Love

¹ If I speak in the tongues^* of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing 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 absolute faith^* so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and exult^* in the surrender^* of my body, but have not 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 is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account^* of wrongs. ⁶ Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues,^* they will be restrained; where there is knowledge,^* it will be dismissed. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect^* comes, the partial passes away.

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 set aside childish ways. ¹² Now we see but a dim 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.