1 Corinthians 13:13: why charity is called the greatest of the three
13But for now, these three continue: faith, hope, and charity. And the greatest of these is charity.
The verb is continue. The contrast is not between good virtues and better ones, but between what stops existing and what carries through.
Short answer
1 Corinthians 13:13 closes the chapter by saying faith, hope and charity continue, and that charity is the greatest. The criterion is duration: the chapter has just listed gifts that stop. It is not a ranking of virtues but a question about what is left at the end.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 2 min read
Chapter 13 is read at almost every wedding, and the reading works — but it came out of a different situation. Paul is writing to a church in conflict, split by comparisons of spiritual gifts, and the text is a correction of that quarrel.
That changes the tone of everything. The descriptions in the middle of the chapter are not wedding vows; they are a list of what was missing among people who were measuring themselves against each other in the same community.
Where this verse appears
Chapters 12 to 14 deal with spiritual gifts in Corinth: who speaks in tongues, who prophesies, who thinks they matter more. Chapter 13 is wedged into the middle of that argument.
A few verses earlier Paul says prophecies and tongues will cease and that present knowledge is partial, like an image seen in a mirror. This verse is the conclusion of that sequence.
What it says
The verb is continue, and it organises the sentence. The contrast is not between good things and better things: it is between what ends when the partial ends, and what crosses over to the other side.
That is why the superlative at the close takes nothing away from faith and hope. It answers a question about duration. Faith and hope point at something not yet seen; once it is seen, the pointing has done its job — and love has not.
A note on the word. This edition says charity, which in English can drift toward almsgiving. Here it names exactly what Paul described a few lines above, and that description is made entirely of behaviour. Quoting only the closing line turns into abstract praise what he had just spelled out as conduct.
What to do with it today
If you are using this verse at a wedding, use it whole and read the part above it too. The final line is beautiful; the earlier ones say what it costs, and that is the part a couple actually needs to hear.
Outside a wedding it belongs to community conflict, which is where it was born. When a group starts dividing over who is more capable, this verse hands back the criterion: which of all this will still exist in fifty years?
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, I have been spending energy on what is going to end. Make my love outlast my need to be right, and outlast my habit of measuring myself against other people. Amen.