1 Corinthians 13
1 Though I speake with the tongues of men and Angels, and haue not loue, I am as sounding brasse, or a tinkling 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 And though I had the gift of prophecie, and knewe all secrets and all knowledge, yea, if I had all faith, so that I could remooue mountaines and had not loue, I were 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 And though I feede the poore with all my goods, and though I giue my body, that I be burned, and haue not loue, it profiteth me 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 Loue suffreth long: it is bountifull: loue enuieth not: loue doeth not boast it selfe: it is not puffed vp:
Love is long-suffering, and kind; love is never envious, never boastful, never conceited, never behaves unbecomingly;
5 It doeth no vncomely thing: it seeketh not her owne things: it is not prouoked to anger: it thinketh not euill:
love is never self-seeking, never provoked, never reckons up her wrongs;
6 It reioyceth not in iniquitie, but reioyceth in the trueth:
love never rejoices at evil, but rejoices in the triumph of truth;
7 It suffreth all things: it beleeueth all things: it hopeth all things: it endureth all things.
love bears with all things, ever trustful, ever hopeful, ever patient.
8 Loue doeth neuer fall away, though that prophecyings be abolished, or the tongues cease, or knowledge vanish away.
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 knowe in part, and we prophecie in part.
For our knowledge is incomplete, and our preaching is incomplete,
10 But when that which is perfect, is come, then that which is in part, shalbe abolished.
but, when the perfect has come, that which is incomplete will end.
11 When I was a childe, I spake as a childe, I vnderstoode as a childe, I thought as a childe: but when I became a man, I put away childish thinges.
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 For nowe we see through a glasse darkely: but then shall wee see face to face. Nowe I know in part: but then shall I know euen as I am knowen.
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 nowe abideth faith, hope and loue, euen these three: but the chiefest of these is loue.
Meanwhile faith, hope, and love endure – these three, but the greatest of these is love.
