1 Corinthians 13 WBT
Summary: In the celebrated "love chapter," Paul declares that eloquence, prophecy, knowledge, faith, and even self-sacrifice are worthless without love: "love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude... it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (v. 4-7). He contrasts love's permanence with the temporary nature of prophecies, tongues, and knowledge, which will pass away, comparing present understanding to seeing "in a mirror dimly" compared to the full knowledge to come. The chapter closes with the enduring triad: "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (v. 13).
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2And though I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3And though I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4Charity suffereth long, [and] is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Charity never faileth: but whether [there are] prophecies, they shall fail; whether [there are] languages, they shall cease; whether [there is] knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity.
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