What Does 1 Corinthians 13:3 Mean in the King James?

And 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.

1 Corinthians 13:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Giving everything is not the same as love being present.

THE MEANING

You can give away all you own to feed the poor and surrender your body to burning, yet without love you receive no benefit. The verse speaks now by separating the scale of a gift from the love present in it. Its wording concerns what benefits the giver; it does not erase the food’s help to the poor.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that the scale, cost, or pain of a sacrifice proves the giver’s love or secures benefit for the giver.

THE ROOT

ἀγάπην

agapēn

GROWS FROM

ἀγαπ-

love; to love or regard with love

“charity” in this verse is agapēn. The Greek word names love itself, not the amount given. Its word family spans loving and being beloved, so the verse distinguishes the visible gift from the love that may or may not be present in it.

ALSO GROWS

agapaō: to love, regard with love

ἀγαπάω

This verb shares the stem and shows that the word here belongs to the language of loving, not simply giving.

agapētos: beloved, dear

ἀγαπητός

This related word names someone held in love, opening agapē toward a bond between persons rather than a measure of generosity.

ὠφελοῦμαι

ōpheloumai

GROWS FROM

ὠφελ-

to help, benefit, or be useful

“profiteth” in this verse is ōpheloumai. The Greek phrase means that the giver is benefited in nothing. The verse does not say the poor receive nothing from the food; it separates the gift’s help to them from any benefit the giver receives.

ALSO GROWS

ophelos: benefit, advantage

ὄφελος

This related noun names the benefit the verse says the giver does not receive.

ōphelimos: useful, beneficial

ὠφέλιμος

This adjective belongs to the same word family and sharpens the question of whether the act actually benefits its giver.

THE PATTERN

Outward offerings cannot substitute for the inward reality they are meant to express.

And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 15:22 · KJVBurnt offerings do not stand in for hearkening; the costly act cannot replace the response named in the verse.

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6:6 · KJVThe verse places faithful love and knowing God above burnt offerings, naming what an offering alone cannot supply.

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:18 · KJVLove’s name alone is not its substance; the verse joins it to deed and truth.

THE THREAD

And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

James 2:16 · KJV

James asks ⁨τί τὸ ὄφελος⁩ (ti to ophelos, “what benefit?”), from the same Greek word family as ⁨ὠφελοῦμαι⁩ (ōpheloumai, “I am benefited”) here. There, kind words without food do not benefit the hungry; here, even food and bodily sacrifice bring the giver no benefit without love.

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