1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.[ † ]Matthew 7:221 Corinthians 12:8-10, 281 Corinthians 14:1Matthew 17:20Matthew 21:21Mark 11:23Luke 17:6 3If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.[ † ]Matthew 6:1-2
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.[ † ]Proverbs 10:12Proverbs 17:91 Thessalonians 5:141 Peter 4:8Ephesians 4:32Galatians 5:26 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.[ † ]1 Corinthians 10:24Philippians 2:4 6Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.[ † ]Psalms 10:3Romans 1:322 John 43 John 3 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.[ † ]Romans 15:1Galatians 6:22 Timothy 2:24
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part,[ † ]1 Corinthians 8:21 Corinthians 13:12 10but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
11When 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 set aside childish ways. 12Now we see but a dim 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.[ † ]2 Corinthians 3:182 Corinthians 5:7Philippians 3:12James 1:23Genesis 32:30Numbers 12:8Matthew 18:101 John 3:2
13And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.