New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
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If I make use of the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am like sounding brass, or a loud-tongued bell.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
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And if I have a prophet's power, and have knowledge of all secret things; and if I have all faith, by which mountains may be moved from their place, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
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And if I give all my goods to the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it is of no profit to me.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant
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Love is never tired of waiting; love is kind; love has no envy; love has no high opinion of itself, love has no pride;
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
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Love's ways are ever fair, it takes no thought for itself; it is not quickly made angry, it takes no account of evil;
6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
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It takes no pleasure in wrongdoing, but has joy in what is true;
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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Love has the power of undergoing all things, having faith in all things, hoping all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
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Though the prophet's word may come to an end, tongues come to nothing, and knowledge have no more value, love has no end.
9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;
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For our knowledge is only in part, and the prophet's word gives only a part of what is true:
10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
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But when that which is complete is come, then that which is in part will be no longer necessary.
11 When I was a child, I spoke 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.
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When I was a child, I made use of a child's language, I had a child's feelings and a child's thoughts: now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
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For now we see things in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now my knowledge is in part; then it will be complete, even as God's knowledge of me.
13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
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But now we still have faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.