1 Corinthians 12:27–13:13

27 Now you are the body of Christ,q and individual members of it. 28 And God has appointed these in the church:r first apostles, second prophets, third teachers,s next miracles,t then gifts of healing,u helping, leading, various kinds of tongues.* 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?v 31 But desirew the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way.

LOVE: THE SUPERIOR WAY

13 If I speak human or angelic tongues* but do not have love,x I am a noisy gongy or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecyz and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountainsaa but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boastA but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient,ab love is kind. Love does not envy,ac is not boastful, is not arrogant,ad 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking,ae is not irritable,af and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.ag 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, enduresah all things.

8 Love never ends.ai But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, 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 only a reflectionB as in a mirror, but then face to face.aj Now I know in part, but then I will know fully,ak as I am fully known.al 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope,am and love—but the greatest of these is love.