Daily Readings - 16/09/2026

^12:31 Be ambitious for the higher gifts. And I am going to show you a way that is better than any of them.

^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.

^13:2 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.

^13:3 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.

^13:4 Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited;

^13:5 it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful.

^13:6 Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth;

^13:7 it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

^13:8 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.

^13:9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect;

^13:10 but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will disappear.

^13:11 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.

^13:12 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.

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

^33:1 Shout for joy to Yahweh, all virtuous men, praise comes well from upright hearts;

^33:2 give thanks to Yahweh on the lyre, play to him on the ten-string harp;

^33:3 sing a new song in his honour, play with all your skill as you acclaim[*a] him!

^33:4 The word of Yahweh is integrity itself, all he does is done faithfully;

^33:5 he loves virtue and justice, Yahweh’s love fills the earth.

^33:6 By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, their whole array by the breath of his mouth;

^33:7 he collects the ocean waters as though in a wineskin, he stores the deeps in cellars.

^33:8 Let the whole world fear Yahweh, let all who live on earth revere him!

^33:9 He spoke, and it was created; he commanded, and there it stood.

^33:10 Yahweh thwarts the plans of nations, frustrates the intentions of peoples;

^33:11 but Yahweh’s plans hold good for ever, the intentions of his heart from age to age.

^33:12 Happy the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen for his heritage.

^33:13 Yahweh looks down from heaven, he sees the whole human race;

^33:14 from where he sits he watches all who live on the earth,

^33:15 he who moulds every heart and takes note of all men do.

^33:16 A large army will not keep a king safe, nor does the hero escape by his great strength;

^33:17 it is delusion to rely on the horse for safety, for all its power, it cannot save.

^33:18 But see how the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him, on those who rely on his love,

^33:19 to rescue their souls from death and keep them alive in famine.

^33:20 Our soul awaits Yahweh, he is our help and shield;

^33:21 our hearts rejoice in him, we trust in his holy name.

^33:22 Yahweh, let your love rest on us as our hope has rested in you.

^7:31 ‘What description, then, can I find for the men of this generation? What are they like?

^7:32 They are like children shouting to one another while they sit in the market place: “We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn’t cry”.

^7:33 ‘For John the Baptist comes, not eating bread, not drinking wine, and you say, “He is possessed”.

^7:34 The Son of Man comes, eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”.

^7:35 Yet Wisdom has been proved right by all her children.’