1Suppose that I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. But if I do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2Suppose that I have the gift of prophecy and understand all hidden truths and knowledge, and that I have all faith so as to remove mountains. But if I do not have love, I am nothing.

3Suppose that I give all I own to feed the poor, and that I give my body to be burned. But if I do not have love, I gain nothing. ⁴

4Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant

5or rude. It is not self-serving. It is not easily angered, nor does it keep a count of wrongs.

6It does not rejoice in unrighteousness. Instead, it rejoices in the truth.

7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

8Love never ends. If there are prophecies, they will pass away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will pass away.

9For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

10But when the perfect comes, that which is incomplete will pass away.

11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put away childish things.

12For now we see indirectly in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I have been fully known.

13But now these three remain: faith, future confidence, and love. But the greatest of these is love.