Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Corinthians 13:7

1 Corinthians 13:7. beareth all things from the wronging party.

believeth all things about him that are at all believable; such as that he has been misled, that he is prejudiced, that he is better than his actions, and may live to repent of it and do better. Accordingly, love hopeth all things even “against hope;” and when even that fails, and all hope of amendment is cruelly disappointed, it still endureth all things without revenging the wrong done. There would seem some tautology in the first clause and the last “beareth all,” “endureth all.” To avoid this, some would translate the first clause “covereth all things,” which certainly is the primary sense of the Greek word, and gives a good echo to Proverbs 10:12 “Love covereth all sins” which is quoted in 1 Peter 4:8. But our apostle uses this word always in the sense of ‘bearing' or ‘forbearing' (1 Corinthians 9:12; 1 Thessalonians 3:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:5). Admitting this, some would refer the two clauses to different kinds of wrong the first private wrongs, the last public. But all the four clauses plainly refer to the same kind of wrongs. The difference, then, we take to be this, that in the first clause love “bears all” in the belief or hope of some good in the wronging party existing or to come; in the last, when all faith in him and hope of him has departed, love still persists in “enduring.”

The last thing in this grand chapter in contrast not only with all gifts, but with all other graces is the perpetuity of love.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Corinthians 13:7

Old Testament

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