If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I thought like a child; when I became and adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
就算我能說萬人的方言和天使的話語，但如果沒有愛，我不過就如鳴鑼一般；就算我有預知未來的能力，就算我精通各種知識和奧秘，就算我有堅定的信念，但如果沒有愛，我就什么都算不上；就算我拿所有的財物周濟窮人，就算我能做出舍己為人的壯舉，但如果沒有愛，我仍將一無所有。
愛是一種忍耐，愛是一種友善；愛不是嫉妒，不是自大，不是魯莽，不是固執己見，不是輕易發怒。愛意味著憎惡不義，贊賞真理；愛意味著包容一切，相信一切，對生活充滿希望，并能忍受生活中的一切。
愛是永無止境的，但又是有盡頭的；就像知識一樣，必將歸于烏有。我們現在搜掌握的知識很有限，當我們掌握了完整的知識時，有限的知識必將歸于烏有。當我還是一個孩子的時候，我像孩子一樣說話，像孩子一樣思考問題，像孩子一樣推理；但我一旦成年，就不再像孩子一樣了。現階段，我們很多時候好像是從鏡子里觀看事物，對很多事物都看不清，但有朝一日我們會直面這些事物。現階段，我知道的東西很有限，但有朝一日我會懂得一切。
如今，常存在人們心中的東西有三樣：信念、希望和愛，而其中愛是最重要的！