What Does 1 Corinthians 13:4 Mean?
Love is slow to heat, and is kind. It does not boil, does not brag, and does not swell.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,THE KEY
Love gives heat time to settle before desire turns into rivalry or self-display.
THE MEANING
Love stays patient and kind in the presence of another person. It does not turn their good into a contest or enlarge itself to take up more space. This is what love looks like now, in the way you meet another person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that love must win, outshine others, or demand an immediate response to prove itself.
THE ROOT
μακροθυμεῖ
makrothymei
GROWS FROM
μακρο- + θυμ- (μακροθυμ-)
Long-tempered; slow to heat.
“is slow to heat” in this verse is makrothymei. The word μακροθυμεῖ (makrothymei, “is patient” or “is long-tempered”) carries the sense of being slow to heat. Love has room before the heat takes command; patience is not the absence of feeling, but the space before it becomes a reaction.
ALSO GROWS
makrothymia: Patience; long-suffering.
μακροθυμία
The noun names the same long-tempered quality that the verse describes as love’s way of being.
makrothymeō: To be patient; to be long-tempered.
μακροθυμέω
This verb family also describes patience while waiting, showing that love’s slowness to heat holds even when the outcome has not arrived.
ζηλοῖ
zēloi
GROWS FROM
ζηλ- (ζηλόω)
Zeal, ardor, jealousy.
“does not boil” in this verse is zēloi. The verb ζηλοῖ (zēloi, “is jealous” or “envies”) belongs to the same word family as ζῆλος (zēlos, “zeal” or “jealousy”). The verse reveals how intense desire can become rivalry when it turns toward what another person has.
ALSO GROWS
zēlos: Zeal; ardor; jealousy.
ζῆλος
The shared word family lets the verse place envy beside the force of zeal: desire can burn toward another person’s share.
zēlōtēs: A zealous person; an ardent adherent.
ζηλωτής
This related word shows the same intensity directed toward a person or cause, clarifying that love does not convert intensity into possessive rivalry.
φυσιοῦται
physioutai
GROWS FROM
φυσι- (φυσιοῦμαι)
To swell or inflate; figuratively, to become conceited.
“does not swell” in this verse is physioutai. The verb φυσιοῦται (physioutai, “is puffed up”) pictures self-inflation. Love does not need to swell itself larger in another person’s presence; it remains kind without making itself the center.
ALSO GROWS
physiōsis: Puffing up; conceit.
φυσίωσις
This noun names the inflated condition the verse says love does not take on.
physiousthai: To be puffed up; to become conceited.
φυσιοῦσθαι
This form of the same verb family shows the repeated image of a self that swells beyond its measure.
THE PATTERN
Love keeps heat from taking over: it remains patient and kind instead of turning desire into rivalry or self-inflation.
The LORD is compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, and abounding in faithful love.with all lowness of mind and gentleness, with slowness to heat, bearing with one another in love;But the fruit of the breath is love, joy, wholeness, slowness to heat, kindness, goodness, trust,THE THREAD
You also, be slow to heat, and steady your hearts, for the arrival of the LORD has drawn near.The word translated “patient” is μακροθυμεῖ (makrothymei, “is long-tempered”), from the same word family as “suffereth long.” Here that same slowness to heat holds while you wait for what has not yet arrived.
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