⁴ Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God. The Lord is the only God. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. ⁶ Take to heart these words that I give you today. ⁷ Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re at home or away, when you lie down or get up. ⁸ ⌞Write them down, and⌟ tie them around your wrist, and wear them as headbands as a reminder. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the person who does what my Father in heaven wants. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we force out demons and do many miracles by the power and authority of your name?’ ²³ Then I will tell them publicly, ‘I’ve never known you. Get away from me, you evil people.’

Mary Listens to Jesus

³⁸ As they were traveling along, Jesus went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹ She had a sister named Mary. Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to him talk.

⁴⁰ But Martha was upset about all the work she had to do. So she asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself? Tell her to help me.”

⁴¹ The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You worry and fuss about a lot of things. ⁴² There’s only one thing you need.^[a] Mary has made the right choice, and that one thing will not be taken away from her.”

Love

13 I may speak in the languages of humans and of angels. But if I don’t have love, I am a loud gong or a clashing cymbal. ² I may have the gift to speak what God has revealed, and I may understand all mysteries and have all knowledge. I may even have enough faith to move mountains. But if I don’t have love, I am nothing. ³ I may even give away all that I have and give up my body to be burned.^[a] But if I don’t have love, none of these things will help me.

⁴ Love is patient. Love is kind. Love isn’t jealous. It doesn’t sing its own praises. It isn’t arrogant. ⁵ It isn’t rude. It doesn’t think about itself. It isn’t irritable. It doesn’t keep track of wrongs. ⁶ It isn’t happy when injustice is done, but it is happy with the truth. ⁷ Love never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, never gives up.

⁸ Love never comes to an end. There is the gift of speaking what God has revealed, but it will no longer be used. There is the gift of speaking in other languages, but it will stop by itself. There is the gift of knowledge, but it will no longer be used. ⁹ Our knowledge is incomplete and our ability to speak what God has revealed is incomplete. ¹⁰ But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will no longer be used. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I no longer used childish ways. ¹² Now we see a blurred image in a mirror. Then we will see very clearly. Now my knowledge is incomplete. Then I will have complete knowledge as God has complete knowledge of me.

¹³ So these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the best one of these is love.