1 Corinthians 13
1 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.
If I speak with the tongues of humans and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal.
2 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.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 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.
If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited.
Love is patient and is kind; love does not envy. Love does not brag, is not proud,
5 She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate anger, nor brood over wrongs.
does not behave itself inappropriately, does not seek its own way, is not irritable, does not keep a record of wrongs;
6 She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth.
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 She knows how to be silent. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance.
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 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.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are tongues, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
9 For our knowledge is imperfect, and so is our prophesying;
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect state of things is come, all that is imperfect will be brought to an end.
but when that which is complete has come, that which is partial will be done away with.
11 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.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become an adult, I have put away childish things.
12 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.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
13 And so there remain Faith, Hope, Love--these three; and of these the greatest is Love.
But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
