So I am left to ask, where are such men and women of God today? Where are the Christians who can stand with Paul and address death directly, asking “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). If we truly believe that there is a heaven waiting for us upon our death; a heaven that is, “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you”; if we truly believe that we are going to a heaven in which God “will wipe away every tear…and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain”, if we believe that we will be ushered into a heaven where we “shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike…nor any scorching heat”; if we really believe this, shouldn’t we live like we believe it?
Living like we believe this would mean never fearing death in light of the hope that we are currently and actively receiving from the Holy Spirit concerning our present and future eternal life with God. If we fear the coronavirus and the potential death it has the power to cause, then what are we saying to the world about our frequent proclamations of heaven and eternal life that those who believe will receive? We are showing the world that our rhetoric and frequently stated beliefs amount to nothing when the authenticity and power of what we claim is not observed in our actions when a real opportunity to respond to actual trials and suffering presents itself.
Relationship status
This virus, as we already discussed previously, has been allowed by God to strike the earth for purposes that differ depending on the relationship one has with Him. In terms of ‘relationship’ with God, there are only two options: OUT OF RELATIONSHIP with Him, or IN RELATIONSHIP with Him.
First, this coronavirus has a very specific purpose for the unbeliever who does not know or acknowledge God. This purpose finds its roots in God’s mercy as it is intentioned to draw the unbeliever to Him. Disease is one of the great equalizers of humanity. When diseases like the coronavirus strike, barriers that firmly exist within a society suddenly come toppling down. Disease-causing viruses and bacteria don’t generally discriminate between wealth and poverty, wisdom and foolishness, men and women, adults and children, or those talented and those unskilled; but rather, disease strikes communities, countries, and nations viciously and seemingly randomly with no predilection.
When this occurs, the hearts of unbelievers are suddenly consumed by fear as a moment of clarity transpires in which they fully realize that all the faith they have placed in themselves is entirely incapable of helping them. This perception creates the Divine purpose of the pandemic for the unbeliever, and that is an awareness of his inability to control what happens to him, which leads to an inevitable consideration and pondering of his mortality. Consideration of one’s own mortality leads to questions involving God, Jesus, the afterlife, and what will happen after death in terms of consciousness, destination, and duration. These questions have spurned many men and women to consider God and seek answers that eventually led them to Christ and salvation. So if this coronavirus leads even one unbelieving man, woman, or child to knock on heaven’s door in search of a Savior, then it is all worth it; it is all purposeful!
A call to action
Let us now turn our attention to the believer and the Divine purpose that exists in the allowance of the coronavirus for the sons and daughters of God. Whenever there is widespread fear and suffering in the world the Christian is called to action, and it is within the willingness to act that the Christian finds his or her purpose.
When unbelievers have come to the end of their physical selves; their carnal knowledge and understandings have failed to provide them with answers or cures, and they find themselves living in resultant fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness; there is only one thing that will catch their attention and draw them. That one thing is the observation of a true Christian life.
In their lowest and most insecure moments, when fear is dictating their lives, the unbeliever will look at the peace, confidence, joy, and love being displayed by the true Christian and entirely fail to understand how Christians can possess such poise, calmness, and assurance amidst such external strife. This gives us, as followers of Christ, an opportunity, unparalleled in its efficacy, to share the reason behind our peace and contentment, and that reason is Jesus Christ and the salvation He secured for us through His death on the cross!
When times are good in society and there is no suffering, people generally don’t want to hear about Jesus; but everything changes when suffering and fear enters people’s lives. The fear and uncertainty that comes with tragedies, wars, and pandemics effectively provides people with new ears that are now open and receptive to spiritual truth.
To use a brief illustration, when people feel good physically they won’t go to the doctor despite the fact that a cancerous tumor has begun to grow in their body. It is not until uncontrollable, fear-causing symptoms arise that they will now willingly go to the doctor and hinge on his every word as he reveals the diagnosis and the treatment. The same is true spiritually. Every unbeliever is terminally ill with the ‘cancer’ of sin, but until they are spiritually symptomatic with fear, uncertainty, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness, they will remain unaware of their spiritual diagnosis and surely won’t seek the cure to a sickness that they refuse to believe they have.
An opportunity to share
Every Christian needs to regard the fear incited by the coronavirus both as an opportunity to share the gospel with a fearful and desperate world that needs to be saved, and as an opportunity provided to us by God’s grace to share in His redemptive Kingdom building work here on earth. Peter instructs us to always be prepared to share the gospel with “anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15), and this preparedness is even more crucial when God’s wrath comes upon the earth!
As a Christian, are you prepared to be bold in your proclamation of Christ to a world that is terminally ill spiritually and doesn’t even know it? As Christians living in a sin-sick world, we know the diagnosis, we know what occurs if this sin disease is left untreated, and we carry around the cure. To withhold a cure from a dying world would display such an inconceivable degree of cruelty that it would surely be impossible for any true born-again Christian to commit such an appalling act. So start working with a sense of urgency to share the good news of Christ with a world that has been brought to its knees in fear by this coronavirus. The world is watching us, and it is the spiritual birthright and duty of every living son and daughter of God to represent Christ through our actions, share Him with our words, and proclaim Him with every living fiber of our beings! We must determine within ourselves to suffer well for our Savior Who suffered for us!
“…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”
– 1 Peter 3:15
The myth of the PHysical
The final consideration of importance involves Christians who are currently afraid of COVID-19 and are living with a crippling level of uncertainty, and are wondering why. They ask themselves, “Why am I, a born-again Christian, failing to experience the peace, boldness, joy, and security that I know God has promised me in Scripture?” The answer to this question is dependent upon the truth in which you are living.
John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.” Christianity and relationship with God are not physical undertakings, and thus the Christian who chooses to live a life in which his motivations, happiness, rewards, pleasures, and worldview are all physically determined can expect to live under the same bondage and experience the same fears that worldly, physically focused unbelievers live under. This also extends to our relationship with God, as those who attempt to worship Him in a physical way engage in a futile practice.
There is nothing that you can build, no image that you can create, and nothing that you can physically bring God that would be deemed acceptable worship by Him. This poses a problem for Christians in America whose lives are nearly 100% focused on the physical. We think worship is physically going to a physical church building. We wear physical crosses around our necks and stick physical fish on the back of our cars thinking that this will somehow represent our Christianity to the world.
Additionally, we find nearly all of our happiness in physical things, and put our faith in physical systems like politics and human leaders when it comes to bettering our world, and this is where the problem lies. If we seek our happiness in physical things, and build our relationship with God on a foundation of physical offerings, then we haven’t even begun to discern spiritual living.
To test yourself in this area just perform an honest self-assessment by asking this question: do I have more of a desire to stand out physically in the world by the way I look, what I wear, wear I live, what I drive, where I work, my title, etc., or do I desire to stand out spiritually by refusing to go certain places, refusing to wear certain clothing, refusing to buy excessively sized and excessively priced things, reading my Bible in public, or taking the Biblical stance on a subject that will result in the world hating me?
The truth is, that in America, our Christianity is superficial and void of substance and this is all secondary to our love of the physical world as we live to physically please ourselves and the world around us. The Bible is clear concerning this subject. When discussing man’s love of money and material things, Jesus says, “For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15b).
James asks a clear, yet rhetorical question when he writes, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4). John makes a similar statement to James when he writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15). Considering these verses, it becomes clear that if we love the world and find our happiness in the physical offerings of the world then we are by Biblical definition “an enemy of God” and Divine love does not reside within us. I hope that we understand the gravity of what is being said here. If one is an enemy of God he is not saved and God’s wrath remains on him. Are you living a life of deception in which you believe that you are saved as you go around calling yourself a Christian when, in actuality, you are not saved and will stand in front of God only to hear “I never knew you, away from me your worker of lawlessness.”
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
– 1 John 2:15
Starving your spirit
We can further assess ourselves by asking the question that arises from reading the verse above from Luke, “For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Do you exalt what men exalt? Men exalt physical things in the world: cars, jobs, homes, buildings, big churches, physical beauty, power, wealth, etc. Now be honest and ask yourself if you also exalt these things.
If you find yourself exalting these things, what do you think you are telling all of the unbelievers who are watching your ‘Christian’ life. They surely won’t see God as being all satisfying to you, as you chase the same things they do in order to attain the temporary counterfeit happiness offered by the world. I challenge you to ask yourself, why do I live in the size home that I live in? Why do I drive the car that I drive? Why do I wear what I wear? Do your possessions and lifestyle produce a sense of pride in your heart? Do you love showing off your things? If you answer yes to any of those questions then your heart is not right according to Scripture and you fall into the category of world-lover.
This creates a life that is dictated and determined by physical realities, which leaves the spiritual part of you underdeveloped and severely lacking. The physical part of you is a glutton while the spiritual part of you is starving. When we find ourselves in this state then it will be impossible for us to discern things spiritually. So when something like the coronavirus enters our society and the world, that lives within the offerings of the physical world, responds with fear, we, as carnal Christians, can also expect to respond with fear because our relationship with God is anemic.
Peace and joy in the face of trials
The physical existence that dominates the lives of so many self-proclaiming Christians is used to being in control, buying what it wants, living where it wants, eating what it wants, driving what it wants; and now something enters their lives that can’t be controlled, like the coronavirus, and fear ensues. When we live in the Spirit and not in the physical, only then can we learn to have peace and joy secondary to the fact that our lives are not bound or determined by anything physical on this earth.
The focus of the spiritual Christian transcends the physical and enters the realm of God that is free from any physical determinations, boundaries, or influences. Only when we walk in the Spirit and crucify the physical can we display peace and joy in the face of physical trials and sufferings. So if we find ourselves afraid and anxious, cowering at the feet of the coronavirus, it can only mean one thing—we are living carnal lives and our happiness and sense of well-being are being determined by the physical world around us.
If any of us find ourselves in this position, we must understand that this effectively makes us, according to Scripture, an enemy of God, and fear will surely result from anything physical that lies outside of our control. The spiritual man knows that he can’t control anything, and thus he gives everything over to God. In doing this he effectively surrenders his life to God who did not give us a “spirit of fear” (2 Timothy 1:9), as He is more than capable of overcoming anything this world presents to us.
Citizens of Heaven
In conclusion, we, as Christians, are God’s servants who don’t consider earth as our home because we know that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). As citizens of heaven we are here only to perform our function as “ambassadors for Christ” on this earth (2 Corinthians 5:20), as we no longer live but Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20). These truths create the attributes of the true Christian on this earth.
When the world is afraid of a virus, the Christian displays peace that “surpasses human understanding” (Philippians 4:7). When the world fears the death that could result from the coronavirus, the Christian displays a unique confidence provided by the eternal life in which he lives now—a confidence that proclaims death to be void of power! God is always in control and thus His purposes for His allowances on earth will always prevail.
The coronavirus will bring unbelievers into an awareness of the brevity of life, in which they will undoubtedly begin to consider their own mortality. This consideration will draw them to God as they enter into a full realization of their own weakness and their overwhelming need for a Savior to do for them what they cannot possibly do for themselves.
For the believer, this virus and the fear surrounding it creates an optimal environment in which to share the gospel of Christ and display to the world the fearlessness and peace in which we live as children of God. Fear and uncertainty opens the ears and hearts of even the most hardened unbelievers, and thus Christians should not miss the opportunity to go out into a field that has been Divinely prepared for a plentiful harvest.
Of course this opportunity will be missed by believers that are living in just as much fear as unbelievers, and this is regrettable. If you find yourself fitting this description then look at your life and ask yourself where you find your pleasure and happiness. If it is in the physical offerings of this world and not in Christ alone, then you can expect to share the fear of the world just as you share the happiness of the world. If you want the peace, joy, and confidence that is exclusively offered by Christ, then you must begin to walk in the Spirit and find all of your joy in Christ—only then will you experience in your soul what is impossible to experience in a life dictated by the flesh and its physical desires.
We are Christians, followers of Christ, and God has graced us with this grand opportunity to share the gospel of salvation, peace, security, joy, hope, and love with a world that is currently afraid, uncertain, and without hope. Thank you Lord for allowing us to be ambassadors for you on this earth in a time such as this. Help us not to waste this opportunity to point people toward you. Help us not to look just like the world that You commanded us to come out from and separate ourselves from. Empower us, and give us the words of life to speak to a dying world. Amen!
