1 Corinthians 13:1-12 ▼

1 If I speak in the tongues (languages) of men and of angels (messengers), but have not love {agapēn}, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love {agapēn}, I am nothing.

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body [surrender my body to be burned], but have not love {agapēn}, I gain nothing.

4 Love {agapē} is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.

6 Love takes no pleasure in evil (wickedness), but rejoices in the truth.

7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love {agapē} never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues (languages), they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.

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

10 but when the perfect (complete) comes, the partial passes away.

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.

12 Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.