1 Corinthians 13 New International Version
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
1.
Though in declaring Christ to the sinner,
I may all men surpass,
If love impassioned seal not the message,
I am naught but sounding brass.
Chorus
Love suffereth patiently;
Love worketh silently;
Love seeketh not her own.
Love never faileth;
Love still prevaileth;
Lord, in me thy love enthrone!
2.
Though I have wisdom lighting all mysteries;
Though I may all things know;
Though great my faith be, removing mountains,
Without love ’tis empty show.
3.
Though I distribute all my possessions;
Though as a martyr die;
My sacrifices profit me nothing.
Unless love doth sanctify.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.