The Excellence of Love
1If I speak with the (A)tongues of men and of (B)angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a (C)clanging cymbal.
2If I have the gift of (D)prophecy, and know all (E)mysteries and all (F)knowledge; and if I have (G)all faith, so as to (H)remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3And if I (I)give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I (J)surrender my body [a]to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4Love (K)is patient, love is kind and (L)is not jealous; love does not brag and is not (M)arrogant,
5does not act unbecomingly; it (N)does not seek its own, is not provoked, (O)does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6(P)does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but (Q)rejoices with the truth;
7(R)bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never fails; but if there are gifts of (S)prophecy, they will be done away; if there are (T)tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9For we (U)know in part and we prophesy in part;
10but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12For now we (V)see in a mirror dimly, but then (W)face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also (X)have been fully known.
13But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is (Y)love.
- 1 Corinthians 13, 1-13
