1 Corinthians 13

Love: The Superior Way

¹If I speak human or angelic languages

but do not have love,

I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

²If I have the gift of prophecy[#1Co 14:1,3-6,22-39; Eph 4:11; 1Th 5:20]

and understand all mysteries

and all knowledge,

and if I have all faith

so that I can move mountains

but do not have love, I am nothing.

³And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor,

and if I give my body in order to boast

but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind.[#1Th 5:14]

Love does not envy,

is not boastful, is not conceited,

⁵does not act improperly,

is not selfish, is not provoked,

and does not keep a record of wrongs.

⁶Love finds no joy in unrighteousness

but rejoices in the truth.

⁷It bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never ends.[#Mt 7:25,27; Lk 6:49; 11:17; 13:4; 16:17; Ac 15:16; Heb 11:30; Rv 11:13; 16:19]

But as for prophecies,

they will come to an end;

as for languages, they will cease;

as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

⁹For we know in part,

and we prophesy in part.

¹⁰But when the perfect comes,

the partial will come to an end.

¹¹When 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 put aside childish things.

¹²For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,[#Or indirectly; #Ancient mirrors were normally made out of polished metals and were not as clear as modern ones.]

but then face to face.

Now I know in part,

but then I will know fully,

as I am fully known.

¹³Now these three remain:

faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.