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1 Corinthians 13
New Living Translation

Love Is the Greatest

13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Footnotes

  1. 13:3 Some manuscripts read sacrificed my body to be burned.
  2. 13:8 Or in tongues.
  3. 13:12 Greek see face to face.
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ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13
SBL Greek New Testament

13 Ἐὰν ταῖς γλώσσαις τῶν ἀνθρώπων λαλῶ καὶ τῶν ἀγγέλων, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, γέγονα χαλκὸς ἠχῶν ἢ κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον. 2 [a]καὶ ἐὰν ἔχω προφητείαν καὶ εἰδῶ τὰ μυστήρια πάντα καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γνῶσιν, [b]καὶ ἐὰν ἔχω πᾶσαν τὴν πίστιν ὥστε ὄρη [c]μεθιστάναι, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, οὐθέν εἰμι. 3 [d]καὶ ἐὰν ψωμίσω πάντα τὰ ὑπάρχοντά μου, [e]καὶ ἐὰν παραδῶ τὸ σῶμά μου, ἵνα [f]καυθήσομαι, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, οὐδὲν ὠφελοῦμαι.

4 Ἡ ἀγάπη μακροθυμεῖ, χρηστεύεται ἡ ἀγάπη, οὐ ζηλοῖ [g]ἡ ἀγάπη, οὐ περπερεύεται, οὐ φυσιοῦται, 5 οὐκ ἀσχημονεῖ, οὐ ζητεῖ τὰ ἑαυτῆς, οὐ παροξύνεται, οὐ λογίζεται τὸ κακόν, 6 οὐ χαίρει ἐπὶ τῇ ἀδικίᾳ, συγχαίρει δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ· 7 πάντα στέγει, πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ἐλπίζει, πάντα ὑπομένει.

8 Ἡ ἀγάπη οὐδέποτε [h]πίπτει. εἴτε δὲ προφητεῖαι, καταργηθήσονται· εἴτε γλῶσσαι, παύσονται· εἴτε γνῶσις, καταργηθήσεται. 9 ἐκ μέρους [i]γὰρ γινώσκομεν καὶ ἐκ μέρους προφητεύομεν· 10 ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ τὸ τέλειον, [j]τὸ ἐκ μέρους καταργηθήσεται. 11 ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος, [k]ἐλάλουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐφρόνουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐλογιζόμην ὡς νήπιος· [l]ὅτε γέγονα ἀνήρ, κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου. 12 βλέπομεν γὰρ ἄρτι δι’ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι, τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον· ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους, τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι καθὼς καὶ ἐπεγνώσθην. 13 νυνὶ δὲ μένει πίστις, ἐλπίς, ἀγάπη· τὰ τρία ταῦτα, μείζων δὲ τούτων ἡ ἀγάπη.

Footnotes

  1. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:2 *καὶ ἐὰν Treg NIV RP ] κἂν WH
  2. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:2 *καὶ ἐὰν NIV RP ] κἂν WH Treg
  3. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:2 μεθιστάναι Treg NIV ] μεθιστάνειν WH RP
  4. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:3 *καὶ ἐὰν RP ] κἂν WH Treg NIV
  5. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:3 *καὶ ἐὰν Treg NIV RP ] κἂν WH
  6. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:3 καυθήσομαι NIV ] καυθήσωμαι Treg RP; καυχήσωμαι WH NA
  7. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:4 ἡ ἀγάπη Treg NIV RP ] – WH
  8. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:8 πίπτει WH Treg NIV ] ἐκπίπτει RP
  9. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:9 γὰρ WH Treg NIV ] δὲ RP
  10. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:10 τὸ WH Treg NIV ] τότε τὸ RP
  11. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:11 ἐλάλουν … ἐλογιζόμην ὡς νήπιος WH Treg NIV ] ὡς νήπιος ἐλάλουν … ἐλογιζόμην RP
  12. ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α΄ 13:11 ὅτε WH Treg NIV ] + δὲ RP
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1 Corinthians 13
The Message

The Way of Love

13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

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1 Corinthians 13
New International Version

13 If I speak in the tongues[a](A) of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy(B) and can fathom all mysteries(C) and all knowledge,(D) and if I have a faith(E) that can move mountains,(F) but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor(G) and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b](H) but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient,(I) love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.(J) 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,(K) it is not easily angered,(L) it keeps no record of wrongs.(M) 6 Love does not delight in evil(N) but rejoices with the truth.(O) 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.(P)

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,(Q) they will cease; where there are tongues,(R) they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part(S) and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes,(T) what is in part disappears. 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 put the ways of childhood(U) behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;(V) then we shall see face to face.(W) Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.(X)

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.(Y) But the greatest of these is love.(Z)

Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 13:1 Or languages
  2. 1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts body to the flames
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1 Corinthians 12
1 Corinthians 14
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New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.


SBL Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)

Scripture quotations marked SBLGNT are from the The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

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Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.

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