If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
And if I shall dole out all my goods in food, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but have not love, I profit nothing.
Love has long patience, is kind; love is not emulous of others; love is not insolent and rash, is not puffed up,
does not behave in an unseemly manner, does not seek what is its own, is not quickly provoked, does not impute evil,
does not rejoice at iniquity but rejoices with the truth,
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but whether prophecies, they shall be done away; or tongues, they shall cease; or knowledge, it shall be done away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part:
but when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I had done with what belonged to the child.
For we see now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face; now I know partially, but then I shall know according as I also have been known.
And now abide faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these is love.
Canonical academic citations for 1 Corinthians 13 (DBT) — copy in your preferred format.
1 Corinthians 13 (DBT). Prime Bible, accessed July 25, 2026. https://primebible.com/dbt/1-corinthians/13.
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Love surpasses all gifts: without it tongues, prophecy, knowledge, and sacrifice are nothing. Love’s qualities (patient, kind, etc.) endure while gifts cease; faith, hope, and love remain, the greatest being love.
Guidance for church order and unity.
1 Corinthians 13 is presented with the full Greek interlinear, Strong's numbers, and verse-by-verse cross-references on Prime Bible — a free, nonprofit Bible study platform.