This is part of a series. To see part one, click here.
People with phobias might see reality more clearly than those who are not afraid of much - if you don’t factor God in the equation. There are many dangers in a fallen world. The theme song from the TV series Monk summarizes it well (he was a detective who saw dangers a bit too clearly):
It's a jungle out there
Disorder and confusion everywhere
No one seems to care
Well I do
Hey, who's in charge here?
It's a jungle out there
Poison in the very air we breathe
Do you know what's in the water that you drink?
Well I do, and it's amazing
People think I'm crazy, 'cause I worry all the time
If you paid attention, you'd be worried too
You better pay attention
Or this world we love so much might just kill you
I could be wrong now, but I don't think so
'Cause there's a jungle out there
It's a jungle out there
When it comes to the Coronavirus, we have heard a lot of
statistics and stories that can make us afraid. Having some level of fear
doesn’t make us crazy or worthy of some sort of psychological label.
However, Christians serve the living God and look forward to
resurrection life as our ultimate hope. That means something for how we should
deal with fear and respond to it. In this post, I want to address how the Bible
tells us to think about fear in general. Then I want to tackle one fear we
might have – the fear of getting extremely sick or dying from this virus.
The Biblical Picture of Fear
Fear is not inherently wrong. It is the opposite side of the
coin as desire. If I fear something, it is because I desire something else (and
fear losing it). So, we should fear God (fear his displeasure and desire his
smiling face). In a fallen world, I should fear jumping from a 5-story building
or being bitten by the rattle snake I am staring at on a trail. God gave us fear
to protect us physically and spiritually.
Fear, however, like other God-given emotions, can reveal
where our desires have gotten off track. For example, Saul was king of Israel,
and he disobeyed God’s direct command “because [he] feared the people” (1 Sam.
15:24). He feared losing the approval of people more than losing God’s
approval. This fear revealed a heart that elevated a good thing (wanting the
approval of people) to an ultimate thing (“I must have it, even if I have to
disobey God”).
So, fear can be useful, but it can also reveal where our
hearts have gotten priorities out of order. We need wisdom from God and the
help of loving Christian friends to help us sort this out.
Fear and Disease
It is not bad to fear a serious disease as long as it is
kept in its proper place. Life is a gift from God, and we should care for our
bodies. We should take reasonable precautions (knowing what is reasonable has
been challenging with COVID because much was unknown early on).
But, we must also check to see that good health does not
become ultimate or idolatrous. Our bodies are a gift, but they are not worthy
of our total allegiance and worship. God is. Good health is a good gift from
God, but it makes a terrible god. We must steward our health in service to him.
However, we must not worship it because all things are from him and through him
and to him so that he might be glorified (Rom. 11:36). In other words, our
problem comes when our desire for good health gets ordered above our desire to
obey God. We should not be controlled by the fear of anything except the
Lord.
Should Fear of COVID Keep us from Gathering?
If fear causes us to disobey God, then that is a problem. If
fear of persecution made me deny Christ, that would be a sin. If a fear of
getting sick (or even dying) caused me to forsake assembling, that would
be a sin. Remember, forsaking is not the same as temporarily not gathering[1]
or being providentially hindered (like a Christian being in the hospital for a
month).
If we might get sick from gathering, we know that our
physical life is not ultimate. The world lives as if this life is all they have
because it is all they have (kind of like the Monk theme song). We
should display our faith in God by being willing to gather. This is not a faith
that we won’t get sick. It is a trust in God’s sovereign ordering of our lives,
including sickness, health, life, and death.
Conclusion
I realize there are other reasons, besides ungodly fear,
which might keep some from being able to resume gathering for worship at this
stage. I am not assuming everyone has ungodly fear. But I know that in my heart,
there have been seasons of fear, and I assume others might have that experience
too.
Our goal isn’t to avoid feeling fear as much as it is to
honor God, even when we feel afraid. I often tell my boys when they feel scared
that courage isn’t the absence of fear. It is doing what honors God, even when
they feel afraid. I need to be reminded of that too.
In the next few posts, I plan to address how to renew our
thinking with God’s Word. Specifically, how to fight fearful thoughts.
[1] I believe temporarily suspending meeting together when the
government asks us to can be right. When there is evidence that the lives of many citizens will likely be put at grave risk if any group gathers, we can rightly decide to suspend meeting out of a love for our neighbors and proper submission to the government.
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