The Excellence of Love
1 If I speak with the (A)tongues of men and of (B)angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a (C)clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of (D)prophecy, and know all (E)mysteries and all (F)knowledge; and if I have (G)all faith, so as to (H)remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I (I)give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I (J)surrender my body (a)to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love (K)is patient, love is kind and (L)is not jealous; love does not brag and is not (M)arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it (N)does not seek its own, is not provoked, (O)does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 (P)does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but (Q)rejoices with the truth;
7 (b)(R)bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of (c)(S)prophecy, they will be done away; if there are (T)tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we (U)know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I (d)became a man, I did away with childish things.
12 For now we (V)see in a mirror (e)dimly, but then (W)face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also (X)have been fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the (f)greatest of these is (Y)love.
Footnotes:
a.
1 Corinthians 13:3: ['Early mss read ', that I may boast]
b.
1 Corinthians 13:7: ['Or ', covers]
c.
1 Corinthians 13:8: ['Lit ', prophecies]
d.
1 Corinthians 13:11: ['Lit ', have become...have done away with]
e.
1 Corinthians 13:12: ['Lit ', in a riddle]
f.
1 Corinthians 13:13: ['Lit ', greater]