1If I speak with the tongues of men and of messengers, but do not have love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

2And if I have prophecy, and know all secrets and all knowledge, and if I have all belief, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am none at all.

3And if I give out all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I am not profited at all.

4Love is patient, is kind, love does not envy, love does not boast, is not puffed up,

5does not behave indecently, does not seek its own, is not provoked, reckons not the evil,

6does not rejoice over the unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth,

7it covers all, believes all, expects all, endures all.

8Love never fails. And whether there be prophecies, they shall be inactive; or tongues, they shall cease; or knowledge, it shall be inactive.

9For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be inactive.

11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child. But when I became a man, I did away with childish matters.

12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, as I also have been known.

13And now belief, expectation, and love remain – these three. But the greatest of these is love.