The Gift of Love

If I speak in the tongues of mortals（人类，凡人） and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong（锣） or a clanging cymbal¹（铙钹） . And if I have prophetic（预言的） powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious² or boastful or arrogant³ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable⁴ or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy⁵ only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I thought like a child; when I became and adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in mirror, dimly（朦胧地） , but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully⁶, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide⁷, these three; and the greatest of these is love.