If you’ve gathered from my title that believers can and should respond differently to a global pandemic than unbelievers, you would be right. I am not implying by that statement that believers get a pass on pain, suffering or even death. We don’t. We experience all of these same troubling consequences of living in a fallen world. Any suggestion that “no coronavirus can come near you” if you are a believer, is blatantly false and unbiblical. Christians are not exempt from disease!
But even though Christians may experience some of the same effects of living in a fallen world, we’ve been enabled by God to respond to these same difficulties in a different way.
Below are 9 ways Christians can and should respond differently to Covid-19. For those of you who like short posts, you can be thankful, I considered listing 19 ways.
1. “We Don’t Fear like those who have no Hope”
God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.
Psalm 46:1-3
The outbreak of Covid-19 provides believers an opportunity to demonstrate where our hope truly lies. Our greatest source of help does not come from a medicine cabinet, food pantry or a roll of bathroom tissue. Our help as believers comes from the Lord and we have the unique privilege of being the signposts for hope and stability in a world of hopelessness and uncertainty. We don’t fear like those who have no hope!
2. We Don’t Lose Control Like those who have no Hope
In spite of all of our advances in science and technology, a microscopic virus has just reminded all of us that we are not in control. That may come as a surprising revelation to many, but that’s not a problem for the believer. Why is that? We understand that we were never in control.
Yahweh has established His throne in the heavens; And His sovereignty rules over all.
Psalm 103:19
Even sickness and disease answer to God.
The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am Yahweh who does all these.
Isaiah 45:7
God was in perfect control before December of 2019 when Covid-19 was first discovered and He’s still in charge today. We don’t have to panic as believers, because we realize that we were never in control of our lives.
3. We Don’t Doubt Our God’s Concern like those who have no Hope
Unbelievers can pray. Scripture lets us know that unbelievers can even pray fervently. The classic example of unbelieving prayer is over in 1 Kings 18,where 450 prophets of Baal prayed for fire from heaven, danced around an altar and cut themselves to get the attention of their god. But at the end of the day, there wasn’t even a puff of smoke. They prayed like those who had no hope.
Jesus instructs us to pray differently. He says…
“So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
Matthew 6:8
If you are a believer, you have the privilege of relating to God as your Father. He knows your needs better than you do. You don’t have to plead or panic to get His attention. He has anticipated all of your needs before you realized you had a need. He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7) and He invites you to bring your requests to Him.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
4. We Don’t Live in Denial like those who have no Hope
Do you know that it’s actually arrogant to think that something like the Coronavirus could never take you out? I’ve heard false teachers who have taught that the Coronavirus can’t touch you or anyone in your household. If you live with the kind of false hope that you are “virus-proof” Scripture says your “boasting is evil”.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
James 4:13-16
It doesn’t matter how strong your immune system is, how much hand-sanitizer you use, how many pathogens your facemask can filter out, or what kind of faith you claim to have. Your life is no more than a vapor, and unless it’s God’s will to extend the mist of your life, your vapor will vanish.
5. We Don’t Preserve Ourselves Like those who Have no Hope
If you truly understand that your life is just a vapor, it really frees you up to use your life for what it was meant for.
Your life is not some kind of exhibit that’s supposed to be preserved behind glass at the Smithsonian. We are placed here to pour out our lives in the service of the faith of others. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 2:17
But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.
Philippians 2:17
Now that doesn’t mean that we are free to live irresponsibly (you should still wash your hands, cover your cough, and follow the recommendations of your governors) but it does mean that our goal as believers is not to reach heaven without a scratch. You are here to be used.
One of my concerns is that people will use this pandemic as some kind of “right to refuse service” to others and isolate themselves from people unnecessarily. As Christians, we live for the service of others.
6. We Don’t Focus on Ourselves like those who have no Hope
One of the unfortunate results of a crisis is that people can often become more selfish and self-centered. As Christians, we don’t have to give in to the temptation to focus on ourselves.
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
1 John 3:16-18
When you raided the store this week, grabbed that last roll of bathroom tissue and did the victory dance, did it ever cross your mind “I wonder how my brothers and sisters are doing?” We need to make sure we use this as an opportunity to express love and concern for others and regard the needs of others above ourselves.
7. We Don’t Show Partiality like those who have no Hope.
Even though social distancing and temporary bans on travel might be necessary for a time it doesn’t give believers an excuse for permanent social distancing, especially as it relates to people from impacted countries.
“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 7:12
Suspicion, isolation, and prejudice don’t have a place in the Children of the Kingdom.
If anything, this provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate the reality of the gospel.
For there is no partiality with God.
Romans 2:11
8. We Don’t Limit Ourselves to this Life, like those who have no Hope
Our Hope is not in this life only. The world might have a hope that things will get back to normal, that we’ll find a vaccine and that stock prices will rise again. It’s okay to hope for those things. I hope for those things, but as believers, our hope is not limited to this life only.
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
1 Corinthians 15:19
My hope is not just in this life, it’s in the life to come
\…so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:7
9. And finally, when believers die, the rest of us Don’t grieve like those who have no hope.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
If a believer dies as a result of the Coronavirus, we are not to grieve over him/her as if all hope is lost. The coronavirus is not the worst thing that can happen to a believer.
Scripture says,
…we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8
I once heard the line, “No longer must the mourners weep, Nor call departed Christians dead; For Death is hallowed into sleep, And every grave becomes a bed.”
Believers who die at the hands of Covid-19 are safe in the arms of Jesus and departing to be with Christ is very much better (Philippians 1:23). There is no promise from Scripture that the Coronavirus will pass over your house if you have faith. Christians are not exempt from disease and we certainly are not exempt from the disruptions that this outbreak has caused, but we’ve been enabled by God to respond to these same difficulties in a different way.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a hope that is both sure and steadfast (Hebrews 6:19). You have a certain hope that is beyond the wishful thinking of the world. It’s a hope that you need to be ready to proclaim and defend before anyone who asks you to give an account for your hope.
…but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
1 Peter 3:15
Is it evident that you have a hope that the world around you doesn’t have? Would anyone ask you to give an account of the hope that you have? Does your response to Covid-19 look any different than your unbelieving family, friends, and neighbors? Your response can look different and it should look different.
May these reasons and more give us hope and stability in uncertain times, because if the believer can’t offer hope to this world, who can?