1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2If 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. 3If 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.
4Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, 5doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; 6doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
8Love 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. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 11When 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. 12For 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. 13But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
Paul’s discussion progressively narrows from the full field of spiritual matters to the proper purpose of tongues.
| Passage | Scope | Point made by the transition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Cor 12:1 | Pneumatika — spiritual matters | Introduces the subject. |
| 1 Cor 12:3 | Charismata — gifts | Shows diversity. |
| 1 Cor 12:28 | Nine gifts | Shows the superiority of the fruit of the Spirit. |
| 1 Cor 13:8 | Five gifts | Shows the temporary nature of gifts. |
| 1 Cor 14:5 | Three gifts | Shows the value of body gifts over sign gifts. |
| 1 Cor 14:22 | Two gifts | Shows the purpose of tongues. |
| Conclusion | One gift | The discussion reaches its purpose. |