1 Corinthians 13:2

1 Corinthians 13:2

The Greatest Gift

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of ^aprophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, ^bso that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3 And ^athough I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body¹ to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

4 ^aLove suffers long and is ^bkind; love ^cdoes not envy; love does not parade itself, is not¹ puffed up;

5 does not behave rudely, ^adoes not seek its own, is not provoked,¹ thinks no evil;

6 ^adoes not rejoice in iniquity, but ^brejoices in the truth;

7 ^abears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

9 ^aFor we know in part and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is¹ perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12 For ^anow we see in a mirror, dimly, but then ^bface to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Commentaries:

Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)

<< 1 Corinthians 13:1

1 Corinthians 13:3 >>

The ecstatic gifts (verse I Corinthians 13:1) are worthless. Equally so are the teaching gifts (prophecy, knowledge of mysteries, all knowledge). Crasis here in kan=kai ean. Paul is not condemning these great gifts. He simply places love above them and essential to them. Equally futile is wonder-working faith "so as to remove mountains" (wste orh meqistanein) without love. This may have been a proverb or Paul may have known the words of Jesus (Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:21).

I am nothing (ouqen eimi). Not ouqeiv, nobody, but an absolute zero. This form in q rather than d (ouden) had a vogue for a while (Robertson, Grammar, p. 219).

**Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing 1 Corinthians 13:2:**

1 Corinthians 1:5
1 Corinthians 12:9
Colossians 1:13
Revelation 6:14

<< 1 Corinthians 13:1

1 Corinthians 13:3 >>

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The Greatest Gift