📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 13:4
What does 1 Corinthians 13:4 mean?
"Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,"
— 1 Corinthians 13:4 (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;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Explanation
1 Corinthians 13:4 opens Paul's famous description of love by listing what love does and does not do. In plain language, the verse says that love is patient—it endures difficulty and delay without losing its temper or giving up on people. It is kind—actively good and gentle toward others. Then Paul turns to the negative side: love does not envy, meaning it does not resent what others have or covet their blessings, gifts, or success. It does not brag, meaning it doesn't boast about itself or seek to draw attention to its own achievements. And it is not proud (sometimes translated "puffed up" or "arrogant"), meaning it doesn't inflate itself with a sense of superiority over others.
To understand this verse well, it helps to know its context. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to the church in Corinth, a congregation he had founded but which was struggling with deep internal division. Members were quarreling over which leaders to follow, competing over spiritual gifts (especially the more dramatic ones like speaking in tongues), and generally treating the Christian life as a contest for status and recognition. Chapter 13 sits right between two chapters about spiritual gifts (12 and 14), and its purpose is to correct the Corinthians' priorities. Paul is essentially telling them that no matter how impressive their gifts are, if they lack love, they have missed the point entirely. Verse 4 begins his answer to the question: what does real love actually look like in practice, as opposed to the competitive, self-promoting behavior they were exhibiting?
Theologically, this verse matters
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