1 If I speak the languages of men, even of angels,but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,but have not love, I am nothing.
3 Even if I give away all my possessions and hand over my body to be burned,but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy; love does not brag, is not proud,
5 is not indecent, is not self-seeking, is not ‘short-fused’, is not malicious;
6 it does not take pleasure in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 it bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all;
8 love never fails. Love contrasted Now as for prophecies, they will be set aside; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will be superseded;
9 since we know in part and prophesy in part.
10 But whenever the complete should come, then the ‘in part’ will be done away with.
11 (When I was a small child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.)
12 Because now we see blurred images as in a metal mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also am fully known.
13 For now these three obtain: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love.