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1 Corinthians 13

The love chapter

mid-first century CE (composition dating debated) · addressed to a community in Corinth, Greece

The thirteenth chapter of the First Letter to the Corinthians is an early Christian meditation on love. It is not a speech of Jesus. It belongs to a letter attributed to Paul—an early apostle, meaning a messenger sent to found and guide communities—written to a fractious church in the Greek city of Corinth in the mid-first century.

The passage is often called the “love chapter” because it describes agape: a Greek word used here for self-giving love, not merely warm feeling or romance. If I speak with the tongues of people and of angels, Paul writes, but do not have this love, I am a noisy gong. Love is patient and kind; it is not envious, boastful, or self-seeking; it bears, believes, hopes, and endures. Spiritual gifts, the letter says, will pass; love remains.

Later Christian tradition often reads this description as naming the love Jesus taught—mercy, neighbor, even enemy. That is a traditional reading, not a claim that Jesus composed the chapter. Agape here is also not Buddhist karuna, the wish that suffering ease, and not Sufi ishq, the passionate longing for God as Beloved. The English word love covers all three; the frameworks do not.

Words used here

Plain meanings for words on this page.

  • agape

    A Greek word used in early Christian texts for self-giving love—charity, goodwill, willing another's good even at cost to oneself. It is not the same as romantic desire or warm feeling alone.

    A little deeper

    Agape names a quality of love praised in passages such as 1 Corinthians 13: patient, not envious, not self-seeking. Christian tradition often contrasts it with possessive or merely sentimental forms of love.

Featured connections

Where 1 Corinthians 13 meets other voices

1 Corinthians 13Love

shared concept

Agape described

This chapter is one of the clearest early Christian attempts to say what love is: patient, not envious, not self-seeking—and still there when spiritual display fades.

1 Corinthians 13Paul

historical relationship

The letter-writer and the love chapter

First Corinthians 13 belongs to a letter attributed to Paul. It is not a speech of Jesus. Reading the chapter beside the person keeps the attribution honest.

1 Corinthians 13Sermon on the Mount

later interpretation

A later hymn beside Jesus’ teaching

Both place self-giving care—toward neighbor, even toward enemy—near the center of religious life.

Christian readers often hear Paul’s description of agape as naming the love Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. That pairing is traditional; the chapter remains a letter from an early apostle, not a discourse of Jesus.

Where they differ

Matthew presents Jesus teaching on a mountain. 1 Corinthians 13 is Paul’s counsel to a divided church about gifts and love. Same later tradition; different speakers, genres, and occasions.

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Sources

What this reading rests on

  • 1 Corinthians 13

    Early Christian tradition (Pauline letter) · first century CE (composition dating debated)

    primary text

    Primary early Christian text describing agape as patient, self-giving love.

    Citation

    First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13; often called the “love chapter” for its description of agape.

    Primary