Book of Common Prayer

²⁷ Are all the people apostles? Can they all speak words from God? Can they all teach? Can they all do big works?

²⁸ Do they all have the gifts to heal the sick people? Can they all speak in different tongues? Can they all tell the meaning of these tongues?

²⁹ You should seek after the best gifts. But I will show you a way that is much better than any of them!

13 If I talk with the tongues of men and even of angels, but if I do not love people, then I am only like the sound of a big horn or a loud bell.

² If I speak words from God, if I can understand all secrets, and know everything, if I can move mountains by believing, but if I do not love people, I am nothing, even though I can do all of these things.

³ If I give away all I have, and if I give my body to be burned, but if I do not love people, I get nothing out of it.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not proud and does not boast.

⁵ Love does not do things that are not nice. Love does not just think of itself. Love does not get angry. Love holds no wrong feelings in the heart.

⁶ Love is not glad when people do wrong things. But it is always glad when they do right.

⁷ Love forgives everything. Love is always trusting, and always hoping, and never gives up.

⁸ Love never ends. The gift of speaking words from God will end. The gift of speaking in different tongues or languages will stop. The gift of knowing many things will end.

⁹ Now we know only a little, and we can speak only a little of God's words.

¹⁰ But when everything becomes perfect, that part will come to an end.

¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child. I understood like a child. I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I stopped doing things like a child.

¹² Now it is like looking in a looking-glass which does not make things clear. We cannot see and understand things plainly. But when things become perfect, then we shall fully know and understand everything, just as God knows.

¹³ These three things will remain for ever. They are faith, hope, and love. And love is the greatest of them.

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked him, `Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother when he does wrong things to me? Should I forgive him seven times?'

²² Jesus answered him, `I say not seven times only, but seventy times seven.

²³ `In that way the kingdom of heaven is like this. A king was ready to finish his business with his servants.

²⁴ The first servant was brought in. He owed the king a very large sum of money.

²⁵ He could not pay it. So his master said, "Go sell him, his wife, his children, and everything he has, and pay me!"

²⁶ So the servant bowed down in front of him. He begged, "Sir, give me time. I will pay everything."

²⁷ His master was sorry for him and let him go. He did not make him pay the money.

²⁸ `That same servant went out and met another servant. This man owed him a much smaller sum of money. He caught him by the throat and said, Pay me what you owe me!"

²⁹ Then this servant bowed down in front of him. He begged, "Give me time. I will pay you."

³⁰ But he said, "No." He went and put the man in prison until he could pay what he owed him.

³¹ `The other servants saw what he did. They were very sad. They went and told their master everything that had been done.

³² Then his master called the first servant to him. He said, "You bad man! I let you go. I did not make you pay all you owed me, because you begged me to be kind to you.

³³ You should have been kind to the other servant, as I was kind to you."

³⁴ His master was very angry. He turned the servant over to the prison guards until he could pay all he owed him.

³⁵ `That is like what my Father in heaven will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.'