1 Corinthians 13
English Standard
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The Way of Love
If I speak in
the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a
clanging cymbal. And if I have
prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away
all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,but have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient
and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It
does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not
rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never
ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in
part and we prophesy in part, but when the
perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. For now we
see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall
know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith,
hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
In a world where many have forgotten what love is; we should all ponder these words often.