Fathers

1 Corinthians 13

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 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 don’t have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

1 Corinthians 13:5

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"Doth not behave itself unseemly." Nay, why, saith he, do I say, she "is not puffed up," when she is so far from that feeling, that in suffering the most shameful things for him whom she loves, she doth not even count the thing an unseemliness? Again, he did not say, "she suffereth unseemliness but beareth the shame nobly," but, "she doth not even entertain any sense at all of the shame." For if the lovers of money endure all manner of reproaches for the sake of that sordid traffic of theirs, and far from hiding their faces, do even …

Homily on 1 Corinthians 33 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Love not only does not boast, but if it should endure even the most extreme misfortunes for the sake of the beloved, it will not consider this shameful or inglorious for itself, just as Christ, out of love for us, not only endured the dishonorable crucifixion, but even counted it as glory for Himself. You can also understand it this way: it does not behave unseemly, that is, it does not offend; for nothing is more shameful than one who gives offense. This is directed against those who are not condescending to others. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗

Clement of Alexandria

But learn thou the more excellent way, which Paul shows for salvation. "Love seeketh not her own," but is diffused on the brother. About him she is fluttered, about him she is soberly insane. "Love covers a multitude of sins." "Perfect love casteth out fear." "Vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth. Prophecies are done away, tongues cease, gifts of healing fail on the earth. …

Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved? ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

Then when he says, is not arrogant, he shows that charity makes one avoid evils by which one is disarranged in himself. First, as to passions; secondly, as to choice (v. 5b). First, indeed, as to pride, which is a disarranged desire for one's own excellence. One seeks his own excellence in a disarranged manner, when it does not satisfy him to be contained in that station which has been established for him by God. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗