---
title: 1 Corinthians 13:4
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-13-4/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-13-4.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 13:4
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 13:4

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. It does not brag, does not get puffed up,"

## JW Usage

Familiar and much loved — read at weddings and cited in Watchtower material on family life and congregational relationships. Love is presented as the identifying mark of true Christians, which the organisation claims for its worldwide brotherhood.

## Protestant Usage

This is the standard both sides already agree on, which makes it a good place to stand rather than to argue. Paul is writing to a congregation that was fracturing into parties. The love he describes is not sentiment; it is the behaviour that holds people together when they disagree — patient, kind, not keeping account of injury, as the chapter goes on to say. Two applications. First, in the apostolic record this love is visible in what happened after conflict: Paul and Barnabas split in anger, and Paul later sent for Mark; Paul rebuked Peter publicly, and Peter later called him beloved brother. The reconciliations are on the record. Second, and more delicately, it is the measure to bring to the practice of cutting off contact with family members who have come to believe something different. Ask what verses 4 to 7 would look like applied to a son or a mother in that situation. Do not answer for them. Compare Galatians 5:23, 2 Timothy 4:11, Luke 15:5.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Paul Restored Mark — What Did Russell Restore?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/founder-character-contrast.md) — Apostolic reconciliation vs Bethel schism — the fruit test applied to founders [Authority]