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.
Tongue (Gk. γλῶσσα, glossa). (13:1; Luke 1:64; Acts 2:3, 4; Rom 3:13; 1 Cor 14:39; Jas 1:26; 1 John 3:18) Strong’s 1100
This word can refer to the organ of the tongue, a distinct language, and in the case of 1 Corinthians 14, a language that requires interpretation. All three of these uses can be found in the NT. In 1 Cor 13:1, many take the reference as to ecstatic language, yet this misunderstands Paul’s argument. Here he is clearly using hyperbole to show the extreme importance and superiority of love. No matter how impressive one seems, even if one could speak an angelic language, without love it is nothing. So, the meaning here is of a distinct “language.” In reference to the “tongues” of 1 Cor 14, Paul indicates that the language may be one that is not known to those listening (such as in Acts 2), or perhaps even the one speaking, and so would require another’s ability to translate the “tongue speaker” by the power of the Spirit of God.