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Love Is the Greatest
13If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circ*mstance.
8Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes
- 13:3 Some manuscripts read sacrificed my body to be burned.
- 13:8 Or in tongues.
- 13:12 Greek see face to face.
13If I speak in the tongues[a](A) of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy(B) and can fathom all mysteries(C) and all knowledge,(D) and if I have a faith(E) that can move mountains,(F) but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor(G) and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b](H) but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient,(I) love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.(J) 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,(K) it is not easily angered,(L) it keeps no record of wrongs.(M) 6Love does not delight in evil(N) but rejoices with the truth.(O) 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.(P)
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,(Q) they will cease; where there are tongues,(R) they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part(S) and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes,(T) what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood(U) behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;(V) then we shall see face to face.(W) Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.(X)
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.(Y) But the greatest of these is love.(Z)
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 13:1 Or languages
- 1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts body to the flames
Cross references
- 1 Corinthians 13:1 : ver 8; S Mk 16:17
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : ver 8; S Eph 4:11; S Ac 11:27
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : 1Co 14:2
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : S 2Co 8:7
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : 1Co 12:9
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 : Mt 17:20; 21:21
- 1 Corinthians 13:3 : Lk 19:8; S Ac 2:45
- 1 Corinthians 13:3 : Da 3:28
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 : 1Th 5:14
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 : 1Co 5:2
- 1 Corinthians 13:5 : S 1Co 10:24
- 1 Corinthians 13:5 : S Mt 5:22
- 1 Corinthians 13:5 : Job 14:16, 17; Pr 10:12; 17:9; 1Pe 4:8
- 1 Corinthians 13:6 : 2Th 2:12
- 1 Corinthians 13:6 : 2Jn 4; 3Jn 3, 4
- 1 Corinthians 13:7 : ver 8, 13
- 1 Corinthians 13:8 : ver 2
- 1 Corinthians 13:8 : ver 1
- 1 Corinthians 13:9 : ver 12; S 1Co 8:2
- 1 Corinthians 13:10 : Php 3:12
- 1 Corinthians 13:11 : Ps 131:2
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : Job 26:14; 36:26
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : Ge 32:30; Job 19:26; 1Jn 3:2
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 : 1Co 8:3; Gal 4:9
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 : Ro 5:2-5; Gal 5:5, 6; Eph 4:2-5; Col 1:4, 5; 1Th 1:3; 5:8; Heb 6:10-12
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 : Mt 22:37-40; 1Co 16:14; Gal 5:6; 1Jn 4:7-12, 16
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.
