If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;

and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing;

and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.

The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,

doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil,

rejoiceth not over the unrighteousness, and rejoiceth with the truth;

all things it beareth, all it believeth, all it hopeth, all it endureth.

The love doth never fail; and whether `there be' prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless;

for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;

and when that which is perfect may come, then that which `is' in part shall become useless.

When I was a babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe;

for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;

and now there doth remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these `is' love.