13
“Love Is of These the Greatest”
1 If I speak in the tongues+ of men,+ or even angels, but don’t have love,+ I am only a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand indeed+ mysteries and possess+ all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains,+ but don’t have love,+ I am absolutely+ nothing.
3 And if I give away everything I own and surrender my body to the flames,+ but don’t have love,+ it doesn’t benefit me a+ thing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It doesn’t envy, it isn’t self-exalting, it isn’t prideful,
5 it doesn’t conduct itself shamefully, it isn’t self-seeking, it isn’t easily angered, it doesn’t keep a record of wrongs,
6 it finds no joy in wickedness,+ but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always endures,+ always trusts,+ always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never ends.+ If there are prophecies, however, they will be brought to an end; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be brought to an end.
9 It is+ only in part, you see, that we know, and only+ in part that we prophesy.
10 When the complete arrives, however, the partial will be brought to an end.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult,+ I put an end to childish ways.
12 For we see at the present time only a blurry reflection+ in obscure riddle;+ at that time, however, we will see+ face to face.+ At the present time I know only in part; at that time, however, I will know fully, even as I was fully known.+
13 For the time being, though, faith, hope, and love continue, these three.+ Love is of these, however,+ the greatest.