Study Desk

If I speak in the tongues^[a](a) of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy^(b) and can fathom all mysteries^(c) and all knowledge,^(d) and if I have a faith^(e) that can move mountains,^(f) but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor^(g) and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b](h) but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient,⁽ⁱ⁾ love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.^(j)

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,^(k) it is not easily angered,^(l) it keeps no record of wrongs.^(m)

Love does not delight in evil⁽ⁿ⁾ but rejoices with the truth.^(o)

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.^(p)

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,^(q) they will cease; where there are tongues,^(r) they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part^(s) and we prophesy in part,

but when completeness comes,^(t) what is in part disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood^(u) behind me.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;^(v) then we shall see face to face.^(w) Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.^(x)

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.^(y) But the greatest of these is love.^(z)