Read the passage and its setting
1 Corinthians 13:1–7, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
1 Corinthians 13:1–7
Without Love, Impressive Gifts and Sacrifice Become Nothing
The Main Point
Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
What Is Happening Here?
Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
Varied gifts are not possessed by all and must be measured by a more excellent way.
Love's permanence is contrasted with partial gifts that end when complete knowing arrives.
Follow the Letter's Movement
See why this section appears here and how the author's movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
Love is not a wedding digression but the governing criterion for every contested gift, status, and freedom in the letter.
Follow the Movement
Uninterpreted spectacular speech without love becomes noise.
Prophecy, mysteries, knowledge, and mountain-moving faith without love make the speaker nothing.
Even total giving and bodily surrender without love yield no benefit.
Love practices patience and kindness while refusing status vices.
Love does not seek its own or keep a grievance account.
Love rejects injustice and rejoices with truth.
Love's fourfold endurance is active allegiance, not credulity toward harm.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
Movement 1
Uninterpreted spectacular speech without love becomes noise.
Movement 2
Prophecy, mysteries, knowledge, and mountain-moving faith without love make the speaker nothing.
Movement 3
Even total giving and bodily surrender without love yield no benefit.
Movement 4
Love practices patience and kindness while refusing status vices.
Movement 5
Love does not seek its own or keep a grievance account.
Movement 6
Love rejects injustice and rejoices with truth.
Movement 7
Love's fourfold endurance is active allegiance, not credulity toward harm.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
reckons / keeps account
λογίζεται · logizetai
Love does not maintain evil as a weaponized ledger; this does not mean suppressing evidence or abandoning accountability.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading 1 Corinthians 13:1–7 inside the whole Corinthian letter explicitly rules out these coercive, harmful, or context-breaking uses:
Love bears and believes all things does not require trusting an abuser, suppressing evidence, staying unsafe, dropping charges, or refusing boundaries.
Love does not replace truth, due process, professional care, or consequences.
Giving everything or surrendering the body does not sanctify self-destruction, martyrdom seeking, or coercive sacrifice.
Context check: Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
What Remains True Today
Love is truth-aligned, patient, non-self-seeking action that makes gifts and sacrifice genuinely serve others.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
Love is truth-aligned, patient, non-self-seeking action that makes gifts and sacrifice genuinely serve others.
How should this shape us today?
Evaluate relationships and ministries by observable patience, kindness, truth, non-coercion, boundaries, repair, and protection rather than sentimental claims.
A Concrete Example
Evaluate relationships and ministries by observable patience, kindness, truth, non-coercion, boundaries, repair, and protection rather than sentimental claims.
Teach It Back
Explain 1 Corinthians 13:1–7 in your own words. Include its place in 1 Corinthians, the unit's logic, one material uncertainty, and one use the context rules out.
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Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Movement 1
Uninterpreted spectacular speech without love becomes noise.
Movement 2
Prophecy, mysteries, knowledge, and mountain-moving faith without love make the speaker nothing.
Movement 3
Even total giving and bodily surrender without love yield no benefit.
Movement 4
Love practices patience and kindness while refusing status vices.
Movement 5
Love does not seek its own or keep a grievance account.
Movement 6
Love rejects injustice and rejoices with truth.
Movement 7
Love's fourfold endurance is active allegiance, not credulity toward harm.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
reckons / keeps account
Love does not maintain evil as a weaponized ledger; this does not mean suppressing evidence or abandoning accountability.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Corinthian setting and reconstruction limits
The first-person hyperboles answer Corinthian fascination with speech and gifts. Ancient 'love' here is practiced communal action, not merely romance or emotion.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV wording and material alternatives
KJV wording around "charity, tongues of angels, sounding brass, remove mountains, give my body to be burned, suffereth long, vaunteth, puffed up, thinketh no evil, beareth, believeth, hopeth, and endureth" is read with the Greek clause and the complete unit rather than treated as a modern technical label.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Israel's Scriptures and Jewish background
Paul reasons from Israel's Scriptures and story where the verbal or conceptual connection is visible; the connection does not erase the passage's first-century Corinthian setting.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Responsible canonical connections
Related biblical texts may clarify this unit after its own argument is established; they must not be used to bypass its limits or import a conclusion it does not state.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
Textual and grammatical care
In verse 3, early witnesses divide among handing the body over 'that I may be burned,' 'that I may boast,' or similar forms. Either reading intensifies costly self-display and leaves the without-love conclusion unchanged.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Verse 7's 'all things' does not define love as indiscriminate belief; the full list includes rejoicing with truth and rejecting wrong. Translation of verse 3 remains textually disputed.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
This movement contributes to the letter's cross-shaped repair of a gifted but divided assembly: Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
Love bears and believes all things does not require trusting an abuser, suppressing evidence, staying unsafe, dropping charges, or refusing boundaries.
A vivid line can be detached from the complete argument and its power setting.
Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
Love is truth-aligned, patient, non-self-seeking action that makes gifts and sacrifice genuinely serve others.
Love bears and believes all things does not require trusting an abuser, suppressing evidence, staying unsafe, dropping charges, or refusing boundaries.
Love does not replace truth, due process, professional care, or consequences.
Readers may mistake an ancient practice or disputed reconstruction for an exhaustive modern rule.
Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
Love is truth-aligned, patient, non-self-seeking action that makes gifts and sacrifice genuinely serve others.
Love does not replace truth, due process, professional care, or consequences.
Giving everything or surrendering the body does not sanctify self-destruction, martyrdom seeking, or coercive sacrifice.
Certainty and control can be preferred to the text's stated limits.
Even extraordinary tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and bodily sacrifice amount to noise, nothing, and no gain without love; love is patient and kind, refuses envy, boasting, inflation, impropriety, self-seeking, provocation, grievance-keeping, and injustice, and rejoices with truth while bearing, trusting, hoping, and enduring.
Love is truth-aligned, patient, non-self-seeking action that makes gifts and sacrifice genuinely serve others.
Giving everything or surrendering the body does not sanctify self-destruction, martyrdom seeking, or coercive sacrifice.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
1 Corinthians 13:1–7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Greek wording, clause relationships, repeated terms, and original-language discussion.
SBLGNT official text file 1Cor.txt, 13:1–7
Supports: Verse-level syntax, KJV-era wording, textual variants, and interpretive alternatives.
NET Bible 1 Corinthians 13:1–7 print view with translator, study, and textual notes
Supports: Independent morphology and lexical-range cross-check for material Greek claims.
STEP Bible Data repository morphology and lexical records for 1 Corinthians 13:1–7
Supports: Whole-letter movement, Corinthian setting, bibliography, major alternatives, and verse-level interpretation.
Redmond, The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary: 1 Corinthians, introduction and section on 13:1–7
Supports: Trinitarian gift language, distributed agency, common good, and lexical analysis.
Kukuni, 'An exegetical analysis of 1 Corinthians 12:4-11,' Verbum et Ecclesia 46.1 (2025), complete article, especially pp. 4–7
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 1 Corinthians 13:1–7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording, clause relationships, repeated terms, and original-language discussion.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text file 1Cor.txt, 13:1–7
Open the 1 Corinthians Greek text file ↗Translation and textual notes
NET Bible - 1 Corinthians with translators' and textual notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2005-2026 online edition
Supports: Verse-level syntax, KJV-era wording, textual variants, and interpretive alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible 1 Corinthians 13:1–7 print view with translator, study, and textual notes
Open the official NET 1 Corinthians PDFLexical and grammatical evidence
STEP Bible Data
Tyndale House Cambridge
Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026
Supports: Independent morphology and lexical-range cross-check for material Greek claims.
Exact location: STEP Bible Data repository morphology and lexical records for 1 Corinthians 13:1–7
Open source ↗modern open commentary
1 Corinthians
Eric C. Redmond
The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary, 2023
Supports: Whole-letter movement, Corinthian setting, bibliography, major alternatives, and verse-level interpretation.
Exact location: Redmond, The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary: 1 Corinthians, introduction and section on 13:1–7
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access rhetorical article
Desire Spiritual Gifts That Edify: A Text-Generated Persuasion of 1 Corinthians 14:1-40
T. J. Kukuni
Verbum et Ecclesia 46(1), a3339, 2025
Supports: Trinitarian gift language, distributed agency, common good, and lexical analysis.
Exact location: Kukuni, 'An exegetical analysis of 1 Corinthians 12:4-11,' Verbum et Ecclesia 46.1 (2025), complete article, especially pp. 4–7
Open source ↗