1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of heavenly agents, but have not love, I have become sounding brass, or a clashing 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, and have not love, I am nothing. 3 And if I dole out all things possessed by me, and if I deliver my body so that I may be burned, and have not love, I benefit nothing. 4 Love is patient and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not brag, and is not puffed up. 5 It does not behave improperly, does not seek the things of itself, is not made sharp, does not contemplate evil, 6 does not rejoice in wrong but rejoices in the truth, 7 covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether prophecies, they will be abolished, whether tongues, they will cease, whether knowledge, it will be abolished. 9 But we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, then what is in part will be abolished. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I reasoned as a child, but when I became a man, I abolished the childish things. 12 For now we see by polished metal, in dimness, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know just as also I was known. 13 And now remain faith, hope, love, these three, but the greater of these is love.