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.
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 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.
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 give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, 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, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Love is long-suffering, and kind; love is never envious, never boastful, never conceited, never behaves unbecomingly;
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
love is never self-seeking, never provoked, never reckons up her wrongs;
6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
love never rejoices at evil, but rejoices in the triumph of truth;
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
love bears with all things, ever trustful, ever hopeful, ever patient.
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. 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 we know in part and we prophesy in part,
For our knowledge is incomplete, and our preaching is incomplete,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
but, when the perfect has come, that which is incomplete will end.
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 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 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.
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 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
Meanwhile faith, hope, and love endure – these three, but the greatest of these is love.
