The Love Chapter — 1 Corinthians 13 KJV
The full King James text of 1 Corinthians 13, ready to read or print, followed by a plain-English explanation of every verse, the fifteen things charity is and is not, and why the KJV says “charity” where other Bibles say “love.”
1 Corinthians 13, King James Version
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
King James Version — public domain. biblegarden.net/love-chapter
1 Corinthians 13, Verse by Verse
The chapter moves in three steps. First, the most impressive things a person can have or do are shown to be worth nothing without love (verses 1-3). Then love is defined, entirely by what it does (verses 4-7). Then it is measured against the gifts the Corinthians were fighting over, and outlasts every one of them (verses 8-13).
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal
Paul opens with the gift the Corinthians prized most and reduces it to noise. Brass and cymbals make a sound without saying anything — which is what the most impressive gift in the room amounts to when love is missing. Nothing here is faked; the tongues are real. They are simply empty.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing
The list climbs — prophecy, complete understanding, mountain-moving faith — and the verdict does not soften as it goes. Not “I am less,” but “I am nothing.” Paul is not weighing love against the gifts. He is saying the gifts carry no weight of their own.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing
The hardest case: an act nobody could fault, done without love, and it “profiteth me nothing.” The test is never what the action costs but what moves it. This verse also settles what the KJV means by charity — here charity is the thing that giving everything away can still lack.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind
The definition, and it is made almost entirely of verbs. Paul never says what love feels like — only what it does and what it refuses to do. Fifteen short clauses run from here to the end of verse 7; each one is taken separately in the next section.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away
Back to the gifts of chapter 12, now measured by how long they last. Prophecy, tongues and knowledge each have an expiry built in; love does not. A church arguing over who has which gift is arguing over what is already on its way out.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away
“Perfect” in 1611 English means complete or finished rather than flawless. The gifts are partial by design — they are what partial knowledge needs — and they end not because they failed but because the whole thing arrived.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things
The first of two pictures of that same change. Nothing is wrong with a child's speech; it is simply outgrown. Paul is not shaming the Corinthians for wanting the gifts — he is telling them which stage the gifts belong to.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known
A “glass” in 1611 is a mirror, and mirrors were polished metal — a true image, but dim. “Darkly” renders a word meaning in a riddle. Present knowledge is not false, only indirect. Then the sentence turns the whole thing round: what finally matters is not how well we know, but that we are known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity
Faith and hope are both ways of holding on to what has not arrived yet; when it arrives, they have done their work. Love has no such finish line — “charity never faileth.” It is also the only one of the three that Scripture says God is (1 John 4:8).
The Fifteen Things Charity Is and Is Not
Verses 4 to 7 are one sentence made of fifteen short clauses, eight of them stated as refusals. Several use English that has shifted since 1611, so each is given here with its plain sense.
- 1
“Charity suffereth long” v.4
Puts up with people for a long time before it runs out. This is patience with persons, not with circumstances.
- 2
“and is kind” v.4
Patience that is not merely gritted teeth. While it waits, it is actively good to the person it is waiting on.
- 3
“charity envieth not” v.4
Does not resent what someone else has or is. In a church that ranked itself by spiritual gifts, this is the first thing that had to go.
- 4
“charity vaunteth not itself” v.4
Does not show off. “Vaunteth” is a word the King James translators use exactly once in the whole Bible, and this is it.
- 5
“is not puffed up” v.4
Not inflated in its own estimate. Paul had already used the phrase four times in this letter about the Corinthians themselves (1 Corinthians 4:6, 4:18, 4:19, 5:2), so his readers knew exactly who was meant.
- 6
“Doth not behave itself unseemly” v.5
Does not act disgracefully. Ordinary courtesy, held on to even when the other person has stopped extending it.
- 7
“seeketh not her own” v.5
Is not out for its own interests. Not that love has no interests, but that it stops insisting on them.
- 8
“is not easily provoked” v.5
Does not have a short fuse.
- 9
“thinketh no evil” v.5
Keeps no ledger. The underlying word is an accounting term — love does not enter wrongs in a book to be produced later.
- 10
“Rejoiceth not in iniquity” v.6
Takes no quiet pleasure in wrongdoing, including — especially — someone else's.
- 11
“but rejoiceth in the truth” v.6
Is glad when the truth comes out, even when the truth is inconvenient to it.
- 12
“Beareth all things” v.7
Bears up under whatever it has to. The Greek word can also mean to cover, the way a roof covers what is underneath.
- 13
“believeth all things” v.7
Not credulity. Love's default setting is trust rather than suspicion; it makes someone prove bad faith rather than assuming it.
- 14
“hopeth all things” v.7
Keeps expecting a good outcome for the person, past the point where the evidence has run out.
- 15
“endureth all things” v.7
Stays put. The word is one for holding a position rather than leaving it.
Why the KJV Says “Charity” and Not “Love”
One Greek word, two English ones.The word behind every “charity” in this chapter is agape. The King James translators render it “charity” in twenty-four verses and “love” everywhere else, so “charity never faileth” here and “God is love” in 1 John 4:8 are the same word, not two different ideas.
Where the word came from. “Charity” reached English through the Latin Vulgate’s caritas— a costly regard for another person. Earlier English Bibles, Tyndale’s and the Geneva Bible among them, had simply read “love” in this chapter; the KJV kept the Latin word.
It does not mean almsgiving. Verse 3 settles that by itself: the man there gives away everything he owns to feed the poor and still has no charity. Whatever the word means, it is the thing generosity can be missing.
Why Paul Wrote It
The chapter is read at weddings, but it was written to a church that could hardly sit together. Corinth was split into factions, marked by “envying, and strife, and divisions” (1 Corinthians 3:3), and its members ranked each other by whose spiritual gift was most impressive. Chapters 12 and 14 are both about those gifts; chapter 13 interrupts them. It is not a poem dropped into the letter — it is the answer to the argument, and the verses on either side of it show the join.
Read together, those two lines set the chapter’s terms: love is the “more excellent way,” and it is what you follow after while you use the gifts, not a replacement for them.
Related Verses on Love
Five passages that frame the chapter — what it answers, and where the rest of the New Testament takes it.
The sentence that hands the chapter its subject. Paul has just finished ranking the gifts, then breaks off to show the Corinthians something better.
1 Corinthians 12:31The first line after the chapter closes. Love is not offered instead of the gifts — it is the thing to chase while you use them.
1 Corinthians 14:1The same Greek word the KJV calls “charity” in 1 Corinthians 13, here translated “love,” and here said to be what God is rather than what he does.
1 John 4:8Paul's shorter version of the same point: charity goes on over everything else, and it is what holds the rest together.
Colossians 3:14Jesus makes love the identifying mark of his disciples — the visible test that 1 Corinthians 13 then spells out clause by clause.
John 13:35A verse a day
Verse of the Day (KJV)
One King James verse each day, with a short note on the passage it comes from and a link straight to the full chapter. It changes at midnight.
Read today’s verse →Recommended reading
Study Bibles & devotionals
Everything on this page is free to read. If you want the King James text in print — with notes on chapters like this one, or margins wide enough to write in — these are worth knowing about.
ESV Study Bible
Crossway
Over 20,000 study notes, maps, and articles — the go-to one-volume study Bible for understanding scripture in context.
Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
Tyndale / Zondervan
Notes that connect each passage to everyday life — ideal alongside the topical verses on this page.
Jesus Calling
Sarah Young
A year of short daily devotions written as if Jesus is speaking — a gentle companion to daily scripture reading.
My Utmost for His Highest
Oswald Chambers
The classic daily devotional — 365 readings that have shaped Christian devotion for over a century.
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Keep Exploring
Read the chapter in its argument in 1 Corinthians, gather the rest of the scripture on the subject in our Bible verses about love collection, or take one King James verse a day with the verse of the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the love chapter in the Bible?
The love chapter is 1 Corinthians 13, thirteen verses in Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth. It argues that spiritual gifts — tongues, prophecy, knowledge, even faith that could move mountains — are worth nothing without love; it then defines love in fifteen short clauses (“Charity suffereth long, and is kind…”); and it ends by placing love above faith and hope because faith and hope both end when what they wait for arrives. In the King James Version the word throughout is “charity.”
Why does 1 Corinthians 13 say “charity” instead of “love”?
The Greek word is agape, and the King James Version renders it “charity” in twenty-four verses — including all of 1 Corinthians 13 — and “love” elsewhere, so “charity never faileth” and “God is love” (1 John 4:8) translate the same word. “Charity” reached the KJV through the Latin Vulgate's caritas, which meant costly regard for another person; the narrower modern sense of charity as giving to the needy came later. Verse 3 rules that narrow sense out on its own, since it describes a man who gives away everything he owns and still has no charity. Earlier English Bibles, including Tyndale's and the Geneva Bible, read “love” in this chapter.
What are the characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13?
Verses 4 to 7 give fifteen of them, and almost all are verbs rather than feelings. Love suffers long, is kind, does not envy, does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Eight of the fifteen are stated negatively — things love refuses to do — which is why the passage reads as a description of conduct rather than of emotion.
What does “through a glass, darkly” mean?
In 1 Corinthians 13:12 a “glass” is a mirror, not a window: mirrors in the ancient world were polished metal, so the reflection was real but dim. “Darkly” translates a word meaning in a riddle. Paul's point is that present knowledge of God is indirect rather than false — a genuine image, seen poorly — and that it will one day give way to seeing “face to face.” The verse then reverses the emphasis: “now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Was 1 Corinthians 13 written for weddings?
No. It is read at weddings constantly, but Paul wrote it to a congregation that was quarrelling — a church split into factions (1 Corinthians 1:10), marked by “envying, and strife, and divisions” (1 Corinthians 3:3), and arguing over whose spiritual gift ranked highest. The chapter sits between chapter 12 and chapter 14, both of which are about those gifts. It suits a wedding because it defines love as behaviour rather than feeling, which is what a vow commits to; the original setting only sharpens that, since it was addressed to people who found one another hard work.