Verse explainer
Paul's word 'charity' isn't warm feeling — it's a demanding, outward-facing action list that most readers only half-remember.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
BSBLove is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
The plain meaning
Paul has just argued that no spiritual gift — not prophecy, not miracle-working faith, not even martyrdom — counts for anything without love (vv. 1–3). Now he defines what that love actually does, and every item is behavioral, not emotional. 'Suffereth long' (makrothumei) is active endurance under provocation, not passive tolerance. 'Is kind' (chrēsteuetai) means pressing out toward others with good — it's the positive face of what long-suffering merely holds back from. Envy, boasting, and pride each describe love crowding out the self. The word KJV translates 'charity' is agapē, which the BSB renders simply 'love' — not affection or sentiment, but the willed, persistent, other-directed disposition Paul is anatomizing piece by piece. Read across the whole chapter: love is not a feeling you fall into; it's a pattern of conduct you choose repeatedly, especially when it costs you.
The common misreading
What the commentators say
Clarke stresses that 'suffereth long' translates makrothumei — literally 'has a long mind' — a settled disposition whose horizon trials and provocations can never reach. He reads 'is kind' (chrēsteuetai) as tender and compassionate in itself while being mild and obliging to others, even in suffering. For Clarke, the five negatives that follow — not envying, not vaunting, not puffed up — are not separate virtues but natural consequences of a heart already full of God: pride, he insists, is the very essence of sin, and love by its nature displaces it.
Henry organizes the verse as two generals under which every particular falls: long-suffering endures evil without resentment or revenge, giving a patient wait for a brother's reformation rather than flying into anger; kindness actively searches for opportunities to do good. On the negatives, he notes that envy is the fruit of ill-will, and since love wishes well to all, the prosperity of others cannot grieve it. Vaunteth not and is not puffed up he connects directly: true love raises our esteem for others and so limits our esteem of ourselves, leaving no room for arrogance.
JFB read the structure as a pair: long-suffering is love's negative side (restraining reaction to provocation), kindness its positive side (extending good to others). They flag that 'vaunteth not' was a pointed rebuke to Corinthians who used the gift of tongues for sheer display, and 'not puffed up' targets the party zeal that had fractured the church earlier in the letter (ch. 4). The immediate context of a congregation in conflict is the lens through which the whole list should be read.
The word behind it
From makros ('long') + thumos ('passion, mind, spirit') — literally 'has a long spirit.' It describes a disposition whose reach trials and provocations cannot exhaust. Thayer's distinguishes it from hupomenō (enduring circumstances) by its relational direction: makrothumia endures persons — the slow burn of someone who could retaliate but refuses to. It is the first and governing quality in Paul's list, setting the frame for everything that follows.
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