If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy
but don't love,
I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God's Word with power,
revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day,
and if I have faith that says to a mountain,
"Jump," and it jumps,
but I don't love,
I'm nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor
and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr,
but I don't love,
I've gotten nowhere.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back, but keeps on going to the end.
Love never dies.
Inspired speech will be over some day;
praying in tongues will end;
understanding will reach its limit.
We know only a portion of the truth,
and what we say about God is always incomplete.
But when the complete arrives,
our incompletes will be cancelled.
When I was an infant at my mother's breast,
I gurgled and cooed like any infant.
When I grew up,
I left those infant ways for good.
We don't yet see things clearly.
We're squinting in a fog,
peering through a mist.
But it won't be long before the weather clears
and the sun shines bright!
We'll see it all then,
see it as clearly as God sees us,
knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness,
We have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:
Trust steadily in God,
Hope unswervingly,
Love extravagantly.
And the best of the three is love.
(1 Corinthians 13)
The Message
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The Message (Msg)
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New Living Translation (NLT)
