"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud."
— 1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)
The Bible verse people look up as love is patient is 1 Corinthians 13:4. Paul opens the love list with two verbs: love is patient, and love is kind. This page is that verse, a plain reading of the first clause, and how it sits next to kindness. The meaning of verses 4 through 7 together is What 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 means. The verses those words open are 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. The line about not keeping score is Love keeps no record of wrongs. Patience through the rest of the chapter and Scripture is Patience and love in 1 Corinthians 13:4 and Love and Patience.
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The verse
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV) says, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud."
The line people search, "love is patient," is the first clause. The King James reads, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind." "Suffereth long" is the older wording for patience: slow to retaliate when someone is difficult.
What love is patient means
Patient here is not passivity. The Greek verb (makrothymei) means long-tempered — slow to pay someone back for being slow, clumsy, or unfinished. Love does not make the other person pay all evening for a sharp sentence at noon.
Paul pairs patience with kindness in the same breath. Patience without kindness can harden into cold endurance. Kindness without patience burns out the first time it is not thanked. The two belong together. Love and Kindness follows the second word. The verse page for that clause is Love is kind Bible verse. This page stays with the first.
The whole chapter is 1 Corinthians 13. Verse 7 continues the same love: it always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres (1 Corinthians 13:7). Verse 8 says that love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).
How this works in a relationship
In a marriage, friendship, or church, patient love looks ordinary. You do not reopen a settled confession as a weapon. You leave room for someone to grow. You still tell the truth; patience is not a cover for harm. "Always protects" later in the chapter is a reason to stop ongoing harm, not a reason to hide it. Love and Marriage sets this inside the covenant. Wedding readings that include these lines are Wedding Bible verses.
Questions people ask
What Bible verse says love is patient?
1 Corinthians 13:4 says, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud." That is the verse people mean by the love is patient Bible verse.
What does love is patient mean?
It means love is slow to retaliate and long-tempered with people who are unfinished. It is a way of treating someone, not a mood you wait to feel. Paul wrote it to a church, not only to couples.
Is love is patient only about marriage?
No. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13 to a congregation dividing over gifts and status. Weddings quote it because marriage needs every line, but the first audience was the church. Friendship, family, and work fall under it too.
How is love is patient different from love is kind?
Patience refuses to punish. Kindness does the good that is in front of you. They are a pair in the same verse. One without the other is incomplete.
Where should I read next?
For verses 4–7 together, read What 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 means. For patience across the chapter, read Patience and love in 1 Corinthians 13:4. For the whole love chapter, read 1 Corinthians 13. For the kindness clause, read What does love is kind mean.
