³¹ But ^(A)earnestly desire the ^[a]best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

The Greatest Gift

13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of ^(A)prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, ^(B)so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And ^(C)though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body ^[a]to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

^4 (D)Love suffers long and is ^(E)kind; love ^(F)does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not ^[b]puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, ^(G)does not seek its own, is not provoked, ^[c]thinks no evil; ^6 (H)does not rejoice in iniquity, but ^(I)rejoices in the truth; ^7 (J)bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ^9 (K)For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is ^[d]perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For ^(L)now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then ^(M)face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Prophecy and Tongues

14 Pursue love, and ^(N)desire spiritual gifts, ^(O)but especially that you may prophesy.

³⁹ Therefore, brethren, ^(A)desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues.

⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss ^(A)for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ