The Excellence of Love
13 If I speak with the (A)tongues of mankind and of (B)angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a (C)clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of (D)prophecy and know all (E)mysteries and all (F)knowledge, and if I have (G)all faith so as to (H)remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I (I)give away all my possessions to charity, and if I (J)surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.
4 Love (K)is patient, love is kind, it (L)is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not (M)arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it (N)does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, (O)does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 (P)it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but (Q)rejoices with the truth; 7 it (R)keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of (S)prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are (T)tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we (U)know in part and prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we (V)see in a mirror dimly, but then (W)face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also (X)have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is (Y)love.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 13:3
- 1 Corinthians 13:7
- 1 Corinthians 13:8
- 1 Corinthians 13:11
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
- 1 Corinthians 13:13
Cross references
- 1 Corinthians 13:1 : 1 Cor 12:10
- 1 Corinthians 13:1 : 2 Cor 12:4; Rev 14:2
- 1 Corinthians 13:1 : Ps 150:5
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : Matt 7:22; Acts 13:1; 1 Cor 11:4; 13:8; 14:1, 39
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : 1 Cor 14:2; 15:51
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : Rom 15:14
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : 1 Cor 12:9
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : Matt 17:20; 21:21; Mark 11:23
- 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; 1 Pet 4:8
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 : Acts 7:9
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 : 1 Cor 4:6
- 1 Corinthians 13:5 : 1 Cor 10:24; Phil 2:21
- 1 Corinthians 13:5 : 2 Cor 5:19
- 1 Corinthians 13:6 : 2 Thess 2:12
- 1 Corinthians 13:6 : 2 John 4; 3 John 3f
- 1 Corinthians 13:7 : 1 Cor 9:12
- 1 Corinthians 13:8 : 1 Cor 13:2
- 1 Corinthians 13:8 : 1 Cor 13:1
- 1 Corinthians 13:9 : 1 Cor 8:2; 13:12
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : 2 Cor 5:7; Phil 3:12; James 1:23
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : Gen 32:30; Num 12:8; 1 John 3:2
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : 1 Cor 8:3
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 : Gal 5:6
