| Chapter 13 |
1 |
If I can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but am destitute of Love, I have but become a loud-sounding trumpet or a clanging cymbal. --
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2 |
If I possess the gift of prophecy and am versed in all mysteries and all knowledge, and have such absolute faith that I can remove mountains, but am destitute of Love, I am nothing. --
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3 |
And if I distribute all my possessions to the poor, and give up my body to be burned, but am destitute of Love, it profits me nothing. --
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4 |
Love is patient and kind. Love knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited. --
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5 |
She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate anger, nor brood over wrongs. --
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6 |
She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth. --
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7 |
She knows how to be silent. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance. --
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8 |
Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if there are languages, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be brought to an end. --
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9 |
For our knowledge is imperfect, and so is our prophesying; --
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10 |
but when the perfect state of things is come, all that is imperfect will be brought to an end. --
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11 |
When I was a child, I talked like a child, felt like a child, reasoned like a child: when I became a man, I put from me childish ways. --
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12 |
For the present we see things as if in a mirror, and are puzzled; but then we shall see them face to face. For the present the knowledge I gain is imperfect; but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. --
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13 |
And so there remain Faith, Hope, Love--these three; and of these the greatest is Love. --
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