^Love
(Parallel teachings: 1 John 4:7-21; Romans 12:9-21; Colossians 3:12-14)
(Thematic parallels: Genesis 50:15-21; Luke 23:33-34; Proverbs 10:12; and numerous others)
- 1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but don’t have ^love, I’ve become a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
- 2 And if I have prophecy, and I *understand all now-revealed mysteriesfn“now-revealed mysteries” is one word in Greek. It originally referred to secret knowledge reserved for initiates of the ancient mystery religions; i.e. “members only” knowledge that was revealed to insiders, but concealed from everyone outside. Paul uses it for secrets that God kept hidden until the work of Jesus, after which they were revealed in the good news (aka, the gospel). and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains,fnquotation/allusion to Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:21; Mark 11:23 but don’t have ^love, I am nothing.
- 3 And if I give all that I possess to feedfn“I give… …to feed” is one word in Greek. It properly refers to giving out food in small portions to feed someone or something. the poor, and if I deliver my body to prisonfn“to prison” this sense can be implied by the word translated “deliver”; compare with Matthew 4:12 and Mark 1:14 so that I might [boast],fn“boast” many manuscripts, especially later ones, have “burned” here, so that it reads: “if I deliver my body so it will be burned”. Current scholarship strongly leans toward “boast” but don’t have ^love, I gain nothing.
- 4 ^Love is patient, it’s kind. ^Love isn’t jealous, ^love doesn’t boast, it isn’t puffed up,
- 5 It doesn’t act without decorum,fn“act without decorum” is one word in Greek. While it can refer to immoral actions, it more commonly refers to actions that violate accepted social norms, especially in a way that lacks decorum or propriety, or that causes public embarrassment. Its only other use in Scripture is 1 Corinthians 7:36; see footnote on that verse it doesn’t seek things for itself, it isn’t easily angered, it doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered.fnpossible quotation/allusion to Ezekiel 18:21-22
- 6 it doesn’t rejoice at unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.
- 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- 8 ^Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will be abolished;fn“they will be abolished” is one word in Greek, literally meaning to render something as completely without force or power, making it idle and of no effect. Thus, it also means to abolish, because the force has been completely removed. It’s the same word used to refer to knowledge later in the verse. if tongues, they will cease, if knowledge, it will be abolished.
- 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
- 10 But when the perfect comes, the partial will be abolished.
- 11 When I was a child, I was talking like a child, I was understanding like a child, I was reasoning like a child. When I *became a man, I *abolished the childish things.
- 12 For now we see through a mirrorfn“mirror” The Greek word here refers to a metallic mirror, not a glass one. in puzzling obscurity,fn“puzzling obscurity” The Greek word here literally refers to a riddle or enigma which obscures something. but then face to face.fnquotation/allusion to Numbers 12:8 (also quoted/alluded to by 2 Cor 3:18); see also Deuteronomy 34:10; Exodus 33:11; Genesis 32:30 I know in part now, but then I will know Him fully, even as I was fully known.
- 13 But now these three remain: faith, hope, and ^love; and the greatest of these is ^love.