will cease, tongues will be restrained, and knowledge will be dismissed. The author illustrates the transition from partial understanding to completeness by comparing childhood to adulthood and seeing a dim reflection in a mirror to seeing face to face. Finally, the passage concludes by stating that faith, hope, and love remain, with love being the greatest of the three.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. ⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. ⁶Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. ¹²Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. ¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.