Love: The Superior Way

13 If I speak human or angelic * languages

but do not have love, r

I am a sounding gong s or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy t

and understand all * mysteries

and all knowledge,

and if I have all faith

so that I can move mountains u

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 v

but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, w love is kind.

Love does not envy, x

is not boastful, is not conceited, y

5 does not act improperly,

is not selfish, z is not provoked, a

and does not keep a record of wrongs.

6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness

but rejoices in the truth. b

7 It bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures c all things.

8 Love never ends. d

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, e as in a mirror, f

but then face to face. g

Now I know in part,

but then I will know fully, h

as I am fully known. i

13 Now these three remain:

faith, hope, j and love.

But the greatest of these is love.