1 Corinthians 13:4-13 ▼

4 Social affection is patient, is kind; is a stranger to envy; is not insolently vain, nor arrogant: does not behave indecently,

5 is not self-interested, is not easily provoked, nor suspects any ill;

6 it does not countenance injustice, but smiles upon virtue;

7 it excuses all things, believes what is favourable, hopes for the best, and suffers the worst.

8 Social affection will never fail: but as for prophecies, they shall be out of use; as for languages, they shall cease; as for knowledge, it shall vanish away.

9 for our knowledge is defective, and our prophesying is defective.

10 but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is defective shall be laid aside.

11 when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I reasoned as a child: but when I became a man, I laid aside my childish ways.

12 now we do but indirectly see the faint images of things; but then the objects themselves will be before our eyes; now I have a partial knowledge, but then shall I know, even as I myself am known.

13 and now faith, hope, social virtue, these three will all remain; but the most permanent of the three is social virtue.