WATCHMAN33
Believers patiently feed the poor, reconcile neighbors, tend the sick, and protect a child as polished bronze and a dim mirror catch warm light.
KING JAMES VERSION

1 CORINTHIANS 13

Read the chapter, follow a linked verse, and continue into related Watchman 33 teaching.

CHAPTER VISUAL

1 Corinthians 13 — Without enduring charity even remarkable gifts are empty, but faith, hope, and love abide, and the greatest is love.

About this illustration

Concrete acts of patient, humble care embody the chapter’s description of charity. Brass, a dim mirror, and the movement from childhood to maturity appear as supporting metaphors without sentimental romance or written labels.

Scripture basis: 1 Corinthians 13:1–13
  1. 1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
  2. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
  3. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
  4. 4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
  5. 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
  6. 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
  7. 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
  8. 8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
  9. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
  10. 10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
  11. 11When 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.
  12. 12For 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.
  13. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom

EXPLORE THE MESSAGE

Related Watchman 33 Resources

Archaeological Evidence

ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Second half of the sixth century AD, with a related early-seventh-century unit

Fragmenta Frisingensia: Old Latin Epistle Leaves

The Fragmenta Frisingensia are reused parchment leaves preserving Old Latin Pauline texts and later Latin material, offering rare physical evidence for epistle transmission and for the medieval recycling that accidentally saved it.

Romans 5:1–11 · 1 Corinthians 13:1–13 · Galatians 3:1–14
Open evidence file

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