1 Corinthians 13
1 If I were to speak in the language of men, or of Angels, yet not have charity, I would be like a clanging bell or a crashing cymbal.
If I can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but am destitute of Love, I have but become a loud-sounding trumpet or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophecy, and learn every mystery, and obtain all knowledge, and possess all faith, so that I could move mountains, yet not have charity, then I am nothing.
If I possess the gift of prophecy and am versed in all mysteries and all knowledge, and have such absolute faith that I can remove mountains, but am destitute of Love, I am nothing.
3 And if I distribute all my goods in order to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, yet not have charity, it offers me nothing.
And if I distribute all my possessions to the poor, and give up my body to be burned, but am destitute of Love, it profits me nothing.
4 Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated.
Love is patient and kind. Love knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited.
5 Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil.
She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate anger, nor brood over wrongs.
6 Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth.
She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth.
7 Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.
She knows how to be silent. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance.
8 Charity is never torn away, even if prophecies pass away, or languages cease, or knowledge is destroyed.
Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if there are languages, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be brought to an end.
9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part.
For our knowledge is imperfect, and so is our prophesying;
10 But when the perfect arrives, the imperfect passes away.
but when the perfect state of things is come, all that is imperfect will be brought to an end.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I put aside the things of a child.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, felt like a child, reasoned like a child: when I became a man, I put from me childish ways.
12 Now we see through a glass darkly. But then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known.
For the present we see things as if in a mirror, and are puzzled; but then we shall see them face to face. For the present the knowledge I gain is imperfect; but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 But for now, these three continue: faith, hope, and charity. And the greatest of these is charity.
And so there remain Faith, Hope, Love--these three; and of these the greatest is Love.
