For if your brother or sister ¹  is distressed because of what you eat, ²  you are no longer walking in love. ³  Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died.

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹  through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to join fervently with me in prayer to God on my behalf.

But just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, ¹  are the things God has prepared for those who love him.” ² 

And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside.

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you. ¹ 

But as you excel ¹  in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in all eagerness and in the love from us that is in you ²  – make sure that you excel ³  in this act of kindness ⁴  too.

My goal is that ¹  their hearts, having been knit together ²  in love, may be encouraged, and that ³  they may have all the riches that assurance brings in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ⁴ 

We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, ¹  and rightly so, ²  because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints.

Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” ¹ 

Happy is the one ¹  who endures testing, because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God ²  promised to those who love him.

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

You ¹  have not seen him, but you love him. You ²  do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice ³  with an indescribable and glorious ⁴  joy,

(See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that ¹  we should be called God’s children – and indeed ²  we are! ³  For this reason ⁴  the world does not know us: because it did not know him. ⁵ 

By this ¹  the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness – the one who does not love his fellow Christian ²  – is not of God.

But whoever has the world’s possessions ¹  and sees his fellow Christian ²  in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God ³  reside ⁴  in such a person? ⁵ 

By this ¹  the love of God ²  is revealed in us: ³  that God has sent his one and only ⁴  Son into the world so that we may live through him.

By this ¹  love is perfected with ²  us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus ³  is, so also are we in this world.

But now ¹  I ask you, lady (not as if I were ²  writing a new commandment ³  to you, but the one ⁴  we have had from the beginning), ⁵  that ⁶  we love one another.