1 Corinthians 13:13 - Printer Friendly

ESV: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

NIV: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

NASB: But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

CSB: Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

NLT: Three things will last forever — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love.

KJV: And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

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

Here is yet another famous verse of Scripture, often quoted, printed, and sung in the modern world. With this phrase, Paul wraps up this section explaining why godly, self-sacrificing love is required to fully express spiritual gifts. He concludes by mentioning love again with two other virtues often listed with it: faith and hope. Together, these three virtues "abide" or "remain." Perhaps Paul means that, as is the case with love, faith and hope will continue into eternity after the need for spiritual gifts has long since passed.

Faith is essential to Christianity. Only by faith in Christ is it possible to come into relationship with God, at all. In a similar way, hope is the Christian conviction that God will keep His promises about the future. Without faith and hope, Christianity does not make sense. They are built in.

Still, Paul insists that love is greater even than these two bedrock virtues. It will abide, in a sense, even after our faith has become sight and our hope in eternity has been fully realized.

Paul's bottom line in this chapter is that, of course, faith and hope are far more important than spiritual gifts and love is greater even than faith and hope. Spiritual gifts are essential for the church to grow, but the Corinthians had put too much emphasis on them as evidence of personal glory or achievement. The gifts must be applied with love, or they become meaningless or even destructive.

First Corinthians 13:1–13 is one of the most loved and well-known passages in the Bible, but Paul places it after his teaching on the spiritual gifts for a specific reason. Some of the gifts may seem impressive, but if attempted without self-sacrificing love for others, they become meaningless, even destructive. Paul uses 14 verbs to describe what love does and does not do. Love is the foundation for Paul's teaching in the following chapter on prophecy, tongues, and even orderly worship. While this section is often quoted in romantic settings, such as a wedding, the concept in mind is that of agape: a self-sacrificing, godly love.

Paul responds to the Corinthians' over-emphasis on certain spiritual gifts by showing them that all gifts are worthless if not practiced through godly love. Paul provides 14 descriptors of love, all action verbs, all choices made out of a commitment to set self aside and serve others. Choosing to love each other in this way would solve many of the problems Paul has confronted in this letter. The spiritual gifts provide a glimpse of what is knowable, but when the perfect comes, we will know all. Love is the greatest of all the virtues.

Paul's teaching on love fits firmly into the context of 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14. These sentences have a somewhat different style than the surrounding words, suggesting Paul might have inserted something he'd written previously into this section. These are not meant to be a diversion, however. Lack of love was at the heart of most of the Corinthians' problems and divisions. As Paul describes it, God's kind of love sets self aside, over and over, endlessly, for the good of others. Spiritual gifts exist for the building up of the church now, but believers will live in love for eternity. Christ-like love is the greatest of all the virtues, and it should be the priority of every Christian.

First Corinthians is one of the more practical books of the New Testament. Paul writes to a church immersed in a city associated with trade, but also with corruption and immorality. These believers are struggling to properly apply spiritual gifts and to resist the ungodly practices of the surrounding culture. Paul's letter gives instructions for real-life concerns such as marriage and spirituality. He also deals with the importance of unity and gives one of the Bible's more well-known descriptions of love in chapter 13.