Single lesson
Love Is Patient and Kind
1 Corinthians 13:1–13
This lesson helps children hear what 1 Corinthians 13 says about love. They will see that love matters more than impressive words or actions, and they will practise noticing patient and kind responses named in the passage.
Before you teach
This passage says that speaking, knowledge, faith, and even costly actions are empty without love. It then describes what love is like, says some things are partial and temporary, and contrasts present limited knowing with fuller knowing later, before ending with faith, hope, and love.
Children will be able to identify several characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13 and give one practical example of a patient or kind response.
Welcome: Listen for why love matters
5 minIntroduce the lesson by asking children to listen for what the passage says about love. Explain that the first verses mention impressive speaking, knowledge, faith, and giving, but keep repeating that without love these things are empty. Tell children they will listen for both what love is and why it matters.
1 Corinthians 13:1, 1 Corinthians 13:2, 1 Corinthians 13:3
Read and explain: Impressive things without love
7 minRead verses 1 to 3 aloud. Help children notice the repeated pattern: ‘but don’t have love’. The passage says speech can be just noise, great understanding can still be nothing, and even generous sacrifice can profit nothing if love is missing. Keep the explanation close to the repeated words of the text.
1 Corinthians 13:1, 1 Corinthians 13:2, 1 Corinthians 13:3
Discuss: What love does and does not do
7 minRead verses 4 to 7 and make two lists on paper or a board: ‘Love is’ and ‘Love does not’. Write the passage words children find, including patient, kind, not proud, not seeking its own way, rejoicing with the truth, and enduring. Briefly explain ‘seek its own way’ as putting self first.
1 Corinthians 13:4, 1 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Corinthians 13:6, 1 Corinthians 13:7
Make and respond: Kindness chain and patient replies
8 minChildren make a paper chain with words from verses 4 to 7 or simple matching actions such as waiting calmly, speaking kindly, or telling the truth. After making the chain, give a few everyday situations and ask children which response best matches the love described in the passage.
1 Corinthians 13:4, 1 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Corinthians 13:6, 1 Corinthians 13:7
Closing: Love lasts, while our knowing is partial now
3 minRead verses 8 to 13. Explain that the passage says some things are partial and will pass away, but love never fails. It uses two pictures: a child growing up, and seeing dimly in a mirror. These show that now we know in part, but later there is fuller knowing. End with faith, hope, and love, and note that the greatest is love.
1 Corinthians 13:8, 1 Corinthians 13:9, 1 Corinthians 13:10, 1 Corinthians 13:11, 1 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Corinthians 13:13
Questions to explore
According to verses 1 to 3, what can a person do and still be missing something essential?
Guide children to notice the repeated words ‘but don’t have love’ after speaking, knowing, believing, and giving.
1 Corinthians 13:1, 1 Corinthians 13:2, 1 Corinthians 13:3
Which words in verses 4 to 7 describe how love behaves?
Encourage children to answer with the exact Bible words first, such as patient, kind, not proud, rejoices with the truth, and endures.
1 Corinthians 13:4, 1 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Corinthians 13:6, 1 Corinthians 13:7
What two pictures does the passage use in verses 11 and 12 to show that our knowing is partial now?
Help children find the child grown into an adult and the dim mirror, then connect both pictures to the words ‘now I know in part’.
1 Corinthians 13:11, 1 Corinthians 13:12
Make, think or respond
Love Words Paper Chain
What you’ll need
- Coloured or plain paper
- Scissors
- Pencils or markers
- Tape or glue
Try it together
- Cut paper into strips.
- Read verses 4 to 7 again and ask each child to choose one word or phrase about love for each strip.
- Write the words or a matching simple action on the strips, such as ‘patient’, ‘kind’, or ‘rejoices with the truth’.
- Loop and tape the strips into a chain.
- Use the finished chain to review how many ways the passage describes love.
The chain gives children a visible reminder of the many qualities of love named in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
Adapt for your group
- For younger children, pre-cut strips and let them copy only one or two short words from the passage, such as ‘kind’ or ‘patient’.
- For older or more confident children, ask them to sort phrases into ‘love is’ and ‘love does not’ before making the chain, and to explain how verses 11 and 12 show partial knowing now and fuller knowing later.
An optional closing prayer
Proposed words: Dear God, please help us learn the kind of love this passage describes. Help us to be patient, kind, truthful, and not selfish. Amen.
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
6 doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.