What it means
Paul’s word here means puffed up, like something blown full of air. The King James keeps the picture: “charity … is not puffed up”. Other Bibles say love is not arrogant. It is the swollen sense of your own importance that makes other people look small.
Paul uses this word six times in 1 Corinthians, and only once in all his other letters. Some in Corinth had grown proud of their knowledge and their gifts. His sharpest line on it comes a few chapters earlier: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Pride inflates you. Love builds up the other person.
Pride and boasting are close, but they are not the same. Boasting needs an audience. Pride can sit silently in the corner, sure it is the smartest one in the room. That is why this line matters. A person can pass every test of modesty and still be puffed up inside.
How John Chrysostom read it
John Chrysostom saw that pride feeds on our good points, and he found its cure not in trying harder but in love itself.
“Is not puffed up. For so we see many who think highly of themselves on the score of these very excellencies; for example, on not being envious, nor grudging, nor mean-spirited, nor rash.”
John Chrysostom, Homily 33 on First Corinthians
“For none could ever be lifted up against the person whom he loves.”
John Chrysostom, Homily 32 on First Corinthians
“Have you any good? Be thankful to Him Who gave it.”
John Chrysostom, Homily 5 on Philippians
Chrysostom noticed that pride grows best in good soil. People grow proud of being patient, proud of not being envious, even proud of their humility. Every other virtue can feed it. His answer was not more effort at modesty. It was love. You cannot look down on someone you love, because love sets them beside you.
He heard in it Paul’s word for those in Corinth who “boast themselves against others”. And he had a gentle way of puncturing pride. We laugh, he said, when we see “children drawing themselves up, and looking haughty”. Grown-up pride is the same thing in a bigger body. His advice to the clever was short: “You ought to be thankful, not to be puffed up.”
What it looks like
- A younger coworker corrects you in front of others, and you say thanks and fix it.
- Halfway through an argument you realize you were wrong, and you say so first.
- You ask for help with something you feel you should already know.
- Someone with less experience makes a good suggestion, and you actually use it.
What missing it looks like
- “I don’t think I’m better than anyone. I’m just usually right.”
- “Why would I ask them? I’ve been doing this far longer.”
- “I apologize when I’m wrong. It just doesn’t happen much.”
- “Some people just don’t get it, and I’m tired of pretending they do.”
Learn from John the Baptist
The prophet who sent his own followers away.
When the crowds began to leave him for Jesus, John said, “That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must increase; I must decrease.” John 3:29-30
Point away from yourself, and be glad when someone else has the room.
Read about John the BaptistOne step to try
Say “good catch” before you explain.
“Haughtiness is the first act of ingratitude, for it denies the gift of grace.” John Chrysostom
Questions and answers
What does it mean that love is not proud?
It means love does not swell with its own importance or look down on people. The older wording is “is not puffed up”: inflated, full of air. A loving person can know they are good at something and still treat everyone around them as worth listening to. Pride keeps a private ranking of people. Love does not bother keeping one.
What is the difference between boasting and pride?
Boasting is pride that speaks. Pride can be completely silent. Paul puts them side by side, “it does not boast, it is not proud”, because one feeds the other. Every boast swells the pride a little, and pride keeps looking for an audience. A person can stop boasting and still be puffed up inside. Love cures both, because it is busy looking at someone else.
Is it wrong to be proud of your children or your work?
Not in the sense Paul means here. His word is about being puffed up over others. Glad, grateful delight in someone you love is a different thing. Paul told the Corinthians, “great is my pride in you” (2 Corinthians 7:4). That kind of pride looks outward and thanks God. The puffed-up kind looks down.
