1 Corinthians 13
1 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.
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.
2 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.
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.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
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.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
Love does not act improperly, or insist on having its own way. Love is not argumentative and doesn't keep a record of wrongs.
6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
Love takes no delight in evil but celebrates the truth.
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never gives up, keeps on trusting, stays confident, and remains patient whatever happens.
8 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.
Love never fails. Prophecies will come to an end. Tongues will become silent. Knowledge will become useless.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
For our knowledge and our prophetic understanding are incomplete.
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
But when completeness comes, then what is incomplete disappears.
11 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.
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.
12 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.
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.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
Trust, hope, and love last forever—but the most important is love.
