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1 Corinthians 13:4-7

哥林多前书 13:4-7

The Passage

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.

In the other language

爱是恒久忍耐，又有恩慈；爱是不嫉妒；爱是不自夸，不张狂，不做害羞的事，不求自己的益处，不轻易发怒，不计算人的恶，不喜欢不义，只喜欢真理；凡事包容，凡事相信，凡事盼望，凡事忍耐。

Theme

Love is patient

Bring a question to this passage

Many readers arrive here from a real question. These are reflections for how this passage speaks to the questions people bring most often — not an answer about what will happen, but an invitation to sit with it slowly.

How do I face this season of pressure at work?

Pressure often narrows your attention to what is late, unfair, or outside your control. This passage does not explain how to manage a demanding workload, but it gives love a recognizable shape: patience, kindness, truthfulness, and freedom from keeping score. Those qualities are not a demand to accept mistreatment or pretend that everything is fine. Love rejoices with the truth. You can acknowledge what is difficult while noticing whether resentment has begun to shape every conversation. For a moment, you might consider one person at work without reducing them to the trouble between you. This passage does not explain how to manage your workload. What if its picture of love gave you room to be both honest about the pressure and kind toward someone at work?

Carry thisLove makes room for patience without letting go of truth.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 41:10 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

I want to learn to love better in this relationship.

Paul describes love through the way it treats another person, not through the strength of a feeling. Patience, kindness, and truth give you something concrete to notice in this relationship. You might care deeply and still interrupt, keep score, or insist on having your own way. The passage invites honest attention to those habits without making shame the starting point. Its endurance is joined to truth and a refusal to rejoice in wrongdoing; loving better does not mean pretending harm is harmless. You can begin with one ordinary encounter rather than trying to change everything at once. Which quality of love needs more room in your next conversation?

Carry thisLove takes shape in patience, kindness, and honest attention.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 41:10 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

What do I need to let go of in the coming weeks?

Love is described here through ordinary habits: patience, kindness, humility, and a willingness not to keep a record of wrongs. The passage does not name what you must release in the coming weeks, but it offers a way to examine what you are holding. Envy, the need to have your own way, or an old tally of grievances can take up space that love needs. Letting go does not mean pretending harm was harmless; love rejoices with the truth. You can acknowledge what happened without making resentment the center of your attention. This passage does not name what you must release in the coming weeks. Which habit might you begin to loosen so that patience, kindness, and truth have more room in your relationships?

Carry thisLove leaves room for kindness without giving up the truth.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 41:10 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

How can I find stillness in a busy life?

Love moves at a different pace from urgency: it is patient, kind, and not intent on getting its own way. This passage does not directly teach a practice of stillness, but it names qualities you can make room for within a crowded day. You may not be able to quiet every demand, yet you can pause before answering, notice envy without feeding it, or let kindness shape a hurried exchange. Patience is not the absence of responsibility. It is a way of carrying responsibility without making every interruption an enemy. This passage does not offer a practice of stillness. What if you made room for its patience and kindness in one hurried exchange today?

Carry thisPatience gives love room within a crowded day.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 41:10 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

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1 Corinthians 13 — in context

1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

2If 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.

3If I dole out 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.

4Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,

5doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;

6doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;

10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.

11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.

12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

13But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

More from 1 Corinthians

Related topics

Relationships and Family

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