1 Corinthians 13

1 If I were to have eloquence in human languages—even the language of angels—but have no love, then I would only be an echoing gong or a clashing cymbal.

Though I speak in the ‘tongues’ of people, or even of angels, yet have not love, I have become mere echoing brass, or a clanging cymbal!

2 If I were to speak prophecies, to know every secret mystery and be completely knowledgeable, and if I were able to have so much faith I could move mountains, but have no love, then I am nothing.

Even though I have the gift of preaching, and fathom all hidden truths and all the depths of knowledge; even though I have such faith as might move mountains, yet have not love, I am nothing!

3 If I were to donate everything I own to the poor, or if I were to sacrifice myself to be burned as a martyr, and have no love, then I gain nothing.

Even though I dole my substance to the poor, even though I sacrifice my body in order to boast, yet have not love, it avails me nothing!

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud.

Love is long-suffering, and kind; love is never envious, never boastful, never conceited, never behaves unbecomingly;

5 Love does not act improperly, or insist on having its own way. Love is not argumentative and doesn't keep a record of wrongs.

love is never self-seeking, never provoked, never reckons up her wrongs;

6 Love takes no delight in evil but celebrates the truth.

love never rejoices at evil, but rejoices in the triumph of truth;

7 Love never gives up, keeps on trusting, stays confident, and remains patient whatever happens.

love bears with all things, ever trustful, ever hopeful, ever patient.

8 Love never fails. Prophecies will come to an end. Tongues will become silent. Knowledge will become useless.

Love never fails. But, whether it be the gift of preaching, it will end; whether it be the gift of ‘tongues,’ it will cease; whether it be knowledge, it, too, will vanish.

9 For our knowledge and our prophetic understanding are incomplete.

For our knowledge is incomplete, and our preaching is incomplete,

10 But when completeness comes, then what is incomplete disappears.

but, when the perfect has come, that which is incomplete will end.

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I grew up I left behind such child-like ways.

When I was a child, I talked as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; now that I am a man, I have done with childish ways.

12 At the moment we peer into a mirror's dim reflection, but then we shall see face to face. For now I only have partial knowledge, but then I shall know completely, just as I am completely known.

As yet we see, in a mirror, dimly, but then – face to face! As yet my knowledge is incomplete, but then I will know in full, as I have been fully known.

13 Trust, hope, and love last forever—but the most important is love.

Meanwhile faith, hope, and love endure – these three, but the greatest of these is love.