Fathers

1 Corinthians 13

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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.

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What the Fathers say

1 Corinthians 13:7

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

Nevertheless, he is not content with these, but hath something even more than these to say: according to his plan of stating the stronger points later. Wherefore he saith, "beareth all things." From her long-suffering, from her goodness; whether they be burdensome, or grievous, or insults, or stripes, or death, or whatsoever else. And this again one may perceive from the case of blessed David. For what could be more intolerable than to see a son rising up against him, and aiming at the usurpation, and thirsting for a father's blood? …

Homily on 1 Corinthians 33 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

And insults, and beatings, and death. Such a quality is granted to it by the long-suffering inherent in it. This is against those who devise evil. Love believes all things that the beloved says, for love itself speaks nothing falsely, and does not suppose that another speaks falsely either. Love, he says, does not despair of the beloved, but hopes that he is always ascending to what is better. This he said to those who despair. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗

Clement of Alexandria

But love is in truth celestial food, the banquet of reason. "It beareth all things, endureth all things, hopeth all things. Love never faileth." "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." But the hardest of all cases is for charity, which faileth not, to be cast from heaven above to the ground into the midst of sauces. And do you imagine that I am thinking of a supper that is to be done away with? …

The Instructor Book 2 ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

And how can they tell, when they hear from me of myself, whether I speak the truth, seeing that no man knoweth what is in man, "save the spirit of man which is in him"? But if they hear from Thee aught concerning themselves, they will not be able to say, "The Lord lieth." For what is it to hear from Thee of themselves, but to know themselves? And who is he that knoweth himself and saith, "It is false," unless he himself lieth? …

Confessions 10.3 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

He that has this charity fears nothing, for charity casteth out fear; and fear being thus banished and thrown aside, charity beareth all things, endureth all things. He who by charity endures all things, cannot fear martyrdom; and so in another place he speaks as a conqueror at the end of his course, The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Letter 78, To Horontianus ↗

Thomas Aquinas

In the fact that a person endures the evils of his neighbor to the extent that it is fitting, he says: love bears all things, i.e., without disquiet it tolerates all the shortcomings of the neighbor or any adversity whatever: "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak" (Rom 15:1); "Carry one another's burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ," namely, charity (Gal 6:2). Then when he says: believes all things, he shows how charity makes one do the good in relation to God. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗