If I talk with the tongues of men and even of angels, but if I do not love people, then I am only like the sound of a big horn or a loud bell.
If I speak words from God, if I can understand all secrets, and know everything, if I can move mountains by believing, but if I do not love people, I am nothing, even though I can do all of these things.
If I give away all I have, and if I give my body to be burned, but if I do not love people, I get nothing out of it.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not proud and does not boast.
Love does not do things that are not nice. Love does not just think of itself.
Love does not get angry. Love holds no wrong feelings in the heart.
Love is not glad when people do wrong things. But it is always glad when they do right.
Love forgives everything. Love is always trusting, and always hoping, and never gives up.
Love never ends. The gift of speaking words from God will end. The gift of speaking in different tongues or languages will stop. The gift of knowing many things will end.
Now we know only a little, and we can speak only a little of God's words.
But when everything becomes perfect, that part will come to an end.
When I was a child, I talked like a child. I understood like a child. I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I stopped doing things like a child.
Now it is like looking in a looking-glass which does not make things clear.
We cannot see and understand things plainly. But when things become perfect, then we shall fully know and understand everything, just as God knows.
These three things will remain for ever. They are faith, hope, and love. And love is the greatest of them.
1 CORINTHIANS: 13