Verses often taken out of context or misused: 1 Corinthians 13:4–7
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 [4] Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant [5] or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. [7] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (ESV)
This passage isn’t one that particularly gets misused, but it isn’t used broad enough by most. It is the go-to passage in weddings and marriage advice (which is all wonderful). But Paul is not writing this directly addressing married couples. Also, note that he uses the Greek “agape” version of the word love. The book context is that it is written to the church in Corinth. And the immediate context in the prior chapter 12 and the following chapter 14 are both about working together as a church body and respecting each other’s various gifts. My challenge in looking at this verse is to ask ourselves. Are we applying this picture of love to all people or only reserving it for those closest to us?
This is a great explanation of agape love from Dr. Alan Redpath: Agape is a love that loves without changing. It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting repayment. It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given. It gives because it loves; it does not love to receive. The word has little to do with emotion; it has much to do with self-denial for the sake of another.
Look at the context (be sure to read chapter 12&14 too):
1 Corinthians 13 [1] If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. [4] Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant [5] or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. [7] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [8] Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10] but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. [11] When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. [12] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. [13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (ESV)
