< 1 Corinthians 13 >
1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong 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 do not have love, I am nothing.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not 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 do not have love, it profits me nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not brag, is not proud,
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 does not behave itself inappropriately, does not seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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 where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
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, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside 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.
Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; 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 now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.