1 Corinthians 13
Love: The Superior Way
1 If I speak human or angelic ▼▼language(s): The Greek word glossa can refer to the tongue as the organ of speech (see Mk 7:33) or to language the tongue produces. In certain NT passages, scholars differ on whether the term refers to human languages or to ecstatic speech capable only of divine interpretation (speaking in tongues).
languagesbut do not have love, b
I am a sounding gong c or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy d
and understand all ▼
▼Mystery: Transliteration of the Greek word mysterion; a secret hidden in the past but now revealed
mysteriesand all knowledge,
and if I have all faith
so that I can move mountains f
but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor,
and if I give my body in order to boast ▼
▼Other mss read body to be burned
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, h love is kind.
Love does not envy, i
is not boastful, is not conceited, j
5 does not act improperly,
is not selfish, k is not provoked, l
and does not keep a record of wrongs.
6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness
but rejoices in the truth. m
7 It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures n all things.
8 Love never ends. o
But as for prophecies,
they will come to an end;
as for languages, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
9 For we know in part,
and we prophesy in part.
10 But when the perfect comes,
the partial will come to an end.
11 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 put aside childish things.
12 For now we see indistinctly, ▼
▼Or indirectly
as in a mirror, ▼▼Ancient mirrors were normally made out of polished metals and were not as clear as modern ones.
but then face to face. r
Now I know in part,
but then I will know fully, s
as I am fully known. t
13 Now these three remain:
faith, hope, u and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
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