Abideth (μενε). Singular, agreeing in number with πιστις (faith), first in list.

The greatest of these (μειζων τουτων). Predicative adjective and so no article. The form of μειζων is comparative, but it is used as superlative, for the superlative form μεγιστος had become rare in the Koine (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 667ff.). See this idiom in Matthew 11:11; Matthew 18:1; Matthew 23:11. The other gifts pass away, but these abide forever. Love is necessary for both faith and hope. Does not love keep on growing? It is quite worth while to call attention to Henry Drummond's famous sermon The Greatest Thing in the World and to Dr. J.D. Jones's able book The Greatest of These. Greatest, Dr. Jones holds, because love is an attribute of God.