If I Speak ...

Edward Burne-Jones

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, 

but have not love, 

I am a noisy gong 

or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, 

and understand all mysteries 

and all knowledge, 

and if I have all faith, 

so as to remove mountains, 

but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, 

and if I deliver up my body 

to be burned, 

but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; 

love does not envy or boast; 

it is not arrogant or rude. 

It does not insist on its own way; 

it is not irritable or resentful; 

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, 

but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things. 

Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away; 

as for tongues, they will cease; 

as for knowledge, it will pass away. 

For we know in part 

and we prophesy in part, 

but when the perfect comes, 

the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, 

I spoke like a child, 

I thought like a child, 

I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, 

I gave up childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, 

but then face to face.

Now I know in part; 

then I shall know fully, 

even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, 

these three;

 but the greatest of these 

is love.

~Paul's Letter to the Corinthians

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