1. If I could speak in every tongue of men, and in that of angels, and there should be no love in me, I should be like brass that resoundeth, or the cymbal that maketh a noise.
2. And if there should be in me [the gift of] prophecy, and I should understand all the mysteries, and every science; and if there should be in me all faith, so that I could move mountains, and love should not be in me, I should be nothing.
3. And if I should feed out to the destitute all I possess; and if I should give my body to be burned; and there should be no love in me, I gain nothing.
4. Love is long-suffering, and is kind; love is not envious; love is not boisterous; and is not inflated;
5. and doth nothing that causeth shame; and seeketh not her own; is not passionate; and thinketh no evil;
6. rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7. beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all, and endureth all.
8. Love will never cease. But prophesyings will end; and tongues will be silent; and knowledge will vanish.
9. For we know but partially; and we prophesy but partially.
10. But when completeness shall come, then that which is partial will vanish away.
11. When I was a child, I talked as a child, and I reasoned as a child, and I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I laid aside the things of childhood.
12. And now we see, as by a mirror, in similitude; but then face to face: now I know partially; but then shall I know, just as I am known.
13. For these three things are abiding, faith, and hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.