13Verse 1If I speak the languages of men, even of angels,+but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.Verse 2And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,+but have not love, I am nothing.Verse 3Even if I give away all my possessions and hand over my body to be burned,+but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love described
Verse 4Love is patient and kind; love does not envy; love does not brag, is not proud,Verse 5is not indecent, is not self-seeking, is not ‘short-fused’, is not malicious;+Verse 6it does not take pleasure in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;Verse 7it bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all;+Verse 8love never fails. Love contrasted Now as for prophecies, they will be set aside; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will be superseded;Verse 9since we know in part and prophesy in part.Verse 10But whenever the complete should come, then the ‘in part’ will be done away with.Verse 11(When I was a small child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.)Verse 12Because now we see blurred images as in a metal mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also am fully known.+Verse 13For now these three obtain: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love.+