1 Corinthians 13

1 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.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

2 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.

And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3 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.

And if I shall dole out all my goods in food, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but have not love, I profit nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud.

Love has long patience, is kind; love is not emulous [of others]; love is not insolent and rash, is not puffed up,

5 Love does not act improperly, or insist on having its own way. Love is not argumentative and doesn't keep a record of wrongs.

does not behave in an unseemly manner, does not seek what is its own, is not quickly provoked, does not impute evil,

6 Love takes no delight in evil but celebrates the truth.

does not rejoice at iniquity but rejoices with the truth,

7 Love never gives up, keeps on trusting, stays confident, and remains patient whatever happens.

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. Prophecies will come to an end. Tongues will become silent. Knowledge will become useless.

Love never fails; but whether prophecies, they shall be done away; or tongues, they shall cease; or knowledge, it shall be done away.

9 For our knowledge and our prophetic understanding are incomplete.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part:

10 But when completeness comes, then what is incomplete disappears.

but when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away.

11 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.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I had done with what belonged to the child.

12 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.

For we see now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face; now I know partially, but then I shall know according as I also have been known.

13 Trust, hope, and love last forever—but the most important is love.

And now abide faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these [is] love.