1 cor 13: 1-13

i may be able to speak the languages of men and even of angels, but if i have no love, my speech is nomore than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. i may have the gift of inspired preaching; i may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; i may have all the faith needed to move mountains-but if i have no love i am nothing. i may give away everything i have, and even give up my body to be burned-but if i have no love, this does me no good. love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but it is happy with the truth. love never gives up; and its faith, hope and patience never fail. love is eternal. there are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, ut it will pass. for our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear. when i was a child, my speech, feeling and thinking were all those of a child; now that i am a man, i have no more use of childish ways. what we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to face. what i know now is only partial; then it will be complete-as complete as god's knowledge of me. meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.