< 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 with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;
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.
and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and 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.
and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil,
6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
rejoiceth not over the unrighteousness, and rejoiceth with the truth;
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
all things it beareth, all it believeth, all it hopeth, all it endureth.
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.
The love doth never fail; and whether [there be] prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless;
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
and when that which is perfect may come, then that which [is] in part shall become useless.
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 babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe;
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.
for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
and now there doth remain faith, hope, love — these three; and the greatest of these [is] love.