< 1 Corinthians 13 >

1 If I were to speak in the language of men, or of Angels, yet not have charity, I would be like a clanging bell or a crashing cymbal.
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 And if I have prophecy, and learn every mystery, and obtain all knowledge, and possess all faith, so that I could move mountains, yet not have charity, then I am nothing.
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 And if I distribute all my goods in order to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, yet not have charity, it offers me nothing.
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 Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated.
Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
5 Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil.
doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
6 Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth.
doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
8 Charity is never torn away, even if prophecies pass away, or languages cease, or knowledge is destroyed.
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 only in part, and we prophesy only in part.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 But when the perfect arrives, the imperfect passes away.
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 like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I put aside the things of a child.
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 Now we see through a glass darkly. But then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known.
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 for now, these three continue: faith, hope, and charity. And the greatest of these is charity.
But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

< 1 Corinthians 13 >