If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4Love is patient and is kind; love does not envy. Love does not brag, is not proud, 5does not behave itself inappropriately, does not seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; 6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have 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 will know fully, even as I am also fully known. 13But now faith, hope, and love remain–these three. The greatest of these is love.