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Love Matters More Than the Other Gifts

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I give up my body that I may be burned[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not brag. It is not arrogant. It does not behave indecently. It is not selfish. It is not irritable. It does not keep a record of wrongs. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. It bears[c] all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.[d]

Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophetic gifts, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, 10 but when that which is complete has come, that which is partial will be done away with. 11 When 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 away childish things. 12 Now we see indirectly using a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I was fully known.

13 So now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 13:1 Or languages
  2. 1 Corinthians 13:3 A few witnesses to the text read that I may boast.
  3. 1 Corinthians 13:7 Or keeps silent about
  4. 1 Corinthians 13:7 Or It always endures, always believes, always hopes, always perseveres