Christians are told that we have not been given a spirit of fear (1 Tim. 1:7), but for many, fear is a daily reality. How are we to obey the commands of Jesus in the face of a global pandemic? How are we to remain faithful to Him and not succumb to paralyzing fear? The answer is simple: we must trust and obey.
Multiple times in the past several months, I have said that regardless of what is happening in the world around us, God’s Word has not been suspended. In other words, what God has commanded us to do is still in effect. A global pandemic cannot and should not change what God has said that we are to do. But I have talked to many people who are not so sure that they are supposed to keep on obeying Jesus–at least fully–until the coronavirus has passed. Many are living in fear, too, that if they go out into the world and attempt to do ministry or share the Gospel, that they will become infected and potentially die.
I believe that we, as followers of Christ, should “be very careful how we live” (see Ephesians 5:15-17). We are not to be unwise in the choices we make and we are to consider other people and their health, especially when we could be contributing factors to the spread of a virus like COVID-19. But we are not to live in fear. And we are certainly not to live in disobedience to God’s Word.
I wonder how many people have died and gone to an eternity separated from God because Christians have been hiding in fear during this pandemic. When someone needed, more than ever, to hear and receive the life-changing message of the Gospel, many Christians were shuttered in their homes. Some stayed home to help slow the spread, I am sure, but others stayed out of sheer panic at the prospect of death–and missed opportunities to minister to those who were dying.
My goal in writing this post is not make people feel bad for doing what the government asked them to do by “sheltering in place” during the pandemic. My goal is to, hopefully, expose any fear that motivates Christians to “shelter in place” for the wrong reasons or to use the coronavirus as an excuse to not share the Gospel and make disciples in the future.
When it comes to global pandemics–or any other existential dangers to our lives–we, as Christians, are not to live in fear. God holds our lives in His hands and He knows when He will call us home. 2 Timothy 1:7 explicitly tells us that God is not the source of fear in our lives. If a Christian has a spirit of fear about them, they clearly acquired it from someone other than their Creator. Psalm 139:16 tells us that every day that we are to live is written in His book. Passages such as Matthew 6:27 find Jesus telling His followers not to worry or be anxious. Indeed, rather than living in fear, we are to have spirit of confidence about us knowing that God holds our lives in His hands and that as long as we are walking in obedience to Him, all is well.
Which leads me to this question: Do you believe that? Do you believe that if you’re walking in obedience, even in the face of a global pandemic, that all is well? Or, do you fear death? Do you fear that if you obey that you will lose your life? This is the heart of the matter for Christians. We are called to obey Jesus, even at risk to our lives. This does not mean we act foolishly or recklessly; we are to act in obedience. We do what God has said to do and if in doing what He has commanded we end up dying, Paul reminds us that it is “far better” to depart this life and be with Christ than to remain in this fallen world one second longer than God has ordained (Philippians 1:23). If we love our lives in this fallen world more than obedience to Christ and the reward of being in His presence, then I have no doubt that fear will be the motivating factor in all we do. If our motivation is fear, our obedience will be lacking.
We are not to have a “death wish,” but we are not in charge of our days or the length of our lives. God is in control of when we are to depart. In the meantime, until He calls us home or Christ returns, our only business is to be obedient. As noted above, God’s Word has not been suspended during the global pandemic of 2020. We, as Christians, must find a way to remain faithful and obedient in the face of the pandemic and to continue to share the Gospel. In fact, we should be more attentive to sharing the Gospel now, as people are facing their own mortality in unprecedented ways.
If fear is your motivating factor, let me encourage and exhort you to put fear aside and ask God how He wants you to obey Him now, even in the face of a global pandemic.