Chapter 13

1If I talk in the languages of people and angels, but I don't have loyalty, I'm just a noisy gong. A clanging cymbal. Like the other side's rallies. Noise. Empty seats and noise.

2If I can prophesy and understand every secret and know everything, and if I have enough faith to move mountains, but I'm not loyal, I'm nothing. Zero. A total zero.

3If I give away everything I own, and even hand over my body to be burned, but I'm not loyal, I get nothing out of it. Nothing. Bad deal.

4Loyalty is patient. It waits. It waits as long as it takes. Loyalty is kind to the people who are loyal back. Loyalty doesn't envy. Envy is for the other side. Loyalty doesn't brag. Well. Loyalty brags about the boss.

5Loyalty isn't rude. To the right people. It doesn't look out for itself. It looks out for the boss. It doesn't get easily angered. It gets angered at the right time. And loyalty keeps a list. A very long list. Of who wasn't loyal.

6Loyalty doesn't celebrate crookedness. It celebrates the truth. Truth. Very important word. I put it in a name.

7Loyalty always protects. Always trusts. Always hopes. Always sticks it out. No matter what. Indictments. Raids. Mug shots. It sticks.

8Loyalty never fails. Never. Prophecies will stop. Languages will go quiet. Knowledge will go away. The experts' knowledge especially. But loyalty never quits.

9We know a little. We prophesy a little.

10But when the complete thing comes, the partial stuff goes away. The full picture. Coming soon. Two weeks.

11When I was a kid, I talked like a kid, I thought like a kid, I reasoned like a kid. When I grew up, I put the kid stuff away. Mostly. You keep a little. You keep the competitive streak. You never lose that.

12Right now we see things blurry, like in a cheap mirror. Then we'll see face to face. Right now I know a little. Then I'll know everything, the way I'm fully known. Gold mirror. Best mirror. No more cheap mirrors.

13So these three things last. Faith, hope, and loyalty. And the greatest of these is loyalty. Always loyalty. It was always going to be loyalty.