The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
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Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.
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And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
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And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head,
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Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
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Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
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Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
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Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit.
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Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete.
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For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
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But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
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When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
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For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
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And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.