Chapter 13

If I were to speak in the language of men, or of Angels, yet not have charity, I would be like a clanging bell or a crashing cymbal.

And if I have prophecy, and learn every mystery, and obtain all knowledge, and possess all faith, so that I could move mountains, yet not have charity, then I am nothing.

And if I distribute all my goods in order to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, yet not have charity, it offers me nothing.

Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated.

Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil.

Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth.

Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.

Charity is never torn away, even if prophecies pass away, or languages cease, or knowledge is destroyed.

For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part.

But when the perfect arrives, the imperfect passes away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I put aside the things of a child.

Now we see through a glass darkly. But then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known.

But for now, these three continue: faith, hope, and charity. And the greatest of these is charity.