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Faith, Hope and Charity
One passage. Several ways in.
1 Corinthians 13:4-13 · KJV
Eight words from the chapter Paul ends with faith, hope and charity — and says which is greatest.
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A closer reading
What love is not
Count them as you read: of the fifteen things Paul says about charity, most are negatives. It envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Love is described mostly by what it declines to do.
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;”
1 Corinthians 13:4-6 · KJVFour things it does to everything
Verse 7 is the turn: beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. The same phrase four times over — no exceptions are offered anywhere in the sentence.
“Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:7 · KJVThe three that remain
Paul lists what will stop: prophecies fail, tongues cease, knowledge vanishes. Then three that do not. Read verse 13 as the end of an argument about which gifts matter, and it reads less like a wedding text and more like a verdict.
“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. 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. 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. 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. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
1 Corinthians 13:8-13 · KJV
About the love chapter
The chapter is read at weddings, which slightly disguises what it is doing. Paul is in the middle of an argument with a church about spiritual gifts and who ranks where, and he interrupts it to say that the most impressive gift in the room is worth nothing without love. What follows is not a definition of love but a list of its behaviour — fifteen verbs, most of them about what it does not do.
“Charity” is the King James Version's word for it, from the Latin caritas, and in 1611 it carried none of the modern sense of donating to a good cause. It means love of the self-giving kind. Most translations since have used “love,” which is the same word under a plainer coat.
The chapter ends by cutting the list down to three. Prophecy fails, tongues cease, knowledge vanishes away — “and now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” Three survive, and one of them outlasts even the other two.
Written and checked against the King James text by Random Bible. Last reviewed September 17, 2026.
Faith, Hope and Charity: common questions
Why does the King James Version say “charity” instead of “love”?
“Charity” comes from the Latin caritas and in 1611 meant self-giving love, with no sense of almsgiving attached. Later translations use “love” because the English word charity narrowed over the centuries.
What does 1 Corinthians 13:13 say?
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
What is 1 Corinthians 13 actually about?
It sits inside Paul's argument to the Corinthian church about spiritual gifts. His point is that the gifts they were ranking each other by are worth nothing without love — which is why the chapter opens with tongues, prophecy and faith being reduced to nothing.
Can I print this word search?
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