Chapter 13

I may speak with every tongue that men and angels use; yet, if I lack charity, I am no better than echoing bronze, or the clash of cymbals.

I may have powers of prophecy, no secret hidden from me, no knowledge too deep for me; I may have utter faith, so that I can move mountains; yet if I lack charity, I count for nothing.

I may give away all that I have, to feed the poor; I may give myself up to be burnt at the stake; if I lack charity, it goes for nothing.

Charity is patient, is kind; charity feels no envy; charity is never perverse or proud,

never insolent;3 does not claim its rights, cannot be provoked, does not brood over an injury;

takes no pleasure in wrong-doing, but rejoices at the victory of truth;

sustains, believes, hopes, endures, to the last.

The time will come when we shall outgrow prophecy, when speaking with tongues will come to an end, when knowledge will be swept away; we shall never have finished with charity.

Our knowledge, our prophecy, are only glimpses of the truth;

and these glimpses will be swept away when the time of fulfilment comes.

(Just so, when I was a child, I talked like a child, I had the intelligence, the thoughts of a child; since I became a man, I have outgrown childish ways.)

At present, we are looking at a confused reflection in a mirror; then, we shall see face to face; now, I have only glimpses of knowledge; then, I shall recognize God as he has recognized me.

Meanwhile, faith, hope and charity persist, all three; but the greatest of them all is charity.