1 Corinthians 13:2 - Printer Friendly

ESV: 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.

NIV: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

NASB: If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

CSB: If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

NLT: If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.

KJV: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

NKJV: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Paul is demonstrating just how worthless the spiritual gifts are when attempted without love for other believers. The Corinthians valued these gifts highly, apparently elevating those among them with the gifts of tongues and prophecy as the most spiritual. Paul has declared that this is not true. All the gifts are needed in the church.

Now, though, he is showing something else. The gifts are meaningless when practiced without love. Even more, the loveless person displaying the gift is "nothing." By this, Paul means the person is accomplishing nothing within the body of Christ. The gift is being wasted on him or her in that moment.

Paul says this is true even of the gift of prophecy or prophetic powers, which he described as one of the higher gifts in the previous chapter (1 Corinthians 12:28, 31). He puts that gift together with the gift of knowledge and the gift of faith, using hyperbole to describe a level of giftedness no Christian has ever had. Paul is not necessarily saying such a thing can happen—only that even if it could, it would not change the primacy of godly, self-sacrificing love.

Imagine a person, Paul writes, with the gift of prophecy and a full understanding of all the mysteries of God and an iron-clad faith that allowed him or her to move actual mountains. Jesus told his disciples they could move mountains with the amount of faith that would fit in a tiny mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). Even this imaginary person Paul describes, without love, is nothing. All those gifts become worthless when exercised without concern, compassion, and empathy for other believers.

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.