Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 13:1

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal." — 1 Corinthians 13:1 (ASV)

Though I speak . . .—The more excellent way is “Love.” Without it, all moral and intellectual gifts are valueless. If there is love—the love of God and the love of our fellow believers—in our hearts, all will be well. This hymn of praise in honour of love is remarkable: first, for coming from St. Paul and not from St. John, from whom we might naturally have expected it; and second, for occurring here in an atmosphere of controversy, preceded and succeeded as it is by close logical argument.

On the first point, we may observe what a striking illustration this is of the completeness of St. Paul’s character. The clear, vigorous intellect and the masculine energy of the great Apostle are united to a heart full of tenderness.

We can almost feel its pulsations, we can almost hear its mighty throbbings, in every line of this poem.

That this passage is found in the middle of a protracted argument suggests that we have here the result of a sudden and direct inspiration. The Apostle had always been conscious of a mighty power working in him, mastering him, and bringing him into captivity to Christ. Suddenly, the realization of what that power is flashed upon him, and he could not but at once give utterance, in language of surpassing loftiness and glowing with emotion, to the new and profound conviction that had set his whole soul aflame.

This chapter is the Baptismal Service of Love; here it receives its new Christian name. The word (agapè) used here for love is peculiar to the New Testament (and a few passages in the LXX (the Septuagint)). It is not found in any pagan writer.

The word “charity,” which can signify either tolerance or almsgiving, is an insufficient rendering of the original. It destroys the force of the passage, especially in 1 Corinthians 13:3, where “almsgiving” without love is pronounced worthless.

The Latin caritas was used as the rendering of agape, probably because the ordinary Latin word amor (love) was considered too indicative of a merely earthly or fleshly affection. Hence, the word “charity” was used in the English version.

Perhaps it was hoped that the word “charity,” when planted in such a soil and with such surroundings, would have grown to have the larger significance to which the original gives expression.

If so, the experiment has not succeeded; the word has not become acclimatised to this chapter.

The word “love” should be restored here. The rare purity of its surrounding atmosphere will completely deprive it of any earthly or sensual taint.

This chapter, occupied with the one main thought, divides itself into three parts—

1. 1 Corinthians 13:1–3: The greatest gifts are valueless without LOVE.
2. 1 Corinthians 13:4–7: The pre-eminent characteristics of LOVE.
3. 1 Corinthians 13:8–13: Gifts are transient; virtues are eternal, and chief of them is LOVE.

Tongues of men and of angels.—The gift of tongues (see Notes on 1 Corinthians 14) is placed first as that most overestimated at Corinth. It is useless without love.

It would be impossible to define love, just as it is impossible to define life. However, the best conception of what St. Paul means by love can be found in the description he subsequently gave.

Stanley, contrasting the meaning of the word used by St. Paul with the various words for love in other literature, remarks: “While the ‘love’ of the New Testament retains all the fervour of the Hebrew ‘aspiration’ and ‘desire,’ and of the ‘personal affection’ of the Greek, it ranges through as wide a sphere as the comprehensive ‘benevolence’ of Alexandria. Whilst it retains the religious element that raised the affections of the Hebrew Psalmist to the presence of God, it agrees with the classical and Alexandrian feelings in making its chief object the welfare of man. It is not religion evaporated into benevolence, but benevolence taken up into religion. It is the practical exemplification of the two great characteristics of Christianity, the union of God with man, the union of religion with morality; love to man for the sake of love to God, love to God showing itself in love to man.”

As sounding brass.—Not a brass trumpet or instrument of any kind, but simply a piece of metal that, when struck, will merely produce noise.

A tinkling cymbal.—Better, a clanging cymbal. This instrument can by itself produce no intelligible tune .