The Way of Love
13 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 (A)prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, (B)so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 (C)If I give away all I have, and (D)if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 (E)Love is patient and (F)kind; love (G)does not envy or boast; it (H)is not arrogant 5 or rude. It (I)does not insist on its own way; it (J)is not irritable or resentful; 6 it (K)does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but (L)rejoices with the truth. 7 (M)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, (N)endures all things.
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 (O)we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but (P)when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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 (Q)now we see in a mirror dimly, but (R)then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as (S)I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 13:3
- 1 Corinthians 13:5
Cross references
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : [ch. 14:1, 39; Matt. 7:22]; See Acts 2:18
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : Matt. 17:20; Mark 11:23; [Luke 17:6]
- 1 Corinthians 13:3 : [Matt. 6:2]
- 1 Corinthians 13:3 : Dan. 3:28
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 : [Prov. 10:12; 17:9; 1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Tim. 2:10; 1 Pet. 4:8]
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 : [2 Cor. 6:6; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:12]
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 : Acts 7:9
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 : See ch. 4:6
- 1 Corinthians 13:5 : See ch. 10:24
- 1 Corinthians 13:5 : [Rom. 4:6; 2 Cor. 5:19]
- 1 Corinthians 13:6 : [Rom. 1:32; 2 Thess. 2:12]
- 1 Corinthians 13:6 : [2 John 4; 3 John 3, 4]
- 1 Corinthians 13:7 : ch. 9:12
- 1 Corinthians 13:7 : [See ver. 4 above]; [Prov. 10:12; 17:9; 1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Tim. 2:10; 1 Pet. 4:8]
- 1 Corinthians 13:9 : [ch. 8:2]
- 1 Corinthians 13:10 : [John 15:15]
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : James 1:23; [Num. 12:8; Job 36:26; 2 Cor. 3:18; 5:7]
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : 1 John 3:2; See Matt. 5:8
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : See ch. 8:3
