1  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2  And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3  If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit.

4  Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. 5  It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. 6  It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. 7  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8  Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside. 9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10  but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside. 11  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways. 12  For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. 13  And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.