1 If I were to have eloquence in human languages—even the language of angels—but have no love, then I would only be an echoing gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 If I were to speak prophecies, to know every secret mystery and be completely knowledgeable, and if I were able to have so much faith I could move mountains, but have no love, then I am nothing. 3 If I were to donate everything I own to the poor, or if I were to sacrifice myself to be burned as a martyr, and have no love, then I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud. 5 Love does not act improperly, or insist on having its own way. Love is not argumentative and doesn't keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love takes no delight in evil but celebrates the truth. 7 Love never gives up, keeps on trusting, stays confident, and remains patient whatever happens.

8 Love never fails. Prophecies will come to an end. Tongues will become silent. Knowledge will become useless. 9 For our knowledge and our prophetic understanding are incomplete. 10 But when completeness comes, then what is incomplete disappears. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I grew up I left behind such child-like ways. 12 At the moment we peer into a mirror's dim reflection, but then we shall see face to face. For now I only have partial knowledge, but then I shall know completely, just as I am completely known. 13 Trust, hope, and love last forever—but the most important is love.