The Greatest Gift

¹Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

²And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.[#Matt. 7:22; 1 Cor. 12:8–10, 28; 14:1; #Matt. 17:20; 21:21; Mark 11:23; Luke 17:6]

³And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.[#Matt. 6:1, 2]

⁴Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;[#Prov. 10:12; 17:9; 1 Thess. 5:14; (1 Pet. 4:8); #Eph. 4:32; #Gal. 5:26]

⁵does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;[#1 Cor. 10:24; Phil. 2:4]

⁶does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;[#Ps. 10:3; Rom. 1:32; #2 John 4; 3 John 3]

⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.[#Rom. 15:1; Gal. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:24]

⁸Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part.[#1 Cor. 8:2; 13:12]

¹⁰But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹¹When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.[#(2 Cor. 3:18; 5:7); Phil. 3:12; James 1:23; #Gen. 32:30; Num. 12:8; Matt. 18:10; (1 John 3:2)]

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