1 Corinthians 13
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Love: The Superior Way
13 If I speak human or angelic languages
but do not have love,(A)
I am a sounding gong(B) or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy(C)
and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith
so that I can move mountains(D)
but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor,
and if I give my body in order to boast[a]
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient,(E) love is kind.
Love does not envy,(F)
is not boastful, is not conceited,(G)
5 does not act improperly,
is not selfish,(H) is not provoked,(I)
and does not keep a record of wrongs.
6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness
but rejoices in the truth.(J)
7 It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures(K) all things.
8 Love never ends.(L)
But as for prophecies,
they will come to an end;
as for languages, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
9 For we know in part,
and we prophesy in part.
10 But when the perfect comes,
the partial will come to an end.
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 aside childish things.
12 For now we see indistinctly,[b] as in a mirror,[c]
but then face to face.(M)
Now I know in part,
but then I will know fully,(N)
as I am fully known.(O)
13 Now these three remain:
faith, hope,(P) and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 13:3 Other mss read body to be burned
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 Or indirectly
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 Ancient mirrors were normally made out of polished metals and were not as clear as modern ones.
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