1 If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;
2 and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing;
3 and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.
4 The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love does not envy, the love does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,
5 does not act unseemly, does not seek its own things, is not provoked, does not impute evil,
6 rejoices not over the unrighteousness, and rejoices with the truth;
7 all things it bears, all it believes, all it hopes, all it endures.
8 The love does never fail; and whether there be prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless;
9 for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;
10 and when that which is perfect may come, then that which is in part shall become useless.
11 When I was a babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe;
12 for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;
13 and now there does remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these is love.