Love

1If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling; 2and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing; 3and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.

4The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, 5doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil, 6rejoiceth not over the unrighteousness, and rejoiceth with the truth; 7all things it beareth, all it believeth, all it hopeth, all it endureth.

8The love doth never fail; and whether there be prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless; 9for in part we know, and in part we prophecy; 10and when that which is perfect may come, then that which is in part shall become useless. 11When I was a babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe; 12for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known; 13and now there doth remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these is love.