1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13

English Standard Version

²⁷ Now ^(A)you are the body of Christ and individually ^(B)members of it. ²⁸ And ^(C)God has appointed in the church first ^(D)apostles, second ^(E)prophets, third teachers, then ^(F)miracles, then ^(G)gifts of healing, ^(H)helping, ^(I)administrating, and ^(J)various kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹ But ^(K)earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have ^(L)prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, ^(M)so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ^3 (N)If I give away all I have, and ^(O)if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

^4 (P)Love is patient and ^(Q)kind; love ^(R)does not envy or boast; it ^(S)is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It ^(T)does not insist on its own way; it ^(U)is not irritable or resentful;^{[b] 6} it ^(V)does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but ^(W)rejoices with the truth. ^7 (X)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, ^(Y)endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For ^(Z)we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but ^(AA)when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For ^(AB)now we see in a mirror dimly, but ^(AC)then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as ^(AD)I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.