Chapter 13

¹I will show you a far better way. If I can speak the languages of men and even of angels, but have no love, I am only a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal. ²If I am inspired to preach and know all the secret truths and possess all knowledge, and if I have such perfect faith that I can move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. ³Even if I give away everything I own, and give myself up, but do it in pride, not love, it does me no good. ⁴Love is patient and kind. Love is not envious or boastful. It does not put on airs. ⁵It is not rude. It does not insist on its rights. It does not become angry. It is not resentful. ⁶It is not happy over injustice, it is only happy with truth. ⁷It will bear anything, believe anything, hope for anything, endure anything. ⁸Love will never die out. If there is inspired preaching, it will pass away. If there is ecstatic speaking, it will cease. If there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For our knowledge is imperfect and our preaching is imperfect. ¹⁰But when perfection comes, what is imperfect will pass away. 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 aside my childish ways. ¹²For now we are looking at a dim reflection in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face. Now my knowledge is imperfect, but then I shall know as fully as God knows me. ¹³So faith, hope, and love endure. These are the great three, and the greatest of them is love.