1 If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;2 and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing;3 and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.4 The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love does not envy, the love does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,5 does not act unseemly, does not seek its own things, is not provoked, does not impute evil,6 rejoices not over the unrighteousness, and rejoices with the truth;7 all things it bears, all it believes, all it hopes, all it endures.8 The love does never fail; and whether there be prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless;9 for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;10 and when that which is perfect may come, then that which is in part shall become useless.11 When I was a babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe;12 for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;13 and now there does remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these is love.