1 Corinthians 13:8 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

NIV: Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

NASB: Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

CSB: Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

NLT: Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!

KJV: Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

NKJV: 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.

Paul ends his description of God's kind of love, using the Greek term agape. This is an unselfish, sacrificial, active love, different from romantic or brotherly love, which use the terms eros and phileo, respectively. Wrapping up this section, Paul introduces a statement that may make believers feel it is truly impossible to love as God does, after all: Love never fails.

However, the truth of this statement does not mean no human can ever love as Christ does. It is true that believers will sometimes fail to love. When we do choose to love in this selfless, sacrificing way, love will not fail to be effective. One person's choice to love, selflessly, never fails to build up the church in a powerful way.

The other way in which love never fails is that love is eternal. Selfless love will continue in the Lord and in His people forever. It is absolutely the way we will live in relationship with each other in eternity. Examples of selfless love in the present are glimpses of the normal state of things in eternity.

This is not true of the spiritual gifts, Paul says. The gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will all pass away. By this, Paul means that eventually these gifts will not be needed.

Some Christians believe that the time for these specific three gifts has mostly come to an end already, that they were intended by God to help establish the church and show that the message of the gospel was from Him. All Christians understand that at the end of time, when we live with God in person (Revelation 21:1–5), there will be no need for these gifts. They exist only in human history for a limited time and purpose.

God's love, though, and our reflection of it to each other, will go on endlessly.

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.