TEXT:
"And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in
the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding
gong
or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom
all mysteries
and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have
not love,
I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender
my body to the flames,
but have not love, I gain nothing.
"Love is patient, love
is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it
keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
But where there
are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled;
where
there is knowledge, it will pass away.
"For we know in part
and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect
disappears. When 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 put childish ways behind me.
Now we see but a poor
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. And now these three remain:
faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love."
I Corinthians 13
(entire chapter) |