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 the languages of men, even of angels, but have not love, I have become a 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.
Even if I give away all my possessions and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy; love does not brag, is not proud,
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.
is not indecent, is not self-seeking, is not ‘short-fused’, is not malicious;
6 Love takes no delight in evil but celebrates the truth.
it does not take pleasure in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 Love never gives up, keeps on trusting, stays confident, and remains patient whatever happens.
it bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all;
8 Love never fails. Prophecies will come to an end. Tongues will become silent. Knowledge will become useless.
love never fails. Now as for prophecies, they will be set aside; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will be superseded;
9 For our knowledge and our prophetic understanding are incomplete.
since we know in part and prophesy in part.
10 But when completeness comes, then what is incomplete disappears.
But whenever the complete should come, then the ‘in part’ will be done away with.
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 small child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of 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.
Because now we see blurred images as in a metal mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also am fully known.
13 Trust, hope, and love last forever—but the most important is love.
For now these three obtain: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love.
