1 Corinthians 13

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.[#Ps 150.5.]

2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.[#1 Cor 14.2; Mt 17.20; 21.21.]

3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.[#13.3 Other ancient authorities read]

4Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;

5it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[#1 Cor 10.24.]

6it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.[#1 Cor 9.12.]

8Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

9For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;

10but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.

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 gave up childish ways.

12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

13So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ