I have been considering the effects of COVID-19 on our society and on us as individuals. It has become the one issue that affects and influences everything else we do. Sometimes I would just like to get on with my life, but then often things are not that simple. Life is what it is, and we need to make the necessary adjustments and get on with it. All the regular warnings and directions that bombard us can desensitise us and make us feel numb. My wife continually has to remind me to keep my distance when in the shops or on the street. She is a lot more aware of the two-meter rule than I seem to be. All these reminders are a bit like the safety procedures we are given every time we board a flight. We think we could do the routine for the airline staff, but we’d probably struggle as most of us don’t listen as intently as we should. It feels like we are being told the same things repeatedly. Still, at the end of the day, we need to be consistently warned, as we can become complacent very quickly and need to know what to do in case of an emergency.
There is something in human nature that doesn't like rules or being told what to do. Again, most of us are concerned about the incursion into our lives of Government set regulations and controls. Track and trace apps are a necessary evil, but we don't particularly like them as we love our freedom and rightly so.
As a Christian, I have discovered that liberty is not the freedom to what I want to do but to do what is good for me, honouring to God and beneficial for society. In our culture, you and I have the freedom to act however we like within the confines of the law, but when we break the law, there are consequences. The law is there to provide freedom for all and maintain a safe and prosperous society. So, it is with the law of God. When we break that law, there are long term effects. Our greed, our lies, our selfishness, our lust, our pride, our anger or lack of neighbourliness damages our lives, is an offence against God and detracts from producing a good society. Maybe you have never thought that it is a sin not to love your neighbour as yourself—that one law on its own highlights how high the standard of God is.
I don't like to be told what to do. Still, just as in the Airline safety talk example, I need to be aware of the danger I could be in and need to take the appropriate action to protect myself. The Bible states the obvious when it says ‘All have sinned’[1]. We also get the ‘safety talk’ in the Bible when we are told that ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’[2]. The final part of the advice for surviving this life and arriving in heaven in the next is contained in the biblical statement, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’.[3]
To survive COVID we have ‘Hands, Face and Space’, to survive life, death and reach heaven we have ‘Come, Confess and Christ’.
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