Love: The Superior Way
13 If I speak human or angelic languages
but do not have love,(A)
I am a sounding gong(B) or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy(C)
and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith
so that I can move mountains(D)
but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor,
and if I give my body in order to boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient,(E) love is kind.
Love does not envy,(F)
is not boastful, is not conceited,(G)
5 does not act improperly,
is not selfish,(H) is not provoked,(I)
and does not keep a record of wrongs.
6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness
but rejoices in the truth.(J)
7 It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures(K) all things.
8 Love never ends.(L)
But as for prophecies,
they will come to an end;
as for languages, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
9 For we know in part,
and we prophesy in part.
10 But when the perfect comes,
the partial will come to an end.
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 put aside childish things.
12 For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.(M)
Now I know in part,
but then I will know fully,(N)
as I am fully known.(O)
13 Now these three remain:
faith, hope,(P) and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 13:3
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
Cross references
- 13:1 : Jn 13:35; 1Jn 4:7-12
- 13:1 : Mt 10:9
- 13:2 : 1Co 14:1, 3-6, 22-39; Eph 4:11; 1Th 5:20
- 13:2 : Mt 17:20
- 13:4 : 1Th 5:14
- 13:4 : Nm 25:13; Gl 4:17
- 13:4 : 1Co 4:6
- 13:5 : Mk 10:45; Php 2:4
- 13:5 : Ac 17:16
- 13:6 : Ps 119:142; Jn 8:14; 14:6
- 13:7 : Jms 1:12
- 13:8 : Mt 7:25, 27; Lk 6:49; 11:17; 13:4; 16:17; Ac 15:16; Heb 11:30; Rv 11:13; 16:19
- 13:12 : 1Jn 3:2
- 13:12 : Pr 2:6; Jn 17:3; 1Jn 4:8
- 13:12 : 1Co 8:3; Gl 4:9
- 13:13 : 1Th 1:3
