Though (1) I speak with the tongues of men and of (a) angels, and have not charity, I am become [as] sounding brass, or a (b) tinkling cymbal. (1) He reasons first of charity, the excellency of which he first shows by this, that without it, all other gifts are as nothing before God. And this he pro... [ Continue Reading ]
And though I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all (c) faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (c) By "faith" he means the gift of doing miracles, and not that faith which justifies, which cannot be v... [ Continue Reading ]
(2) Charity (d) suffereth long, [and] is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, (2) He describes the force and nature of charity, partly by a comparison of opposites, and partly by the effects of charity itself. And by this the Corinthians may understand both how... [ Continue Reading ]
Doth (e) not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; (e) It is not insolent, or reproachful.... [ Continue Reading ]
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but (f) rejoiceth in the truth; (f) Rejoices at righteousness in the righteous. For by "truth" the Hebrews mean "righteousness".... [ Continue Reading ]
(3) Charity never faileth: but whether [there be] prophecies, they shall fail; whether [there be] tongues, they shall cease; whether [there be] (g) knowledge, it shall vanish away. (3) Again he commends the excellency of charity, in that it will never be abolished in the saints, whereas the other g... [ Continue Reading ]
(4) For we know in (h) part, and we prophesy in part. (4) The reason: because we are now in the state that we have need to learn daily, and therefore we have need of those helps, that is, of the gift of tongues, and knowledge, and also of those that teach by them. But to what purpose serve they the... [ Continue Reading ]
(5) 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. (5) He sets forth that which he said by an excellent similitude, comparing this life to our infancy, or childhood, in which we mutter and stammer rather th... [ Continue Reading ]
(6) For (i) 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. (6) The applying of the similitude of our childhood to this present life, in which we darkly behold heavenly things, according to the small measure of light whic... [ Continue Reading ]
(7) And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity. (7) The conclusion: as if the apostle should say, "Such therefore will be our condition then: but now we have three things, and they remain sure if we are Christ's, without which, true religion cannot con... [ Continue Reading ]