Chapter 13

1

If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;

2

and 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;

3

and 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.

4

The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,

5

doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil,

6

rejoiceth not over the unrighteousness, and rejoiceth with the truth;

7

all things it beareth, all it believeth, all it hopeth, all it endureth.

8

The love doth never fail; and whether there be prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless;

9

for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;

10

and when that which is perfect may come, then that which is in part shall become useless.

11

When 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;

12

for 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;

13

and now there doth remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these is love.