³¹ But desire^(A) the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way.

Love: The Superior Way

13 If I speak human or angelic tongues^[a] but do not have love,^(B) I am a noisy gong^(C) or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy^(D) and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains^(E) but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient,^(F) love is kind. Love does not envy,^(G) is not boastful, is not arrogant,^{(H) 5} is not rude, is not self-seeking,^(I) is not irritable,^(J) and does not keep a record of wrongs. ⁶ Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.^{(K) 7} It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures^(L) all things.

⁸ Love never ends.^(M) But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, 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 only a reflection^[c] as in a mirror, but then face to face.^(N) Now I know in part, but then I will know fully,^(O) as I am fully known.^{(P) 13} Now these three remain: faith, hope,^(Q) and love—but the greatest of these is love.