Believers Who Have Died

¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed^(A) about those who sleep in death,^(B) so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.^{(C) 14} For we believe that Jesus died and rose again,^(D) and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.^(E)

⁴ Love is patient,^(A) love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.^{(B) 5} It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,^(C) it is not easily angered,^(D) it keeps no record of wrongs.^{(E) 6} Love does not delight in evil^(F) but rejoices with the truth.^{(G) 7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.^(H)

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,^(I) they will cease; where there are tongues,^(J) they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part^(K) and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes,^(L) 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^(M) behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;^(N) then we shall see face to face.^(O) Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.^(P)

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

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.^{(A) 23} Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,^(B) and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.^(C)