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.

People's New Testament

13:1 The Greatest of All Things

SUMMARY OF I CORINTHIANS 13:

Christian Love Better Than Miraculous Gifts. The Nature of Love and Its Action. All the Miraculous Gifts Shall Pass Away, but Love Endureth. Forever. All Human Knowledge Imperfect and Transient. But Faith, Hope, and Love Eternal. Of the Three, Love Is the Greatest.

Meyer says of this chapter:

This praise of love, almost a psalm on love it might be called, is as rich in its contents drawn from deep experience as in rhetorical truth, fullness and power, grace and simplicity.''

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. In 1Co 12:8-10 Paul has spoken of spiritual gifts, one of which was to speak in tongues. A more excellent way (1Co 12:31) is now to be shown. Hence, various spiritual gifts are taken up and shown to be useless and vain without love.

And have not charity. Love, in the Revised Version. If he spoke not only with the tongues of men, but even those of angels, it would be, without love,

as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. An empty sound. The latter was a brazen basin, which was beaten. The sounds of these instruments would not be musical.

Wesley's Notes

13:1 Though I speak with all the tongues - Which are upon earth, and with the eloquence of an angel. And have not love - The love of God, and of all mankind for his sake, I am no better before God than the sounding instruments of brass, used in the worship of some of the heathen gods. Or a tinkling cymbal - This was made of two pieces of hollow brass, which, being struck together, made a tinkling, but very little variety of sound.

Scofield Reference Notes

Margin angels

See note, See Scofield Note: "Heb 1:4".

Margin charity

i.e. love; and Song in 1Cor 13:2,3,4,8,13.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 13

1Co 13:1-13. Charity or Love Superior to All Gifts.

The New Testament psalm of love, as the forty-fifth Psalm (see Ps 45:1, title) and the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament.

1. tongues-from these he ascends to "prophecy" (1Co 13:2); then, to "faith"; then to benevolent and self-sacrificing deeds: a climax. He does not except even himself, and so passes from addressing them ("unto you," 1Co 12:31) to putting the case in his own person, "Though I," &c.

speak with the tongues-with the eloquence which was so much admired at Corinth (for example, Apollos, Ac 18:24; compare 1Co 1:12; 3:21, 22), and with the command of various languages, which some at Corinth abused to purposes of mere ostentation (1Co 14:2, &c.).

of angels-higher than men, and therefore, it is to be supposed, speaking a more exalted language.

charity-the principle of the ordinary and more important gifts of the Spirit, as contrasted with the extraordinary gifts (1Co 12:1-31).

sounding . tinkling-sound without soul or feeling: such are "tongues" without charity.

cymbal-Two kinds are noticed (Ps 150:5), the loud or clear, and the high-sounding one: hand cymbals and finger cymbals, or castanets. The sound is sharp and piercing.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-3 The excellent way had in view in the close of the former chapter, is not what is meant by charity in our common use of the word, almsgiving, but love in its fullest meaning; true love to God and man. Without this, the most glorious gifts are of no account to us, of no esteem in the sight of God. A clear head and a deep understanding, are of no value without a benevolent and charitable heart. There may be an open and lavish hand, where there is not a liberal and charitable heart. Doing good to others will do none to us, if it be not done from love to God, and good-will to men. If we give away all we have, while we withhold the heart from God, it will not profit. Nor even the most painful sufferings. How are those deluded who look for acceptance and reward for their good works, which are as scanty and defective as they are corrupt and selfish!