a beautiful, traditional description of love...
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.
and from another translation...
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy
But don't love,
I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God's Word with power,
Revealing all his mysteries
And making everything plain as day,
And if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump,"
And it jumps,
But I don't love,
I'm nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor
And even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr
But I don't love,
I've gotten nowhere.
So, no matter what I say,
What I believe,
And what I do,
I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies.
Inspired speech will be over some day;
Praying in tongues will end;
Understanding will reach its limit.
We know only a portion of the truth,
And what we say about God is always incomplete.
But when the Complete arrives,
Our incompletes will be canceled.
When I was an infant at my mother's breast,
I gurgled and cooed like any infant.
When I grew up,
I left those infant ways for good.
We don't yet see things clearly.
We're squinting in a fog,
Peering through a mist.
But it won't be long before the weather clears
And the sun shines bright!
We'll see it all then,
See it all as clearly as God sees us,
Knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now,
Until that completeness,
We have three things to do
To lead us toward that consummation:
Trust steadily in God,
Hope unswervingly,
Love extravagantly.
And the best of the three is love.
from the Bible
1 Corinthians 13
NIV and The Message
