Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

First Corinthians 13, probably best known as the Bible’s “Love Chapter,” offers concise, vivid insights into what it means to love. But 1 Corinthians 13 also describes some of the ways fervent faith can go awry. It notes that even an apostle—and we ourselves such—only partially, barely understands the ways of life and God. And it identifies the top three things in the cosmos that ultimately matter (neither money, nor power, nor status makes the list).

The passage’s statements about love, particularly verses 4–7, can legitimately be explored out of context, as happens at weddings, topical Bible studies, and other settings. But its larger context in the host of biblical teachings about love and its immediate context in Paul’s admonitions to the conflict-ridden Corinthians best clarify why Paul identifies love as life’s ultimate priority, the one thing that matters most.

The biblical context shows that Paul did not originate the idea that love has primary importance. Nor did Jesus when he identified love of God and neighbor as the greatest commandments (Matthew 22:234–40; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 10:25–28). The centrality of love was embedded in Jewish Scripture centuries before Jesus and Paul walked the earth. Four times, the Torah conveys commandments to love God with all one’s heart, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4–5; 10:12; 11:1 and 13). A long list of examples of how God calls us to treat the people around us includes loving our neighbor as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18).

Considering 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 outside its biblical context disconnects love’s highest qualities from life’s most challenging circumstances. Outside that context, love becomes an ideal on a pedestal, an abstract concept that can be admired from a distance. It is patient, is kind, keeps no record of wrongs, et cetera. From a distance, in our imaginations, it’s easy to rise above the inconveniences, irritations, and conflicts that family, friends, and neighbors bring into our lives.

Paul, Jesus, and Scripture as a whole, however, don’t stop there. They anchor love in its most demanding contexts. Families, friends, neighbors, and coworkers can bring conflict, insults, disrespect, even danger right into our face, corner us in a hallway, follow us into our homes, show up in the same space for church or any other event. Verse 7 calls us to embody love’s best qualities in all contexts, in the face of “all things.”^[1]

The scriptural context pushes even further beyond this list of love’s abstract qualities. It peers into our most demanding circumstances and offers further, sharper, even shocking commandments: Love your enemies (Matthew 5:43–48; Luke 6:27–28, 35; 1 Peter 3:9; Exodus 23:5; Proverbs 24:17; 25:21–22; Romans 12:17–21; et cetera). Love the stranger, love the alien in your midst (Leviticus 19:33–34; Deuteronomy 10:19; Hebrews 13:1–2; Romans 12:13; Matthew 25:34–40; et cetera). These would seem particularly jarring to the Corinthians. The church’s factions seem to exude this attitude: “We are right, pillars of this church, beacons of truth, giants of faith. We tower above you people who are not-one-of-us.”

Rhetorically, that’s probably why Paul opens this passage by taking down the factions a few notches (13:1–3). Paul puts his examples of faith gone awry into the first-person: “If I say …” But he uses an “If the shoe fits …” approach that implies: You say that speaking in tongues elevates you above the rest of us? Without love, your speaking in tongues is just the sound of gongs and cymbals, air horns. You’re a prophet who knows the word of God and understands the mysteries of faith? Without love, you are nothing, a false prophet. You point out how you gave away everything you owned or heroically suffered so that other people will admire you? Without love, so what?

Paul starkly reminds his hearers that even if they try to hold onto them for dear life, prophecies end, tongues cease, knowledge gets erased by deeper knowledge, and, as the Beatles said, money can’t buy you love; it doesn’t generate love. Paul asserts that no matter who we are or what we know or what we’ve done or can do, we possess far more ignorance of God’s ways than understanding of God’s ways. The conflicts tearing apart the Corinthian community are not only fueled by their lack of love. Their lack of love is fueled by a pervasive lack of humility. God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8–9).

First Corinthians 13 could also be called the “Humility Chapter,” because real love requires humility. What happened in Corinth happens repeatedly in all times and places. Individuals and groups arise who trust only their own knowledge, hope only for the fulfillment of their own vision of how the world should be, and “love” only those who agree with them and are like them. If they would stop and peel back all the layers of their faith and hope, Paul says, they would find only themselves or find nothing.

Paul will not let his readers (not let us), however, see his words as only referring to “them.” Twenty-one times in this passage, Paul speaks in the first-person, as “I” or “we.” Readers and hearers had best learn from this passage by applying every “I” and “we” to ourselves: “If I myself have prophetic powers but lack love …”

The three most essential elements of life as people of God abide in faith, hope, and love (13:13). Paul cautions us that faith and hope can lock us up into our own heads, our own errors, lead us down the paths of self-righteousness. Love, though, requires us to go outside of ourselves and beyond our own ways. Love’s humility and power open us to the reality that the God of love can always show us a still more excellent way.

Notes

1. To be clear, love does not require someone caught in circumstances of domestic violence or abuse to stay, endure, and simply hope for change. In those circumstances, one can also bear, believe, hope, and endure all things from a safe distance. It’s worth exploring the extent to which one’s own faith community is prepared to support victims of domestic violence and abuse and point them to local people and resources for help. See MaryClare Beche, “Here’s How Your Church Can Help Survivors of Domestic Violence,” Sojourners, Oct. 28, 2021, https://sojo.net/articles/heres-how-your-church-can-help-survivors-domestic-violence.