Love

1If I were to speak in the language of men, or of Angels, yet not have charity, I would be like a clanging bell or a crashing cymbal. 2And if I have prophecy, and learn every mystery, and obtain all knowledge, and possess all faith, so that I could move mountains, yet not have charity, then I am nothing. 3And if I distribute all my goods in order to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, yet not have charity, it offers me nothing.

4Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated. 5Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil. 6Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth. 7Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.

8Charity is never torn away, even if prophecies pass away, or languages cease, or knowledge is destroyed. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part. 10But when the perfect arrives, the imperfect passes away. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I put aside the things of a child. 12Now we see through a glass darkly. But then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known. 13But for now, these three continue: faith, hope, and charity. And the greatest of these is charity.