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.
If I can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but am destitute of Love, I have but become a loud-sounding trumpet 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.
If I possess the gift of prophecy and am versed in all mysteries and all knowledge, and have such absolute faith that I can remove mountains, but am destitute of 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.
And if I distribute all my possessions to the poor, and give up my body to be burned, but am destitute of Love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
Love is patient and kind. Love knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited.
5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate anger, nor brood over wrongs.
6 doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth.
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
She knows how to be silent. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance.
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.
Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if there are languages, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be brought to an end.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
For our knowledge is imperfect, and so is our prophesying;
10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
but when the perfect state of things is come, all that is imperfect will be brought to an end.
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.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, felt like a child, reasoned like a child: when I became a man, I put from me childish ways.
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.
For the present we see things as if in a mirror, and are puzzled; but then we shall see them face to face. For the present the knowledge I gain is imperfect; but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
And so there remain Faith, Hope, Love--these three; and of these the greatest is Love.
