And now I will show you the most excellent way:
If I speak in 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 up all I possess
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 pass away; 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,
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, chapter 13