1 Corinthians 13
World English Bible · Public-domain text
1 Corinthians 13
A letter addressing divisions, conduct, worship, gifts and resurrection in Corinth. Its instructions respond to concrete disputes. Read chapters 12–14 together when considering spiritual gifts and love.
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1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.
3If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.
4Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
5doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
6doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.
11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.
12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
13But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
Respectful inquiry and nonviolence guide our reading. Text and editorial notes are different. Scripture is the public-domain World English Bible, supplied through a dated digital-text snapshot. Topic selections and comparison notes are original editorial aids, not part of the translation or an exhaustive concordance.
Source snapshot expanded October 20, 2026. All 27 New Testament books and 19 selected Old Testament chapters are included. Verse wording is preserved; paragraph formatting and translator footnotes are not reproduced. Read the publisher’s text and notes · Text provenance. New notes dated October 19, 2026.