In the last post we saw Jesus’s model for setting aside regulations—that he did so because of compassion, crisis, other commands, and common sense. In this post, I will now argue that Christians can intuitively apply the same criteria today in order to ignore various government laws and regulations—and that they do so without incurring guilt. Let me give you four real-life scenarios.
Scenario 1. A man is driving to the hospital early in the morning. His wife is in the front seat next to him counting off the contractions: “Three minutes … two minutes … ONE MINUTE!” Preferring to discover the sex of his second-born child after he arrives at the hospital and not before, that husband cautiously but intentionally chooses to run a number of red traffic lights. (In case you are wondering, yes, I was the driver.) No magistrate from God on down would condemn that husband for carefully ignoring some traffic regulations in that situation. Why? Crisis, compassion, common sense—three of the four things Jesus spoke of in Matthew 12.
Scenario 2. To appreciate this second scenario, you must understand that the country in which I minister has one of the highest crime rates in the world. In South Africa, crime isn’t what happens to other people; it’s what happens to you.
An older woman in our congregation is driving home at 10:00 at night. She stops at a red light, and notices that three dodgy looking men are standing a few meters away looking intently at her car. They are also obviously noting the fact that there are no other cars in sight. Traffic regulations require her to wait until the light turns green before she proceeds. Most South Africans, myself included, would advise her to quickly check for traffic and then floor it, rather than wait for the light to turn. Why? Crisis and common sense. The traffic regulation that was designed to protect her is, in that case, actually putting her in harm’s way. And since a non-moral regulation that was created to protect her is now serving exactly the opposite purpose, it is only common sense for her to make an intelligent, adult decision and to run the red light. Could she do the same thing at 4:00 in the afternoon in broad daylight when there are no hoodlums lurking on the corner, simply because she is late for an appointment? Of course not. Jesus’ reasoning in Matthew 12 is not blanket permission to ignore all regulations. Trivial, arrogant, and merely self-focused reasons are not part of His rationale. Compassion, crisis, and common sense are.
Scenario 3. A man in our congregation came to our elders and said, “My mother has just died from COVID, and now my eighty-year-old father is also very sick. He is completely alone and there is no one to care for him, but he lives in another province, and the regulations forbid me to cross provincial lines. What should I do?” Without hesitation we told that man, “Get in your car and go.” Why? Compassion. Crisis. Common sense. And don’t forget other commands. “Obey the government” is not the only biblical command operative in that scenario. The instruction in 1 Timothy 5 to care for elderly parents must also be brought into play.
Scenario 4. Due to another spike in COVID infections, government regulations have again limited our services to a maximum of fifty people. Eight people call the elders on Saturday and say, “I forgot to register on the booking app this week, and the services are all full. What can I do?” We have three options. First, we can be thoroughly regulations-minded and inform those sheep that they can’t worship with God’s people that Sunday—exhibiting the very lack of compassion that aroused Jesus’ righteous anger Mark 3. Second, we can open another service for only eight people (at times in 2020, it would have been our seventh Sunday service). Opening another service for eight people is a legitimate alternative, but it might also lack common sense. Wear and tear on our music teams and on our preachers is a legitimate concern. Moreover, eight people in a room that seats four hundred doesn’t feel much like church. Church has never been merely about the sermon; it is also about community and fellowship.
A third alternative is to apply the model Jesus laid down in Matthew 12. First, common sense. The numerical limits the government has set on our church services are, in fact, arbitrary numbers: no one did a scientific study proving that putting 58 (or 108, or 158) people in a room the size of our church hall will suddenly turn that meeting into a super-spreader event. Moreover, we have frequently had over 100 people in our hall in the past months with no known COVID transmissions.
Next, command. Many other biblical commands besides “Obey the government” are in play here—commands regarding corporate worship, fellowship, and ministering the “one-anothers.” The negative impact of not obeying those commands becomes more and more clear over time as well-intended government regulations continue to seriously hinder church life. Lastly, compassion. Since no genuine health risk is being created, it would be unkind for us exhibit a “regulations above all else” mentality and exclude those eight people from fellowship that week.
Honoring the government remains a biblical priority for all Christians. Our church has endeavored to follow the regulations that don’t significantly hinder our worship and fellowship. However, based on Matthew 12 and Mark 2-3, I would argue that Jesus expects His people to use common sense, other commands, crisis, and compassion as the His appointed criteria to decide (on rare occasions) whether to ignore a non-moral regulation that is genuinely putting their physical or spiritual life under threat.
Here’s the rub. Blinded by the world’s almost hysterical focus on physical health in the past year, many Christians have forgotten that spiritual threats are threats too. In fact, in the long run, threats to our spiritual life are far more dangerous than physical threats.
A year into the COVID era, it is clear that some of the regulations the government has placed on churches are not serving their intended health-related purpose; moreover, those same regulations are undeniably bad for the spiritual life of our flocks. Based on Jesus’ instruction, I believe that, when our spiritual life is under threat, our Lord not only allows, but expects us to act like intelligent, Spirit-indwelt adults, employing the criteria of compassion, crisis, other commands, and common sense in order to evaluate whether we should—as a rare exception to our normal practice—set aside government regulations for our spiritual good.
Part 2: Romans 13 vs. Hebrews 10
Part 3: When Jesus set aside regulations
This post: Modern Applications of Matthew 12