1
I may speak in the tongues of men, even angels; but if I lack love, I have become merely blaring brass or a cymbal clanging.
2
I may have the gift of prophecy, I may fathom all mysteries, know all things, have all faith - enough to move mountains; but if I lack love, I am nothing.
3
I may give away everything that I own, I may even hand over my body to be burned; but if I lack love, I gain nothing.
4
Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful,
5
not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.
6
Love does not gloat over other people's sins but takes its delight in the truth.
7
Love always bears up, always trusts, always hopes, always endures.
8
Love never ends; but prophecies will pass, tongues will cease, knowledge will pass.
9
For our knowledge is partial, and our prophecy partial;
10
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass.
11
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, argued like a child; now that I have become a man, I have finished with childish ways.
12
For now we see obscurely in a mirror, but then it will be face to face. Now I know partly; then I will know fully, just as God has fully known me.
13
But for now, three things last trust, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love.