1 Corinthians 13 - Introduction

The surpassing beauty of this chapter has been felt and expressed wherever it has been read, by persons of the most opposite religious views, and by those who can appreciate only its literary qualities. In the Chapter s that go before it there is eloquence too, but of a very different kind keen, impassioned, vehement; the next chapter but one also rises to the height of sublimity; but here all is serene. The opening verses are a grand introduction to what follows, sweeping away as worthless the very best things which want the cardinal principle of love. This is then defined by no fewer than fifteen characteristics eight negative, and seven positive. The terse precision and wonderful completeness of these strike every discerning reader; while the periods roll on in rhythmic melody, to the end of the chapter, like a strain of richest music dying away, or a golden sunset; and everything is seen out save Love, which is found standing alone as the enduring life of heaven. No other grace of the Christian character is so celebrated in Scripture. The first of the graces, certainly, is humility; as for faiths it is the saving grace, by which the soul passes from death to life; while in the grace of hope lies the spring of all activity; but it is Love alone which is so sung of as here. The chapter naturally falls asunder into three parts: first, the worthlessness of all gifts and all sacrifices, even that of life itself, in the absence of Love (1-3); next, the characteristics of Love (4-7); lastly, the perpetuity of Love.

The word “charity,” which our Authorised Version uses for the grace here described, is simply the Latin word caritas, which the Vulgate did well to employ instead of the corresponding word amor (= Ἔ ρως), a word which then suggested to Christians a corrupt sense of ‘Love.' Wiclif who translated the New Testament not from the original Greek but from the Vulgate Latin naturally converted caritas simply into its English form, “charity;” and in this, as was to be expected, he was followed by the Rhemish translators. But since this word had become associated with misleading ideas, Tyndale did well to depart from it, substituting the Saxon word “love.” In this he was followed by the version that goes under the name of Cranmer, and by the Genevan Version. That the Authorised Version went back to “charity,” is, we think, to be regretted. It is a beautiful word, and it has its own uses, for which no other word would suffice; and such is its musical roll, as one uses it in the reading of this chapter, that it will not be surrendered without a grudge. But while it is most desirable that the modern sense which is largely attached to it should be banished from the mind, as applicable here, it will gradually be seen that Tyndale's noble word “love,” while expressing all that is here celebrated, reads quite as well.