^31 [a](A)Treat people the same way you want them to ^[b]treat you. ^32 (B)If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ^34 (C)And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.

The Excellence of Love

13 If I speak with the ^(A)tongues of mankind and of ^(B)angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a ^(C)clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of ^(D)prophecy and know all ^(E)mysteries and all ^(F)knowledge, and if I have ^(G)all faith so as to ^(H)remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I ^(I)give away all my possessions to charity, and if I ^(J)surrender my body so that I may ^[a]glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.

⁴ Love ^(K)is patient, love is kind, it ^(L)is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not ^(M)arrogant. ⁵ It does not act disgracefully, it ^(N)does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, ^(O)does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, ^6 (P)it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but ^(Q)rejoices with the truth; ⁷ it ^[b](R)keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails; but if there are gifts of ^[c](S)prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are ^(T)tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. ⁹ For we ^(U)know in part and prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. ¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I ^[d]became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now we ^(V)see in a mirror ^[e]dimly, but then ^(W)face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also ^(X)have been fully known. ¹³ But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the ^[f]greatest of these is ^(Y)love.

Stand Firm

^13 (A)But we should always give thanks to God for you, ^(B)brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because ^(C)God has chosen you ^[a]from the beginning ^(D)for salvation ^[b](E)through sanctification ^[c]by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

^19 (A)We love, because He first loved us.