Strength For Today – Day 13

₄Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us. ₅And may God, the source of patience and encouragement, enable you to have the same point of view among yourselves by following the example of Christ Jesus, ₆so that all of you together may praise with one voice the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

₁I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. ₂I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains — but if I have no love, I am nothing. ₃I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burnt — but if I have no love, this does me no good.

₄Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; ₅love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; ₆love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. ₇Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

₈Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. ₉For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; ₁₀but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.

₁₁When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I have grown up, I have no more use for childish ways. ₁₂What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete — as complete as God's knowledge of me.

₁₃Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.

₅₄So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: “Death is destroyed; victory is complete!”

₅₈So then, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.