1 Corinthians 13:4-7

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is the passage most read at weddings, though it was not written for couples: "Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud." Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 to a divided church arguing over who had the most impressive gifts, and he interrupts that fight to say that without love none of it counts for anything. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 love is never defined as a feeling.

The whole list is made of verbs: love is patient, is kind, doesn't envy, doesn't brag, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil. Love here is verifiable behavior.

That changes how it reads on a wedding day. Instead of describing what the couple feels, the text describes what they will have to decide to do — including in the years when the feeling runs low.

The closing line — "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things" — is a ladder of endurance. And verse 8 gives the verdict: "love never fails".