1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a ringing brass gong or a clashing cymbal.
2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I parcel out all my possessions, and if I hand over my body in order that I will be burned, but do not have love, it benefits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous, it does not boast, it does not become conceited,
5 it does not behave dishonorably, it is not selfish, it does not become angry, it does not keep a record of wrongs,
6 it does not rejoice at unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth,
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will pass away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but whenever the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside the things of a child.
12 For now we see through a mirror indirectly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know completely, just as I have also been completely known.
13 And now these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.