First Letter to the Corinthians 13

¹ If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.

² If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fulness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all.

³ If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever.

⁴ Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited;

⁵ it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful.

⁶ Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth;

⁷ it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

⁸ Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the gift of languages, it will not continue for ever; and knowledge – for this, too, the time will come when it must fail.

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

¹⁰ but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will disappear.

¹¹ When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue like a child, but now I am a man, all childish ways are put behind me.

¹² Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known.

¹³ In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.