Paul spends a long time telling us in 1 Cor 12 how the body of Christ is to be unified, have diversity, and recognize that it needs all it parts.  Paul lets us know that there is not one part of the body better than the other, even though some get more visibility.  Then he drops in this part in the closing verses  of the chapter.

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. [1Cr 13:1-13 NASB]



Paul says all are equal servants to God, although we serve in different ways.  But there is something better than all those gifts.  Love.  Love is better than all those gifts he says.  He goes on to describe love in a few different ways.

Paul says love is pre-eminet above the other gifts. Even if you can move mountains or speak in tongues, without love it is useless.

Paul says love is fuller than anything we can get from the world.  It is not empty, full of useless talk and chatter, but full of compassion, strength, and forgiveness.

Paul says love is permanent.   You might have other gifts, says Paul, but they are only partial.  We don't know the whole story.  But there will come a day when we know in full.

These three remain, faith, hope, and love.  but the greatest of these is love.