Some of our Protestant brethren cling

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III




Some of our Protestant brethren cling to the spiritual gifts and strive to attain them as privileges of being God's children and heirs. They put before them the verse: “But earnestly desire the best gifts”, without taking into account the completion of the verse: “And yet I show you a more excellent way,” (1Cor.12: 31).
While they give great importance to the gift of Speaking in tongues, they disregard that immediately after this verse the Apostle Paul says: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1Cor.13: 1). The Apostle is explaining how love is preferred to all the gifts.