1 Corinthians 13:1-13
13 If
I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have LOVE, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a FAITH that can move
mountains, but do not have LOVE, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to
hardship that I may boast, but do not have LOVE, I gain nothing.
4 LOVE is
patient, LOVE
is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is
not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs.
6 LOVE does
not delight in evil but rejoices with THE TRUTH.
7 It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
8 LOVE never
fails.
But
where there are prophecies, they will cease;
where
there are tongues, they will be stilled;
where
there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we
prophesy in part,
10 but when completeness
comes, what is in part disappears.
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 put the ways of
childhood behind me.
12 For now we see only a reflection
as in a mirror;
then
we shall see face to face.
Now I
know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain:
FAITH, HOPE and LOVE.
But the greatest of these is LOVE.
