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, and endures all things.
Caritas patiens est, benigna est. Caritas non æmulatur, non agit perperam, non inflatur, non est ambitiosa, non quærit quæ sua sunt, non irritatur, non cogitat malum, non gaudet super iniquitate, congaudet autem veritati: omnia suffert, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia sustinet.1 ad Corinthios 13:4–7 · Clementine Vulgate
Explanation — not a translation
In brief
Paul lists what love does and does not do: it is patient and kind; it does not envy, boast, insist on its own way or keep a record of wrongs; it bears, believes, hopes and endures all things.
The setting
Corinth was a wealthy, competitive city, and the church there had divided into factions (1 Corinthians 1:10-12). In chapters 12–14 Paul addresses a particular rivalry: some members prized dramatic spiritual gifts, such as speaking in tongues, as signs of status. Chapter 13 interrupts that discussion to say that without love, the most impressive gifts are worthless.
If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. If 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. If I give away 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.
Si linguis hominum loquar, et angelorum, caritatem autem non habeam, factus sum velut æs sonans, aut cymbalum tinniens. Et si habuero prophetiam, et noverim mysteria omnia, et omnem scientiam: et si habuero omnem fidem ita ut montes transferam, caritatem autem non habuero, nihil sum. Et si distribuero in cibos pauperum omnes facultates meas, et si tradidero corpus meum ita ut ardeam, caritatem autem non habuero, nihil mihi prodest.1 ad Corinthios 13:1–3 · Clementine Vulgate
Tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, even self-sacrifice — nothing without love.
Reading the list
Almost every item in verses 4–7 corrects something Paul has criticized earlier in the letter: envy and boasting (3:3; 4:7), arrogance (5:2), insisting on one’s rights (6:7; 8:9), keeping score. The portrait of love is also a portrait of a healed community.
The word is agapē, love as committed goodwill rather than attraction alone. Many readers have noticed that the description fits Jesus Himself, and some suggest reading it with His name in place of “love.”
Weddings and beyond
The passage is entirely appropriate at weddings: marriage is one of the places where patience and keeping no record of wrongs are tested daily. But it was written to a congregation, and it asks the same of friends, families and churches.
But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
Nunc autem manent fides, spes, caritas, tria hæc: major autem horum est caritas.1 ad Corinthios 13:13 · Clementine Vulgate
Faith, hope and love remain — “the greatest of these is love.”
The Love page gathers related passages.