1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Love never fails (vs 8, NIV). Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (vs 13, NIV).
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
[1]I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.
[2]I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains — but if I have no love, I am nothing.
[3]I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burnt — but if I have no love, this does me no good.
[4]Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud;
[5]love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;
[6]love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth.
[7]Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.
[8]Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass.
[9]For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial;
[10]but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.
[11]When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I have grown up, I have no more use for childish ways.
[12]What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete — as complete as God’s knowledge of me.
[13]Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.