If I speak in the tongues of the men and of angels, but have not loved, 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 loved, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not loved, 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 fade away. Love never ends.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will go away.
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 if I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope and love abide…These three…But the greatest of these is love. The love I have for you…