1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

English Standard Version

³¹ But ^(A)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 ^(B)prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, ^(C)so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ^3 (D)If I give away all I have, and ^(E)if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

^4 (F)Love is patient and ^(G)kind; love ^(H)does not envy or boast; it ^(I)is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It ^(J)does not insist on its own way; it ^(K)is not irritable or resentful;^{[b] 6} it ^(L)does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but ^(M)rejoices with the truth. ^7 (N)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, ^(O)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 ^(P)we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but ^(Q)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 ^(R)now we see in a mirror dimly, but ^(S)then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as ^(T)I have been fully known.

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