1If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass , or a clanging cymbal . 2And if I have the gift of prophecy , and know all mysteries and all knowledge ; and if I have all faith , so as to remove mountains , but have not love, I am nothing . 3And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor , and if I give my body to be burned , but have not love, it profiteth me nothing .
The Nature of Love
4Love suffereth long , and is kind ; love envieth not ; love vaunteth not itself , is not puffed up , 5doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own , is not provoked , taketh not account of evil ; 6rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 7beareth all things , believeth all things , hopeth all things , endureth all things .
The Permanence of Love
8Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies , they shall be done away ; whether there be tongues , they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge , it shall be done away . 9For we know in part , and we prophesy in part ; 10but when that which is perfect is come , that which is in part shall be done away . 11When I was a child , I spake as a child , I felt as a child , I thought as a child : now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things . 12For now we see in a mirror , darkly; but then face to face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known . 13But now abideth faith , hope , love, these three ; and the greatest of these is love.