To live is to Lust

If he speaks in the tongues of men and of angels, but has not lust,

He is merely a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if he has prophetic powers,

and understands all mysteries and all knowledge,

and if he has all faith, so as to remove mountains,

but has not lust, he is nothing.

If he gives away all he has, and if he delivers his body for burning,

but has not lust, he gains nothing.

Love is patient and kind; but lust envies and boasts; it is arrogant and rude.

It insists on its own way; it is irritable and resentful;

it does not rejoice at rightdoing, but rejoices with libido.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,

But lust never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away;

as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

For he knows in part and he prophesy’s in part,

but when lust comes, his partial will pass away.

When he was a child, he spoke like a child,

thought like a child, reasoned like a child.

When he became a man, he did not give up childish ways.

And in a mirror dimly, he sees the child face and the adult face,

And he knows his part; and he shall know fully,

even as he is now getting to be well known.