1 Corinthians 13

English Standard Version

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (Mt 7:22; Mt 17:20; Mr 11:23; Lu 17:6; Ac 2:18; 1Co 14:1; 1Co 14:39)3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[1] but have not love, I gain nothing. (Da 3:28; Mt 6:2)4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (Pr 10:12; Pr 17:9; Ac 7:9; 1Co 4:6; 2Co 6:6; Ga 5:22; Eph 4:32; Col 3:12; 1Th 5:14; 2Ti 2:10; 1Pe 4:8)5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[2] (Ro 4:6; 1Co 10:24; 2Co 5:19)6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (Ro 1:32; 2Th 2:12; 2Jo 1:4; 3Jo 1:3)7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1Co 9:12; 1Co 13:4)8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, (1Co 8:2)10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. (Joh 15:15)11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (Nu 12:8; Job 36:26; Mt 5:8; 1Co 8:3; 2Co 3:18; 2Co 5:7; Jas 1:23; 1Jo 3:2)13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.