1 If I could speak the languages of men, of angels too, and have no love, I am only a rattling pan or a clashing cymbal.
2 If I should have the gift of prophecy, And know all secret truths, and knowledge in its every form, and have such perfect faith that I could move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.
3 If I should dole out everything I have for charity, and give my body up to torture in mere boasting pride, but have no love, I get from it no good at all.
4 Love is so patient and so kind; love never boils with jealousy; it never boasts, is never puffed with pride;
5 It does not act with rudeness, or insist upon its rights; it never gets provoked, it never harbors evil thoughts;
6 Is never glad when wrong is done, but always glad when truth prevails;
7 It bears up under anything; it exercises faith in everything; it keeps up hope in everything; it gives us power to endure in anything.
8 Love never fails; if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if now exist ecstatic speakings, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will soon be set aside;
9 For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete.
10 But when perfection comes, what is imperfect will be set aside.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I laid aside my childish ways.
12 For now we see a dim reflection in a looking-glass. But then we shall see face to face; Now what I know is imperfect, but then I shall know perfectly, as God knows me.
13 And so these three, faith, hope, and love endure, but the greatest of them is love.