If I speak in the 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 all I possess to the poor 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 cease; 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 as in a mirror; 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.
First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, The New Testament.
In the original Greek, the word αγαπη (agape - worshipful love) is used throughout. This was translated as charity in the King James version; but the word love is preferred by most other translations, both earlier and more recent.
Singing the Hymn to Love.
Photo: Claude Renault.
1 comment:
Paul's writing's on Love surely do not leave any wiggle room for any of Man's many reasons and excuses for not loving,that he always has ready at hand. LOVE is truly of the will,not my will but THY WILL.
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