1 Corinthians 13

Love never fails

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.a ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.b ³If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.c

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.d ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.e ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.f

⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.g ⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.h ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part,i ¹⁰but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.j

¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.k ¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.l ¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.m