CHAPTER 13

Charity is to be preferred before all other gifts.
IF I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.
4 Charity is patient, is kind: charity envies not, deals not perversely; is not puffed up;
5 Is not ambitious, seeks not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil;
6 Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth;
7 Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Charity never falls away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When 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 the things of a child.
12 We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know I part; but then I shall know even as I am known.
13 And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.