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The Excellence of Love

¹ If I speak with the ^(C1)tongues of men and of ^(C2)angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a ^(C3)clanging cymbal.² And if I have the gift of ^(C1)prophecy, and know all ^(C2)mysteries and all ^(C3)knowledge; and if I have ^(C4)all faith, so as to ^(C5)remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.³ And if I ^(C1)give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I ^(C2)surrender my body ^(F1)to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love ^(C1)is patient, love is kind, ^(C2)is not jealous, does not brag, is not ^(C3)puffed up;⁵ it does not act unbecomingly, ^(C1)does not seek its own, is not provoked, ^(C2)does not take into account a wrong suffered;^6 (C1)it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but ^(C2)rejoices with the truth;^7 (F1)(C1)it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails, but if there are gifts of ^(F1)(C1)prophecy, they will be done away; if there are ^(C2)tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.⁹ For we ^(C1)know in part and we prophesy in part,¹⁰ but when the ^(F1)perfect comes, the partial will be done away.¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I ^(F1)became a man, I did away with childish things.¹² For now we ^(C1)see in a mirror ^(F1)dimly, but then ^(C2)face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also ^(C3)have been fully known.¹³ But now abide faith, hope, love—these three; but the ^(F1)greatest of these is ^(C1)love.