³¹ Now eagerly desire^(A) the greater gifts.

Love Is Indispensable

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a](B) 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^(C) and can fathom all mysteries^(D) and all knowledge,^(E) and if I have a faith^(F) that can move mountains,^(G) but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor^(H) and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b](I) but do not have love, I gain nothing.

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

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

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