1 Corinthians 13:6

These verses stand in the middle of Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12 he shows that the church is one body with many gifts, and in 1 Corinthians 14 he gives instructions for using them in worship. Between the two he says, “and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31), and that way is love. He first shows that even the most spectacular gifts and the costliest sacrifices are empty without love (1 Corinthians 13:1–3). In these four verses he describes the love he means, and after them he declares that it lasts forever (1 Corinthians 13:8–13). The whole of 1 Corinthians 13 is the measure for every gift and every kind of conduct in the church.

Corinth was a busy and wealthy Roman provincial capital and port, full of pagan cults and known for sexual immorality. The church there had many gifts, and it was also divided into factions (1 Corinthians 1:10–17), proud and spiritually immature. Its members prized some gifts, especially speaking in tongues, above others (1 Corinthians 14:1–5), and they likely competed over them, which bred arrogance and left little care for one another. The letter also deals with sexual immorality, lawsuits between believers and disrespect at the church’s shared meals. The city around them prized personal honour, status and self-promotion. Read against that background, this description of love answers the church’s faults one by one.

Paul speaks of love as if it were a person who waits, acts, rejoices and endures, so that we can see it at work. He names what love does and also what it refuses to do, and the things it refuses are envy, boasting and pride, the very faults that ran through the church at Corinth.

The first thing Paul says of love is that it “suffereth long”. The verb, makrothyméō, is built from makros, “long”, and thymos, “temper” or “passion”, so it means to be long-tempered. It is patience under provocation, injury and injustice, the patience of someone who is wronged and goes on bearing with the person, slow to retaliate and slow to lose heart. It is the patience needed for real mistreatment and persistent annoyance, carried with a steady and forgiving spirit, and it keeps choosing grace and understanding when the first impulse is to strike back.

This is first of all God’s own patience. Moses prayed, “The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy” (Numbers 14:18), and Paul speaks of “the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering” and says that God’s goodness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). The love that bears with others is the love God has shown us.

Love “is kind” as well. Patience bears with others, and kindness goes out to do them good. It is gentle and gracious and shows itself in practical help, thoughtful deeds and compassionate words, from a heart that wants to serve and benefit others.

Love “envieth not”. Envy resents another person’s success, possessions, gifts or recognition, and it corrodes friendships and breeds division. Love is glad of another’s blessings and rejoices in their well-being and their achievements. In a church where believers competed over their gifts, this was a direct word.

Love “vaunteth not itself”. The Greek verb, perpereúomai, means to boast, brag or show off, to draw attention to one’s own achievements, talents, knowledge or status. Love is content to serve quietly, gives God the glory for every gift and achievement, and lifts others up.

Love is also free from being “puffed up”. The verb physióō means to inflate or blow up, and figuratively to be arrogant and conceited, swollen with a sense of one’s own importance that soon looks down on others. Paul uses this word again and again in this letter for the pride of the Corinthians, as when he writes “that no one of you be puffed up for one against another” (1 Corinthians 4:6). Love sees itself humbly and truly, knowing that every gift and ability it has comes from God, and that humility lets believers live together in unity and respect.

Love “doth not behave itself unseemly”. The verb aschēmonéō comes from a word meaning uncomely or indecent, and it means to act in an improper, rude or disgraceful way. Love’s conduct is honourable and fitting. It thinks about how its words and actions will affect others and treats them with courtesy and dignity, reflecting the beauty and order of God.

Love “seeketh not her own”. The verb zētéō means to seek, desire or strive after, and “her own” (from heautoû) means love’s own advantage, rights and desires. Love looks outward. It puts the well-being of others ahead of its own comfort and is willing to give up its own advantage to serve them. Paul writes the same to the Philippians: “in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2:3–4). Among Greeks and Romans who prized personal honour and self-advancement, this was a call to a new way of living, shaped by Christ’s own self-giving.

Love “is not easily provoked”. It is slow to take offence and stays calm and steady when slighted or irritated, bearing small annoyances without flaring up. Proverbs praises the same quality: “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding” (Proverbs 14:29).

Love “thinketh no evil”. The verb logízomai means to count, reckon or consider, and with “evil” (kakós) it describes love’s refusal to count up the wrongs done to it or to reckon evil motives to others without cause. Love gives others the benefit of the doubt, is quick to forgive, and lets old hurts and suspicions go, so that bitterness has nowhere to take root. This is how God deals with us: “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10). Proverbs says it in four words, “love covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12).

Love “rejoiceth not in iniquity”. The verb chaírō means to rejoice or be glad, and the plain Greek negative ou says that love takes no pleasure in adikía. That word comes from ádikos, “unrighteous”, and means injustice and wrongfulness, whether of character, of life or of a single act. It covers every kind of wrongdoing against God’s law and against justice.

Love grieves over sin, its own and other people’s, and it takes the scandals and failures of others as cause for sorrow. At Corinth this touched every problem Paul had addressed: the factions of 1 Corinthians 1, the immorality of 1 Corinthians 5, the lawsuits of 1 Corinthians 6, and the proud misuse of gifts behind 1 Corinthians 12. Some there tolerated wrong and even celebrated it. Love would have been grieved by all of it and worked to set it right.

Then comes “but” (dé) and the other side. Love “rejoiceth in the truth”, and here Paul uses a fuller verb, synchaírō, made from syn, “with”, and chaírō. It means to rejoice with someone, to share their gladness and congratulate them, so love rejoices together with the truth and takes part in its joy.

The word for truth, alḗtheia, from alēthḗs, “true”, means truth and reality, sincerity and what is genuine. Here it also means what agrees with God’s character and his revealed will, and so with his word: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). Love is glad when honesty and justice win out, and it holds to what is real and right even when that is hard.

So love is holy, because God is holy. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), and the psalmist says, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:104). Paul joins love and holiness in the same way in Romans: “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good” (Romans 12:9). John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4), and Paul tells believers to grow up into Christ by “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Love is warm toward people and firm about right and wrong.

Verse 7 closes the description with four short clauses, each ending in “all things” (pâs). The repetition stresses how wide love’s reach is, and the four together show how strong and lasting it is.

Love “beareth all things”. The verb stégō comes from the word for a roof and means to roof over, to cover, and figuratively to cover with silence and to bear patiently. Like a roof, love shelters and protects. It covers the faults and weaknesses of others with silence, refusing to expose them or gossip about them, and it bears up under the weight of hard situations. Peter says, “charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). This covering extends grace and protects a person’s dignity, and it never approves the sin. In a culture where honour and shame mattered greatly and a neighbour’s faults were often exposed in public, this protective love stood out.

Love “believeth all things”. The verb pisteúō can mean to believe something to be true, to credit what someone says, or to trust and rely on a person, and in the New Testament it is used most often of believing God and Christ. Here it describes love’s readiness to trust people, to assume good intentions and to believe the best about them, even when things are unclear or someone has disappointed before.

Love “hopeth all things”. The verb elpízō means to hope, expect or trust. Love expects good, even in situations that look hopeless. It holds on to the possibility of reconciliation, healing and change, and it keeps hoping for a person. Its confidence rests on God’s faithfulness and his power to redeem, for he is “the God of hope” (Romans 15:13).

Love “endureth all things”. The verb hypoménō joins hypó, “under”, and ménō, “remain”, and means to stay under a load, to bear trials, to persevere. This is courageous steadfastness, love standing firm under trial, opposition and suffering for the sake of the person it loves. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation” (James 1:12), and Hebrews calls believers to “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

“All things” is broad on purpose. Since love rejoices only in the truth, the things it believes and bears are all things that agree with truth and righteousness. This is the love God has shown us: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

These marks are first of all a picture of God himself, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8). His patience, kindness and humility run through the whole history of his saving work and come to their fullness in Jesus Christ. We were made in God’s image, so our conduct is meant to reflect his holiness, selflessness and grace.

This love grows in us by the Holy Spirit. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5), and the fruit he bears begins with it: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22–23). This love keeps the two great commandments, to love God and to love our neighbour (Matthew 22:37–40), and “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10). Paul tells the Colossians to put on mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness and longsuffering (Colossians 3:12–14), and “above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness” (Colossians 3:14). Where envy and pride give way to this love, a church is united and built up together.

Every line of these verses describes Jesus. He suffered long with his slow disciples, saying, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” (Mark 9:19), and with his enemies, praying from the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He was kind, healing the sick, feeding the hungry and moved with compassion for the crowds (Matthew 9:36). He envied neither the power of rulers nor the popularity of religious leaders. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7), and he humbled himself and “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).

His conduct was always fitting and holy, and he could say, “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). He sought the Father’s will and our salvation ahead of his own comfort or glory, as Philippians 2:5–8 shows. Under betrayal, opposition and suffering he stayed calm and patient, the Servant of whom Isaiah says, “he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7), and he prayed for the men who crucified him.

Jesus exposed sin wherever he found it, in the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and in the failings of his own disciples, and his love for sinners moved him to seek their redemption. He is himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and on the cross he dealt with our iniquity: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

He bore all things, the rejection, the betrayal and the suffering, and at last the sins of the world, as Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 53:4–6). He believed all things in that he always trusted his Father’s will and believed that even hardened hearts could be redeemed, for “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He hoped all things, looking ahead with confidence to the resurrection, as Peter preached from the psalm in Acts 2:25–28. And he endured all things, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). He laid down his life for his friends (John 15:13) and for his enemies too (Romans 5:8–10). He is our example, and through his Spirit he is also the source of the love he asks of us.

Paul wrote these verses to a church proud of its gifts, to show that maturity in Christ is measured by love, and they search us the same way. Our patience is tested by the people who annoy or wrong us, and our kindness by whether we look for chances to do good. Envy shows itself in how we take a friend’s success, and pride in how much we want to be noticed. Verse 5 asks whether we put others’ needs first, how quickly we take offence, and whether we keep a ledger of old wrongs. Verse 6 asks where our joy really lies, in the failures of others or in what is true and right. Verse 7 asks whether we cover a friend’s weakness, give a colleague the benefit of the doubt, keep hoping for a broken relationship and keep going when it is hard.

Loving like this takes daily, deliberate choices and a deep reliance on the Holy Spirit, who turns our natural inclinations into the love of God. In a church it turns competition into mutual care and builds up the body of Christ, and the watching world sees in it the love of Christ himself.