love

1 Corinthians 13 

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, 

but didn’t love others, 

I would only be a noisy gong 

or a clanging cymbal. 

2 If I had the gift of prophecy, 

and if I understood all of God’s secret plans 

and possessed all knowledge, 

and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, 

but didn’t love others, 

I would be nothing. 

3 If I gave everything I have to the poor 

and even sacrificed my body, 

I could boast about it; 

but if I didn’t love others, 

I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient 

and kind. 

Love is not jealous 

or boastful 

or proud 

5 or rude. 

It does not demand its own way. 

It is not irritable, 

and it keeps no record of being wronged. 

6 It does not rejoice about injustice 

but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 

7 Love never gives up, 

never loses faith, 

is always hopeful, 

and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy 

and speaking in unknown languages 

and special knowledge 

will become useless. 

But love will last forever! 

9 Now our knowledge is partial 

and incomplete, 

and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 

10 But when the time of perfection comes, 

these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, 

I spoke 

and thought 

and reasoned as a child. 

But when I grew up, 

I put away childish things. 

12 Now we see things imperfectly, 

like puzzling reflections in a mirror, 

but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. 

All that I know now is partial 

and incomplete, 

but then I will know everything completely, 

just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever:

faith, 

hope, 

and love;

and the greatest of these 

is love.