Love: The Superior Way

1If I speak human or angelic tonguesA but do not have love,a I am a noisy gongb or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecya and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountainsb but do not have love, I am nothing. 3And 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.

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

8Love never ends.a 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. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When 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. 12For now we see only a reflectionA as in a mirror, but then face to face.a Now I know in part, but then I will know fully,b as I am fully known.c 13Now these three remain: faith, hope,a and love — but the greatest of these is love.