“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Holy Spirit. There are varieties of services, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” – the apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
The more things change, the more they stay the same – or so goes the clichéd formula.
But you’d think followers of Jesus, empowered as we are by the promise of God’s Holy Spirit in Christ, would enjoy immunity from such apathy and inaction.
Yet, if you compare what the apostle Paul writes to early Church to what he might write to us some 2,000-odd years later, the similarity of message is stunning. In candid assessment of the sorry state of our affairs these days, a colleague pointedly observes: “If Paul could see the Church in America today, we’d be getting a letter.”