And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
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EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(13) And now abideth . . .—Better, Thus there abide . . . The “now” is not here temporal, but logical. It is not “now” (i.e., this present life) contrasted with the future, but it is the conclusion of the whole argument. From all that has been urged in the previous verses it follows that these three graces—faith, hope, love—remain imperishable and immortal. Gifts such as the Corinthian Church rejoiced in shall pass away when the perfect succeeds the imperfect; the graces of faith, hope, love shall remain in the next life, exalted and purified. But even in this trinity of graces there is an order, and love stands first. The contrast is not between love which is imperishable and faith and hope which are perishable, but between ephemeral gifts and enduring graces. It is strange how completely in popular thinking this has been lost sight of, and hence we find such words as these—
“Faith will vanish into sight,
Hope be emptied in delight,
Love in heaven will shine more bright,
Therefore give us love;”
which express almost the opposite of what the Apostle really wrote.
There need be no difficulty in understanding that “faith,” in the sense of trust in Christ as our Saviour, may continue in the heavenly state; indeed, when we see Him face to face, and see actually how great a salvation He hath obtained for us, that faith may’ be expected to glow with a new and increasing fervour Hope, too, need never cease if that new life is to be progressive. If hope lives by feeding on the present as the promise of the future, surely it will have a more abundant sustenance in that life than in this. Yet love stands supreme; indeed, both faith and hope would perish without her. (See Matthew 26:35; Galatians 5:6.)
MacLaren's Expositions Benson Commentary Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary Barnes' Notes on the Bible Most commentators have supposed that Paul is speaking here only of this life, and that he means to say that in this life these three exist; that "faith, hope, and charity exist in this scene "only," but that in the future world faith and hope will be done away, and therefore the greatest of these is charity" - Bloomfield. See also Doddridge, Macknight, Rosenmuller, Clarke, etc. But to me it seems evident that Paul means to say that faith, hope, and love will survive "all" those other things of which he had been speaking; that "they" would vanish away, or be lost in superior attainments and endowments; that the time would come when they would be useless; but that faith, hope, and love would then remain; but of "these," for important reasons, love was the most valuable. Not because it would "endure" the longest, for the apostle does not intimate that, but because it is more important to the welfare of others, and is a more eminent virtue than they are. As the strain of the argument requires us to look to another state, to a world where prophecy shall cease and knowledge shall vanish away, so the same strain of argumentation requires us to understand him as saying that faith, and hope, and love will subsist there; and that there, as here, love will be of more importance than faith and hope. It cannot be objected to this view that there will be no occasion for faith and hope in heaven. That is assumed without evidence, and is not affirmed by Paul. He gives no such intimation. Faith is "confidence" in God and in Christ; and there will be as much necessity of "confidence" in heaven as on earth. Indeed, the great design of the plan of salvation is to restore "confidence" in God among alienated creatures; and heaven could not subsist a moment without "confidence;" and faith, therefore, must be eternal. No society - be it a family, a neighborhood, a church, or a nation; be it mercantile, professional, or a mere association of friendship - can subsist a moment without mutual "confidence" or faith, and in heaven such confidence in God must subsist forever. And so of hope. It is true that many of the objects of hope will then be realized, and will be succeeded by possession. But will the Christian have nothing to hope for in heaven? Will it be nothing to expect and desire greatly augmented knowledge, eternal enjoyment; perfect peace in all coming ages, and the happy society of the blessed forever? All heaven cannot be enjoyed at once; and if there is anything "future" that is an object of desire, there will be hope. Hope is a compound emotion, made up of a "desire" for an object and an "expectation" of obtaining it. But both these will exist in heaven. It is folly to say that a redeemed saint will not "desire" there eternal happiness; it is equal folly to say that there will be no strong expectation of obtaining it. All that is said, therefore, about faith as about to cease, and hope as not having an existence in heaven, is said without the authority of the Bible, and in violation of what must be the truth, and is contrary to the whole scope of the reasoning of Paul here. But the greatest of these is charity - Not because it is to "endure" the longest, but because it is the more important virtue; it exerts a wider influence; it is more necessary to the happiness of society; it overcomes more evils. It is the great principle which is to bind the universe in harmony, which unites God to his creatures, and his creatures to himself, and which binds and confederates all holy beings with each other. It is therefore more important, because it pertains to society to the great kingdom of which God is the head, and because it enters into the very conception of a holy and happy organization. Faith and hope rather pertain to individuals; love pertains to society, and is that without which the kingdom of God cannot stand. Individuals may be saved by faith and hope; but the whole immense kingdom of God depends on love. It is, therefore, of more importance than all other graces and endowments; more important than prophecy and miracles, and the gift of tongues and knowledge, because it will survive them all; more important than faith and hope, because, although it may co-exist with them, and though they all shall live forever, yet love enters into the very nature of the kingdom of God; binds society together; unites the Creator and the creature; and blends the interests of all the redeemed, and of the angels, and of God, into one. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary but—rather, "and"; as there is not so strong opposition between charity and the other two, faith and hope, which like it also "abide." Matthew Poole's Commentary Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible but the greatest of these is charity; and is said to be so, not that it is on every account the greatest; faith in many things exceeds that, as what is ascribed to it in Scripture shows; but because of the peculiar properties and effects of it before mentioned, it including faith and hope, as in 1 Corinthians 13:7 and besides many other things, and because, without this, faith and hope are nothing: and besides, its usefulness is more extensive than either of the other two; a man's faith is only for himself; a just man lives by his own faith, and not another's; one man's faith will be of no service to another, and the same is true of hope; but by love saints serve one another, both in things temporal and spiritual, and chiefly it is said to be the greatest, because most durable; in the other world, faith will be changed for vision, and hope for enjoyment, but love will abide, and be in its full perfection and constant exercise, to all eternity. The Jews (w) say much the same of humility the apostle does here of charity; "wisdom, fear, humility, they are alike, "but humility is greater than them all".'' (w) Piske Toseph. in T. Bab. Yebamot, art. 196. Geneva Study Bible (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.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
1 Corinthians 13:13. Νυνὶ δέ] nunc autem, and thus, since, according to 1 Corinthians 13:8-12, the present temporary charismata do not continue but cease in the future age, continue (into the everlasting life and onward in it) faith, hope, love. [2093] This explanation of νυνὶ δέ in a conclusive sense, as 1 Corinthians 12:18; 1 Corinthians 12:20, and of ΜΈΝΕΙ as meaning eternal continuance, [2094] has been rightly given by Irenaeus, Haer. ii. p. 47, iv. 25; Tertullian, de pat. 12; Photius in Oecumenius, p. 553; Grotius, Billroth, de Wette, Osiander, Lipsius (Rechtfertigungsl. pp. 98, 210), Ewald, Maier, Hofmann. For, although the majority of interpreters since Chrysostom (including Flatt, Heydenreich, Rückert, David Schulz, Neander) have explained νυνὶ δέ in a temporal sense: “but for the present, so long as that glorious state lies still far off from us” (Rückert), and μένει of continuance in the present age (in the church), this is incorrect for the simple reason, that Paul, according to 1 Corinthians 13:8 ff., expected the charismata to cease only at the Parousia, and consequently could not have described merely the triad of faith, hope, and love as what was now remaining; the γνῶσις also, prophecy, etc., remain till the Parousia. Hence, too, it was an erroneous expedient to take μένει in the sense of the sum total, which remains as the result of a reckoning (Calvin, Bengel, and others).πίστις] here in the established sense of the fides salvifica. This remains, even in the world to come, the abiding causa apprehendens of blessedness; what keeps the glorified in continued possession of salvation is their abiding trust in the atonement which took place through the death of Christ. Not as if their everlasting glory might be lost by them, but it is their assured possession just through the fact, that to them as συγκληρονομοί of Christ in the very beholding and sharing His glory the faith, through which they become blessed, must remain incapable of being lost. The everlasting fellowship with Christ in the future αἰών is not conceivable at all without the everlasting continuance of the living ground and bond of this fellowship, which is none other than faith.ἐλπίς] equally in its established N. T. sense, hope of the everlasting glory; Romans 5:1, and frequently. This abides for the glorified, with regard to the everlasting duration and continued development of their glory. How Paul conceived this continued development and that of the Messianic kingdom itself to proceed in detail, cannot indeed be proved. But the idea is not on that account unbiblical, but is necessarily presupposed by the continuance of hope, which is undoubtedly asserted in our text. Moreover, in 1 Corinthians 15:24, steps in the development of the future βασίλεια are manifestly given, as indeed the everlasting δόξα generally, according to its essential character as ζωή, is not conceivable at all without development to ever higher perfection for the individual, and therefore also is not conceivable without the continuance of hope. The conception of this continued development is not excluded by the notion of the τέλειον, 1 Corinthians 13:10, but belongs thereto. [2095] Billroth is wrong in saying “faith and hope remain, in so far as their contents is eternal.” That is to confound the objective and subjective. De Wette (comp. Maier) holds that “faith and hope, which go directly to their object, remain by passing over into sight.” But in that way precisely they would not remain (Romans 8:24; Hebrews 11:1), and only love would remain. For all the three the μένειν must be meant in the same sense. Our interpretation, again, does not run counter either to 2 Corinthians 5:7 (where surely the future seeing of the salvation does not exclude the continuance of the fides salvifica), or to Romans 8:24, Hebrews 11:1, since in our text also the hope meant is hope of something future not yet come to manifestation, while the fides salvifica has to all eternity a suprasensuous (Heb. loc. cit.) object (the atoning power of the sacrifice of Jesus). Hofmann transforms it in his exposition to this, that it is asserted of the Christian who has believed, hoped, and loved that he brings thither with him what he is as such, so that he has an abiding heritage in these three things. But that is not what Paul says, but simply that even in the fixture aeon, into which the charismata will not continue, Christians will not cease to believe, to hope, to love.τὰ τρία ταῦτα] brings the whole attention, before anything further is said, earnestly to bear upon this triad.μείζων δὲ τούτων] is not to be taken as μείζων δὲ ἢ ταῦτα, for τούτων must apply to the foregoing τὰ τρία ταῦτα, but as: greater however (comp. 1 Corinthians 14:5) among these, i.e. of higher value (than the two others) among these three, is love. Regarding μείζων with the gen. partitivus, comp. Matthew 23:11. Hofmann has no warrant for desiderating the article; comp. Luke 9:46. Why love holds this highest place, has been already explained, 1 Corinthians 13:1-7; [2096] because, namely, in relation to faith love, through which it works (comp. Galatians 5:6), conditions its moral worth (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) and the moral fruitfulness of the life of Christian fellowship (1 Corinthians 13:4-7); consequently without love (which is divine life, 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16) faith would be something egotistical, and therefore spurious and only apparent, not even existing at all as regards its true ethical nature; [2097] from which it follows at the same time that in relation to hope also love must be the greater, because if love fails, the hope of future glory—seeing that it can only be cherished by the true faith which works by love—cannot with reason exist at all (comp. Matthew 26:35 ff.)[2093] The three so-called theological virtues. But faith and hope might also be called virtues, “quia sunt obedientia, quam postulat Deus praestari suo mandato,” Melanchthon.[2094] If, again, it be assumed that the conception of μένει differs in reference to its different subjects, this is nothing but arbitrary importation. Osiander (comp. Theophylact before him) holds that the μένειν has different degrees; in the case of faith and hope, it lasts on to the Parousia; in the case of love, it is absolute, onward beyond the Parousia. And as distinguished from the charismata, it denotes in the case of faith and hope the constant continuance as opposed to the sporadic. What accumulated arbitrariness! Lipsius is correct in substance, but does not define specifically enough the conception of the πίστις.[2095] Comp. also Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 473. Comp. compare. “comp. on Matthew 3:5” refers to Dr. Meyer’s own commentary on the passage. So also “See on Matthew 3:5.”[2096] The interpreters who take νυνὶ δέ to mean, but for the present, follow for the most part Chrysostom in stating it as the higher worth of love, that it alone continues in eternity, while faith and hope, as they assume, cease. According to de Wette, Paul seems darkly to indicate the truth that love is the root of faith and hope. But even apart from the fact that this is not a Pauline thought, the reader could not be expected after ver. 7 (where nothing of the kind is even indirectly indicated) to arrive at such a thought. Baur too imports what is not in the text when he says that Paul calls love the greatest, because it is what it is immediately, in an absolute way, and hence also remains always what it is.[2097] Justification, however, would be by love, only if perfect satisfaction were rendered to its requirements, which is not possible (Romans 13:8). Hence the divine economy of salvation has connected justification with faith, the necessary fruit and evidence of which, however, is love. Comp. Melanchthon, “Aliud est causa justificationis, aliud est necessarium ut effectus sequens justificationem … ut in vivente dicimus necessario motum esse, qui tamen non est vitae causa.” See also Form. Conc. p. 688 ff.
Expositor's Greek Testament
1 Corinthians 13:13. νυνὶ δὲ μένει κ.τ.λ.—final conclusion of the matter, μένει being antithetical to πίπτει κ.τ.λ. of the foregoing: “But as it is (nunc autem), there abides faith, hope, love—these three l” they stay; the others pass (1 Corinthians 13:8 ff.). Faith and Hope are elements of the perfect and permanent state; new objects of trust and desire will come into sight in the widening visions of the life eternal. But Love, both now and then, surpasses its companions, being the character of God (1 Corinthians 8:3, 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16); in Love is the fruition of Faith’s efforts (Galatians 5:6) and Hope’s anticipations; it alone gives worth to every human power (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The popular interpretation, since Cm[2010], has read νυνὶ as temporal instead of logical, identifying it with the ἄρτι of 1 Corinthians 13:12, as though the Ap. meant that for the present Faith and Hope “abide” with Love, but Love alone “abides” for ever. But P. puts the three on the same footing in respect of enduringness—“these three” in comparison with the other three of 1 Corinthians 13:8—pointedly adding Faith and Hope to share and support the “abiding” of Love; “love is greater among these,” not more lasting.—For μείζων with partitive gen[2011], cf. Matthew 23:11, and see Wr[2012], p. 303. For the pregnant, absolute μένει, cf, 1 Corinthians 3:14, 1 John 2:6, 2 John 1:2.[2010] John Chrysostom’s Homiliœ († 407).[2011] genitive case.[2012] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity] All these will remain in the life to come. Faith, the vision of the unseen (Hebrews 11:1), with its consequent trust in God; hope, which even in fruition remains as the desire of its continuance; and love, as the necessary condition of our dwelling in God and God in us. See note on ch. 1 Corinthians 12:31. ‘Now’ is not to be understood of time, but as equivalent to ‘so’, at the conclusion of the argument.but the greatest of these is charity] “Because faith and hope are our own: love is diffused among others.” Calvin.
Bengel's Gnomen
1 Corinthians 13:13. Νυνὶ δὲ μένει, but now abideth) This is not strictly said of duration; for these three things do not meet in it; since faith is terminated in sight, and hope in joy, 2 Corinthians 5:7; Romans 8:24 : love alone continues, 1 Corinthians 13:8 : but it refers to their value, in antithesis to prophecy, etc., in this sense: On calculating accounts [on weighing the relative values] these three things are necessary and sufficient; let only these three stand; these exist; these abide, nothing more. A man may be a Christian without prophecy, etc., but not without faith, hope, love. Comp. on the verb, μένω, I abide, Romans 9:11; 1 Corinthians 3:14; 2 Corinthians 3:11; Hebrews 13:1. Faith is directed to God; hope is in our own behalf; love is towards our neighbour. Faith is properly connected with the economy of the Father; Hope with the economy of the Son; Love with the economy of the Holy Ghost, Colossians 2:12; Colossians 1:27; Colossians 1:8. And this too is the very reason of the order in which these three things are enumerated. νυνὶ, now, has the effect of an epitasis[121] [and shows what are the especial duties of us travellers on the way to the heavenly city.—V. g.]—τρία, three) only. Many are not necessary. Paul often refers to these three graces. Ephesians 1:15; Ephesians 1:18; Php 1:9-10; Colossians 1:4-5; Colossians 1:22, note; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4; Titus 1:1-2; Hebrews 6:10, etc. Sometimes he mentions both faith and love, sometimes faith [by itself] denoting by synecdoche the whole of Christianity, 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 3:5. In a wicked man we find infidelity, hatred, despair.—ταῦτα, these) Heb. הם, i.e. are, viz. greater than prophecies, etc.—ΜΕΊΖΩΝ, greater) the greatest, of these, of the three. He not only prefers love to prophecy, but even to such things as excel prophecy. Love is of more advantage to our neighbour, than faith and hope by themselves: comp. greater, 1 Corinthians 14:5. And God is not called faith or hope absolutely, whereas He is called love.[121] An emphatic addition augmenting the force.—Append.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 13. - And now. The "now" is not temporal (as opposed to the "then" of the previous verse), but logical. It sums up the paragraph. Abideth. These three graces are fundamental and permanent; not transient, like the charisms, on which the Corinthians were priding themselves, but which should all be "annulled." Faith, hope, charity. It might be difficult to see how "hope" should be permanent. But if the future state be progressive throughout eternity and infinitude, hope will never quite be lost in fruition. Even "within the veil," it will still remain as "an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast" (Hebrews 6:19). The greatest of these is charity; more literally, greater than these is love. St. Paul does not explain why love is the greatest and best of the three. Various reasons may be given. 1. Love is the greatest, because it is the root of the other two; "we believe only in that which we love; we hope only for that which we love. 2. And love is the greatest because love is for our neighbours; faith and hope mainly for ourselves. 3. And love is the greatest because faith and hope are human, but God is love. 4. And love is the greatest because faith and hope can only work by love, and only show themselves by love. Thus love is as the undivided perfection of sevenfold light. Faith and hope are precious stones of one colour, as a ruby and a sapphire; but love, as he has been showing us throughout the chapter, is a diamond of many facets. 1 Corinthians 13:13
Vincent's Word Studies
And now (νυνὶ δὲ)
Rev., but; better than and, bringing out the contrast with the transient gifts. Now is logical and not temporal. Thus, as it is.
Abideth
Not merely in this life. The essential permanence of the three graces is asserted. In their nature they are eternal.
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