I recently published an article, entitled “There is STILL Hope For 2020”. You can find it here:
http://www.scottduck.com/there-is-still-hope-for-2020/
In that article, I looked at several verses of Scripture that pertain to our current situation with the Coronavirus and I offered some commentary on all that Scripture as a whole. However, I did not go into much detail on any of those individual passages. In the next article, I began to take a deeper look at the Scripture which I had shared in that initial article. I focused on learning and living The Word. You can find that article here:
http://www.scottduck.com/learning-and-living-the-word/
Now, I would like to continue my deeper dive into my look at the Scripture in that initial article.
Romans 13
1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
This was the third passage of Scripture that I shared in that initial article and it is the only one of those initial passages that I will focus on here.
We live in a time when there seems to be an extraordinary amount of contempt for government and, really, for authority in general. However, with the ever evolving Corona crisis, it is more imperative than it has been in many years that we obey and support our Government.
Did you vote for President Trump? Did you vote for your state’s governor? Did you vote for your city or county mayor? Of course I don’t know who you voted for and, for the purposes of what we’re talking about here, it doesn’t matter who you voted for. Regardless of whether you voted for them, regardless of whether you like them, they are in office. Are they all doing what they should? No, some of them aren’t, and we should vote against those people when we get the opportunity. Many of them are doing well or at least doing the best they can with a bad situation that nobody expected. Regardless of who holds any government office, you owe them a certain amount of respect and allegiance, just because they do hold the office. The same is true for those who work for all government agencies. You should treat these people with respect and, unless what they are telling you to do directly contradicts God’s Word, you must support and obey them, if you are to truly follow Christ and live as a disciple of His.
In the midst of the current crisis, I am deeply disturbed by how many people openly show contempt for those in government and disregard for the rules and guidelines they put in place. Many people seem just as interested, if not more interested, in figuring out who in office to blame for things not being handled the way they think they should be handled than in actually helping people deal with the situation. Many people seem to be just as focused, if not more focused, on the outcome of the election that will be here in November than the virus that could be at our house tomorrow. We have got to get our priorities in order. This is not the time to play politics. This is the time to support and obey our government. Actually, it is always the time to do that. It isn’t me saying that, it’s God. Just read the above Scripture. It says what it says.
The CDC recommends that public gatherings be halted, that people only go out when they must in order to take care of essential tasks or perform essential jobs, and that people in public remain at least 6 feet apart. Many states and local governments have issued similar guidelines or mandates. Do you feel that these restrictions are an overreaction? If so, do you disobey or only partially obey them? On the other hand, do you feel that the restrictions do not go far enough or that enough is not being done in order to prepare to face the worsening situation? If so, do you pray for our leaders, which is helpful to them, or do you openly criticize them, which helps no-one? The people making these decisions are tasked with saving as many lives as possible. It is difficult for them to perform that task efficiently and effectively if those they are tasked with protecting constantly criticize and do not abide by the decisions they make. We do not have to always agree with them but we do have to respectfully submit to them and we should constantly pray for them.
I am especially disturbed by the fellow Christians who currently show contempt for the governing authorities, some of whom do that in the name of religion and religious freedom. Some point to the social distancing guidelines, which effectively recommend against having church services. In many places, these are no longer just guidelines, they are mandates, effectively prohibiting church services, along with all the other prohibited things. Some say that this impinges on our religious freedom. No it does not. It doesn’t impinge on anyone’s freedom. These guidelines and mandates do constrain us from doing many of the things we would like to do. Isn’t that part of the job of government, to sometimes constrain us for our own good and for the good of others? Just because the churches are not excluded from that constraint, that does not mean that our right to gather is being infringed. The above Scripture makes it clear that Christians are subject to the authority of the government. The Christian Church is simply the aggregate of all of the individual Christians. As such, it, too, is subject to the authority of the government. When we show contempt for that authority, we show contempt for God’s authority.
Some have said things like “people can gather at WalMart but not at church”. That’s true, sort of. People are not supposed to “gather” at WalMart and the stores like it. They are supposed to go only when they have to, in order to get essentials. When they do that, they are supposed to stay at least 6 feet apart. Maybe they aren’t all doing that but that has nothing to do with you and me, unless we are also some of the people who are disobeying the government guidelines. As Christians, we should follow the government guidelines and mandates, if nothing else, to show Christ’s love to one-another by putting each-other at as low a risk as possible.
Some say that we can have church and just follow the social distancing guidelines. That sounds good, until you really think about it. We would all have to stay 6 feet apart, that’s 6 feet in all directions. Think about how that would work out. There would be 2 people per pew, maybe 3 people if its a pretty long pew. Also, you could only have people on every other pew. How many people are you going to be able to fit in that service? What if you let couples and families sit close together, since they’re together at home anyway. That will help some but you still have no more than one couple or family per pew and you can still put people on only every other pew. So, your seating capacity is going to be cut to probably significantly less than half, probably not more than a quarter. So, you have church with this arrangement and you have your normal crowd show up. Unless you typically run at less than a quarter capacity, you are probably going to have significantly more people than you can seat, if you are going to follow the social distancing guidelines. Who is going to decide who can stay and who you are going to turn away? Of course, no-one is going to want to turn anyone away. In the end, you will probably end up letting everyone stay who shows up and, if you do that, in most cases, you are not going to end up practicing proper social distancing and you may end up killing some people as a result. That may sound like an exaggeration but people have already died of the Coronavirus as a result of attending church activities. You see, doing social distancing church may sound OK, in theory, but, in most cases, it just wouldn’t actually work out well.
Some will point out that Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Yes, it does, and I believe that this Scripture is of great importance. In fact, I preached on it just a few weeks ago.
Hebrews 10
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
We aren’t meant to live the Christian life alone. Does going to church make you a Christian? Absolutely not. But in order to live the Christian life, in order to truly be a disciple, we need each other. Paul said “let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works”. We are supposed to help each other, to show Christ’s love to one another, to support one another as we seek to be about God’s business here on Earth. We can best do that when we regularly physically meet together. However, in these circumstances, when we cannot physically meet together for a while, we can still support each-other. God has blessed us with a great deal of wonderful technology, technology that allows a completely blind man to write this article so that you sighted people can read it, which is something that would not have been possible a few decades ago. Something that also would not have been possible a few decades ago is the ability to have multiple people, scattered across multiple locations, who can see and hear each-other. Want to have Sunday School? Just exchange the necessary information and use Zoom or Skype or Group FaceTime and do it. Want to have church? See if your pastor can post a sermon through FaceBook live video or on YouTube. Does everyone have access to the necessary technology and the knowhow to use it? No, but, today, probably the majority do. Is this solution ideal and is it a substitute for physically gathering? No, absolutely not, but it is certainly much better than nothing and we are very blessed to have these options.
Some feel that churches should be included in the list of essential services, like grocery stores, because spiritual food is as important as physical food. I would agree that spiritual food is as important as and actually more important than physical food. However, that truth isn’t all there is to it. We have access to Bibles and other resources at home and online to enable us to get in the Word and, as I said above, there are many technological ways that we can meet together to help us to get our spiritual nourishment during this time. However, if you are physically hungry, I cannot E-mail you a hamburger. You have to physically go to a grocery store to get something to eat but you do not have to physically go to a church to get spiritual nourishment. So, yes, both are essential but both do not require physical interaction, at least not in the short term.
Concerning not physically gathering for fear of spreading the Coronavirus, you may say that God has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). That is true. I mentioned that Scripture in my initial article and I will focus on it in the next article. For now, suffice it to say that the same verse also says that He has given us a sound mind. He has given us a sound mind for a reason. We are to use that mind and exercise good judgement as we show the world the spirit of love which the same verse also says that He has given us. We are to love our family and friends and the governing authorities which God has set over us. Fear is not of God and that includes the fear that some people currently demonstrate toward our government.
It’s important to remember that this isn’t permanent. This is for a few weeks or months,, so that the current crisis can be dealt with. It’s times like this, times of crisis, when hard things are asked of us, when our true character or lack of it comes out. That includes Christian character. We can join much of the rest of the world and say “this is hard” and “this isn’t fair”. Or we can show the world what it means to be in a hard situation and let Christ walk you through it and let His love shine through it. We have the opportunity to show the world who Christ is and what following Him really means. Or, we can leave the impression that we are no different from the world and that following Christ really makes no difference in our life. If it looks to others like He makes no difference to us, then why will they want Him in their life? So, let me ask you, right now, in this situation, does it look like He makes a difference in your life?
