1Co 13:1
13:1 Though {1} I speak with the tongues of men and of {a}
     angels, and have not charity, I am become [as] sounding
     brass, or a {b} tinkling cymbal.

 (1) He reasons first of charity, the excellency of which he
     first shows by this, that without it, all other gifts are
     as nothing before God.  And this he proves partly by an
     induction, and partly also by an argument taken of the end,
     for what reason those gifts are given.  For, to what
     purpose are those gifts but to God's glory, and the profit
     of the Church as is before proved?  So that those gifts,
     without charity, have no right use.
     (a) A very earnest amplifying of the matter, as if he
         said, "If there were any tongues of angels, and I had
         them, and did not use them to the benefit of my
         neighbour, it would be nothing else except a vain and
         prattling type of babbling."
     (b) That gives a rude and uncertain sound.

1Co 13:2
13:2 And though I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand
     all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all {c}
     faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not
     charity, I am nothing.

     (c) By "faith" he means the gift of doing miracles, and not
         that faith which justifies, which cannot be void of
         charity as the other may.

1Co 13:4
13:4 {2} Charity {d} suffereth long, [and] is kind; charity
     envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

 (2) He describes the force and nature of charity, partly by a
     comparison of opposites, and partly by the effects of
     charity itself.  And by this the Corinthians may understand
     both how profitable it is in the church, and how necessary:
     and also how far they are from it, and therefore how vainly
     and without cause they are proud.
     (d) Literally, "defers wrath".

1Co 13:5
13:5 Doth {e} not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own,
     is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

     (e) It is not insolent, or reproachful.

1Co 13:6
13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but {f} rejoiceth in the truth;

     (f) Rejoices at righteousness in the righteous.  For by
         "truth" the Hebrews mean "righteousness".

1Co 13:8
13:8 {3} Charity never faileth: but whether [there be]
     prophecies, they shall fail; whether [there be] tongues,
     they shall cease; whether [there be] {g} knowledge, it
     shall vanish away.

 (3) Again he commends the excellency of charity, in that it
     will never be abolished in the saints, whereas the other
     gifts which are necessary for the building up of the
     church, so long as we live here, will have no place in the
     world to come.
     (g) The getting of knowledge by prophesying.

1Co 13:9
13:9 {4} For we know in {h} part, and we prophesy in part.

 (4) The reason: because we are now in the state that we have
     need to learn daily, and therefore we have need of those
     helps, that is, of the gift of tongues, and knowledge, and
     also of those that teach by them.  But to what purpose
     serve they then, when we have obtained and gotten the full
     knowledge of God, which serve now but for those who are
     imperfect and go by degrees to perfection?
     (h) We learn imperfectly.

1Co 13:11
13:11 {5} When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood
      as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man,
      I put away childish things.

 (5) He sets forth that which he said by an excellent
     similitude, comparing this life to our infancy, or
     childhood, in which we mutter and stammer rather than
     speak, and think and understand childish things, and
     therefore have need of such things as may form and frame
     our tongue and mind.  But when we become men, to what
     purpose should we desire that stammering, those childish
     toys, and such like things, by which we are formed in our
     childhood by little and little?

1Co 13:12
13:12 {6} For {i} now we see through a glass, darkly; but then
      face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know
      even as also I am known.

 (6) The applying of the similitude of our childhood to this
     present life, in which we darkly behold heavenly things,
     according to the small measure of light which is given to
     us, through the understanding of tongues, and hearing the
     teachers and ministers of the Church.   And our man's age
     and strength is compared to that heavenly and eternal life,
     in which when we behold God himself present, and are
     enlightened with his full and perfect light, to what
     purpose would we desire the voice of man, and those worldly
     things which are most imperfect?  But yet then all the
     saints will be knit both with God, and between themselves
     with most fervent love.  And therefore charity will not be
     abolished, but perfected, although it will not be shown
     forth and entertained by such manner of duties as
     belong only and especially to the infirmity of this life.
     (i) All this must be understood by comparison.

1Co 13:13
13:13 {7} And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but
      the greatest of these [is] charity.

 (7) The conclusion: as if the apostle should say, "Such
     therefore will be our condition then: but now we have three
     things, and they remain sure if we are Christ's, without
     which, true religion cannot consist, that is, faith, hope,
     and charity.  And among these, charity is the chiefest
     because it ceases not in the life to come as the rest do,
     but is perfected and accomplished.  For seeing that faith
     and hope tend to things which are promised and are to come,
     when we have presently gotten them, to what purpose would
     we have faith and hope?  But yet there at length we will
     truly and perfectly love both God and one another."