1 Corinthians 13

Modern

Literal

Love

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.

¹If I should speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

²And if I should have prophecy and should understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

³If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body,^a but have not love, I gain nothing.

³And if I should give away all my possessions, and if I should deliver up my body that I may boast, but have not love, I am profited nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

⁴Love is patient, it is kind; love does not envy, love does not boast, it is not puffed up.

⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.

⁵It does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own things, it is not provoked, it keeps no reckoning of evil.

⁶Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.

⁶It does not rejoice at unrighteousness, but it rejoices with the truth.

⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.

⁸Love never fails; but if there are prophecies, they will be made null; and if there are tongues, they will cease; and if there is knowledge, it will be made null.

⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part;

¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.

¹⁰but when the perfect should come, the partial will be made null.

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 set aside childish ways.

¹¹When I was a child, I was speaking like a child, I was thinking like a child, I was reasoning like a child; when I became a man, I have made null the things of the child.

¹²Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹²For now we see through a glass in obscurity, but then, face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

¹³But now these three things remain: faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.