📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 13:3
What does 1 Corinthians 13:3 mean?
"If 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."
— 1 Corinthians 13:3 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
If 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.
If 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.
Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
Explanation
Paul writes here that even the most extreme acts of generosity and self-sacrifice are worthless if they are not motivated by love. Giving away all one's possessions to feed the poor and surrendering one's own body to be burned represent the outer limits of human sacrifice — total material generosity and total physical martyrdom. Yet Paul insists that even these ultimate acts, if performed without love, profit the giver nothing at all.
This verse comes from Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, a congregation he had founded but which was troubled by division, pride, and competition over spiritual gifts. The Corinthians valued impressive displays — eloquent speech, prophetic insight, dramatic acts of faith — and ranked believers according to these outward signs. In chapter 13, often called the "love chapter," Paul interrupts his discussion of spiritual gifts (which spans chapters 12 and 14) to insist that none of these gifts or achievements mean anything without love. Verses 1-3 build a rhetorical crescendo: speaking in tongues of men and angels, having prophetic powers and understanding all mysteries and knowledge, having faith to move mountains, giving away all possessions, and even surrendering one's body to death — all are declared empty without love.
Theologically, this verse teaches that love is not merely one virtue among many but the essential quality that gives moral and spiritual value to every other action. Paul is not condemning generosity or sacrifice themselves; he is exposing the possibility that such acts can be done for the wrong reasons — for self-
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