What does the Bible say about love?
If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth
but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless
noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had a
gift of prophesy, and I knew all the mysteries of the future
and knew everything about everthing, but didn't love others,
what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I
could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love
I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have
to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast
about it, but if I didn't love others, I would be of no
value whatsoever.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful
or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way.
Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it
has been wronged. It is never glad about injustices but
rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up,
never loses faith, is always helpful, and endures through
every circumstance.
Love will last forever, but prophesy and speaking in
unknown languages and special knowledge will all
disappear. Now we know only a little, and even the gift
of prophesy reveals little! But when the end comes,
these special gifts will all disappear. When I was a child,
I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But
when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see
things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we shall
see everything with perfect clarity. All I know now is
partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything
completely, just as God knows me now.
These are the things that will endure--
faith, hope, love-- and the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13 Living Bible Translation