New Testament · Epistle
1 Corinthians 13:4
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- The Lord Will Editorial Team
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- New Testament
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Quick Answer
Paul opens his definition of love not with sentiment but with two verb-based qualities — patient endurance and active kindness — before cataloguing five things love refuses to do, framing love fundamentally as a disciplined choice rather than a feeling.
What Does 1 Corinthians 13:4 Mean?
1 Corinthians 13:4 is the opening clause of what scholars call the 'love hymn,' but the language is far from soft. Paul uses verbs, not adjectives, to describe love: love 'is patient' (makrothumei) and love 'is kind' (chrēsteuetai) — both present-tense verbs indicating ongoing action. Love is something love does.
The negative catalogue that follows — love does not envy (zēloō), does not boast (perpereuomai), is not arrogant (phusioō) — is pointed in context. The Corinthian church was fracturing over spiritual gifts, social status, and party loyalty. Envy, boasting, and arrogance were not abstract vices; they were the specific sins dividing Paul's most gifted and most troubled congregation.
The word 'patient' (makrothumia) means literally 'long-tempered' — the capacity to hold one's anger long, to absorb provocation without retaliation. 'Kind' (chrēstotēs) describes active, practical goodness toward others. Together they frame love as simultaneously absorptive and generative: it takes in offense without retaliating, and gives out goodness without condition. This is not romantic love — it is covenantal, costly, and deeply countercultural.
Historical & Literary Context
1 Corinthians was written around 54–55 AD to a church in the cosmopolitan port city of Corinth, one of the most stratified, commercially competitive, and religiously diverse cities in the Roman Empire. Paul had founded the church, but by the time he writes, it has fractured along multiple lines: intellectual factions ('I follow Paul / Apollos / Cephas / Christ'), lawsuits between members, sexual immorality, disputes over idol meat, and — the immediate context — a fierce competition over spiritual gifts.
Chapters 12–14 form a unit on spiritual gifts. Chapter 12 establishes the diversity and unity of gifts within one body. Chapter 14 gives practical regulation of tongues and prophecy. Chapter 13 interrupts this as a hymnic centerpiece, arguing that any gift exercised without love is worthless — a noisy gong, a resounding cymbal (v. 1).
Paul's definition of love in verse 4 is therefore not abstract ethical reflection but a direct mirror held up to the Corinthians' known failures. Every vice he lists — envy, boasting, arrogance — was visible in their community.
Devotional Reflection
It is easy to read this verse as a checklist and conclude you are doing tolerably well until you hold each quality against a specific relationship — the colleague who got the promotion, the friend whose success stings, the family member whose opinions make you bristle. Then the verse stops being poetry and starts being surgery.
Paul's genius is that he defines love by what it does under pressure. Patience is not passive; it is the active refusal to retaliate when you have every right to. Kindness is not niceness; it is practical goodness toward someone who may not deserve it. Love, in Paul's hands, is not a feeling you wait to have — it is a decision you make, sustained by the Spirit who is himself love.
Prayer
Father, I confess that what I call love is often conditional. I am patient when it costs little and kind when it is returned. Transform my love from reaction to intention. By Your Spirit, make me long-tempered where I am short-fused, and generous where I am withholding. Amen.
Life Application
- 1
Choose one relationship where envy, boasting, or arrogance has been active — even subtly. Write down one specific way love would behave differently in that relationship this week. The abstract virtue becomes real only when it is assigned to an actual person and situation.
- 2
Practice 'makrothumia' by identifying your shortest fuses — the situations where patience collapses fastest. For the next seven days, treat those moments as training opportunities rather than failures, and ask before responding: 'What would love do here, not what do I feel like doing?'
- 3
Notice when you lead conversations with your own achievements, opinions, or needs before asking about the other person. Boasting and arrogance are often subtle. Experiment with one full conversation this week where you begin with a question and hold your own contributions until the other person feels genuinely heard.
Study Tools
Key Words in the Original Language
From makros (long) + thumos (anger, passion) — literally 'long-tempered.' It describes the capacity to endure provocation, injury, or delay without retaliation. In the LXX it often describes God's patience toward sinners. Paul applies it to inter-human love.
From chrēstos (useful, good, gracious). This is the only occurrence of chrēsteuomai in the New Testament. It describes active practical goodness — not merely warm feeling but benevolent action toward others. Related to the word Paul uses for God's kindness in Romans 2:4.
From zēlos — zeal that has curdled into resentment at another's good fortune. The root is neutral (godly zeal, 2 Cor. 11:2) but here denotes the destructive coveting of another's gifts, status, or success — a precise diagnosis of Corinthian gift-competition.
From phusioō — to puff up, to inflate. Used six times in 1 Corinthians (more than anywhere else in the NT), always negatively. It describes the self-inflation of pride — knowledge that puffs up rather than builds up (8:1). The Corinthians' spiritual pride is the bull's-eye this word hits.
Sermon Seed
“What Love Does”
- Love Acts: 'is patient and kind' — Paul uses verbs, not adjectives; love is defined by what it does, not what it feels, which means love is a practice available to everyone regardless of emotional state
- Love Refuses: 'does not envy or boast; is not arrogant' — love is also defined by what it will not do; the five negatives are not arbitrary but a precise autopsy of the Corinthians' sins
- Love Transforms: because love is a verb, it can be learned; the same Spirit who is love (Gal. 5:22) enables patient, kind, non-envious living as a daily supernatural gift
Cross References
- John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
- 1 John 4:8
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
- Romans 8:38
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,”
- 1 John 4:19
“We love him, because he first loved us.”
- John 15:13
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Related Verses
- 1 Corinthians 13:13
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. ”
- 1 Peter 4:8
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:1
“Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”
- 1 Corinthians 13:1
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
- 1 Corinthians 13:2
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”
Related Topics
How to Apply 1 Corinthians 13:4
Pray through 1 Corinthians 13:4 slowly, pausing at each phrase. Journal what God highlights regarding on the theme of Charity: Love in Action. Commit to one concrete application over the next seven days, and revisit your notes at the end of the week to see how your perspective has shifted through the lens of this passage.