1. Though I command languages both human and angelic -- if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.

2. And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains -- if I am without love, I am nothing.

3. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned -- if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.

4. Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited,

5. it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances.

6. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth.

7. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.

8. Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent; and if knowledge, it will be done away with.

9. For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly;

10. but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will be done away with.

11. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways.

12. Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known.

13. As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love.