1   I may be able to speak the languages of men and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.

2   I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing. ^note

3   I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned ^note—but if I have no love, this does me no good.

4   Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud;

5   love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;

6   love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth.

7   Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

8   Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass.

9   For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial;

10   but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.

11   When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways.

12   What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete— as complete as God's knowledge of me.

13   Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.

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