³¹ He will not leave you, destroy you, or forget the covenant^(A) with your ancestors that he swore to them by oath, because the Lord your God is a compassionate God.^(B)

³² “Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created mankind^[a] on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of? ³³ Has a people heard God’s voice speaking from the fire as you have, and lived? ³⁴ Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.^{(C) 36} He let you hear his voice from heaven to instruct you.^(D) He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard his words from the fire.^{(E) 37} Because he loved^(F) your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by his presence and great power, ³⁸ to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance,^(G) as is now taking place.

Love: The Superior Way

13 If I speak human or angelic tongues^[a] but do not have love,^(A) I am a noisy 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 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,^(E) love is kind. Love does not envy,^(F) is not boastful, is not arrogant,^{(G) 5} is not rude, is not self-seeking,^(H) is not irritable,^(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 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.^(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.

⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith^(A) working through love.^(B)

¹³ For you were called^(A) to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity^[a] for the flesh, but serve one another through love. ¹⁴ For the whole law is fulfilled^(B) in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.^[b](C)

Knowing God through Love

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God^(A) and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us^[a] in this way: God sent^(B) his one and only Son^(C) into the world so that we might live^(D) through him. ¹⁰ Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^(E) and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice^[b](F) for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.^{(G) 12} No one has ever seen God.^(H) If we love one another, God remains in^[c] us and his love is made complete in us. ¹³ This is how we know that we remain in him^(I) and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.^{(J) 14} And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son^(K) as the world’s Savior. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses^(L) that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷ In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,^(M) because as he is, so also are we in this world.^{(N) 18} There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,^(O) because fear involves punishment.^[d] So the one who fears is not complete in love.^{(P) 19} We love^[e] because he first loved us.^{(Q) 20} If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister,^(R) he is a liar.^(S) For the person who does not love his brother or sister^(T) whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.^{[f] 21} And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.