1 Corinthians 13

₁If I can speak the languages of people and of angels

but I do not love God and other people,

then I am like a bell or like a cymbal

that only makes a noise.

₂If I can preach God's message

and I know all the secrets

and I know everything,

and if I believe so strongly

that I can move mountains away,

but I do not love God and other people,

then I am worthless.

₃If I give everything that I have to poor people,

and if I give my body to people to hurt me,

so that I may boast about it,

but I do not love God and other people,

then it will not help me at all.

₄Someone who loves God and other people

is patient and friendly,

he is not jealous, he does not boast,

and he is not proud.

₅He does not do bad things,

he is not selfish, he does not get angry quickly,

and he does not remember the bad things

that people do to him.

₆He is not happy when people

do things that are wrong to other people.

He is very happy when people tell the truth.

₇He does not get discouraged,

but he continues to believe and hope

and he stays patient.

₈Someone who loves God and other people

does not stop doing that.

There are gifts that will stop:

Preaching God's message will stop,

speaking_in_tongues will stop,

and knowing a lot of things will stop.

₉Because we know only a little,

and we preach only a small part of God's message.

₁₀But the time will come

when everything will be as God wants it to be.

Then the things that we know now will disappear.

₁₁When I was a child, I talked like a child,

I thought like a child,

and I understood only what a child understands.

But now that I am a grown man,

I have stopped being like a child.

₁₂In this_life we can not see God and everything clearly.

It is like when someone looks in a dirty mirror.

But the time will come when we will see everything clearly,

like when you stand in front of someone

and look into his face.

I do not know everything now,

but the time will come when I will know everything,

like God, who knows everything about me.

₁₃There are only 3 things that are really important,

and these are to keep on believing,

to keep on hoping,

and to love God and other people.

But the most important

is to love God and other people.