David Chanski

The Coronavirus and the Church: Our Response, Part 2 (Points 2 and 3)

Second, we’re doing what we’re doing because we are aiming to preserve life and health.

I do believe [that] the text that we sent out in our written explanation as to why we’re doing this is a good text: Matthew chapter 12, [verse 7], where Jesus said He desires mercy and not sacrifice. I think it’s an applicable, biblical principle in our circumstances.

Watch out for the health and well-being of our fellow citizens is what our civil authorities, our public officials, are asking us to do. Now, they are not consciously aiming to follow Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 12, when they tell us that; but, for us, I believe their recommendation does fit completely with Jesus’s teaching in this instance.

Let me give you an Old Testament illustration of that. Let’s turn in our Bibles to the third book of the Old Testament, of the Bible, Leviticus 13:43-46. I think what we see here is that something similar to what we’re doing (although it is on a much wider scale) is something that in principle has divine warrant.

Speaking about the way you treat lepers and the disease of leprosy, verse 43 of Leviticus 13 says

then the priest shall look at it

(that is, the man’s place on his body where the disease is manifest).

then the priest shall look at it;

and, indeed if the swelling of the sore is reddish white

on his bald head or on his bald forehead

as the appearance of leprousy on the skin of the body,

he is a leprous man; he is unclean.

The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean: his sore is on his head.

Now, the leper on whom the sore is,

his clothes shall be torn and his head bare

and he shall cover his moustache and cry, “unclean, unclean.”

He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean.

He is unclean and he shall dwell alone. His habitation shall be outside the camp.

The point is that we are experiencing something like this, but on a far wider scale.

These people were not allowed to be—not only at public worship, whenever the Jews had it as they were traveling through the desert: they weren’t even allowed to be inside the camp with the other Jews. This was God saying, for the sake of their illness and for the health and well-being of the entire congregation of the Israelites, that had to happen.

Those people were not sinning, if they stayed away from the assembly. They were sinning, in their case, if they entered the assembly of God’s people.

Having seen, first, that we must obey our authorities; and, second, we must aim to preserve life and health; [in the] third place, let’s consider our church’s response in particular. There should be at least these three things that we’re seeking to do.

First, what we’re doing is legitimate biblical submission. I go back to Romans 13.

Again, there are some things that the government could conceivably require us to do, at which we would have to say, No, we can’t abide by that: we must obey God and not men (Acts 5:29), as when the apostles were told they were not to preach the Word of God.

There are probably things in your life that the government tells you to do that you don’t think are good and wise. Frankly, you resent it; you don’t think you should have to do it; and you might not even think you do have to do it.

You might think that, for instance, about driving 25 miles an hour in a school zone, when the lights are flashing. You might say, The lights are flashing; but there’s not even a child in sight, or even a crossing guard. That doesn’t make any sense.

I simply remind you of this: your driving 25 miles an hour in that zone, as the law says at that point, is not causing you to sin; and it’s frankly good for everyone, because a child might dart out at that moment. (Not every child gets to school on time and is there when the crossing guards are there.)

It’s legitimate biblical submission, even if you don’t like it, and even if you wouldn’t do that [i.e., make that rule], if you were in the place of the public officials.

Second, our church’s response should be characterized not only by legitimate biblical submission; it should be characterized by a good testimony.

A week ago, meetings of 250 or more were not even prohibited; but they were not recommended. We made the judgment then that we would not even meet with a lesser number, though that was one of the possiblities that we discussed.

Our reason came from this Second Corinthians 8:21-22. It had to do with an offering of saints in places like Macedonia and Acaia for the saints back in Jerusalem. Regarding the number of men who would be traveling with the money, it said, Avoiding this, that anyone should blame us in this lavish gift which is administered by us, providing honorable things not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men.

In other words, they were saying, We know we have honest men here; but we’re going to have some from various congregations who contributed to this gift, because that’s the best “accounting practices.” Those were the best “internal controls” (if you will) of the day.

That’s what they did; and that’s why they did it at, at no insignificant cost. Those men had to make a long journey just to be there, so it looked good in the sight of men.

We asked the question, as elders, What might people of Montville say if we had almost many cars as almost always we do on Sunday, March 15th, as we do on any on other Lord’s day?

What are we going to say?

Would we want them to come into this building and complain, and say, “Well, no—but if you go up and do a physical count, there are actually only 220 in the room”?

Appearances matter; and we didn’t want to say to the people around us (when we didn’t have to do it): We’re just under the number: we’re going to squeak in and try to do everything we—

You don’t like it when your kids do that with the Word of God—say: I’m going to go as far(or near the boundary) as I can, without you being able to say it’s sin. (Right?)

May God help us, if we ever take that attitude.

Not only legitimate biblical submission, and a good testimony, a third thing we want our response to manifest is solidarity with our fellow men, solidarity with our fellow men.

Turn with me to Titus 3, verse 1 through 3.

Here the apostle Paul is giving some directions to the church in the island of Crete. He’s giving it to them through Titus, who’s the gospel minister at that time there in Crete. Paul says, Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities; to obey; to be ready for every good work.

Now, that applies to what I just said (the first two points); but now this—for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, decieved serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

In other words, Look at those people that I’m trying to tell you to have a good testimony among, and remember this: you’re one. You’re one of them.

You’re redeemed ones of them; but you’re one of them—not just in that some of them actually have the same blood and genes you do, because they’re family members; but they have the same spiritual lineage as you: sons of Adam.

Don’t forget that. Don’t!

You know, Jesus’s statement was true, Here are my mother and my brothers: those who hear the Word of God and do it. Water, in terms of the washing of the Spirit, is thicker than blood in that sense; but that’s not the only truth.

The rest of the truth is, Remember the rock from which you were hewn (if we could put it that way). Look at the people around you; and identify yourself with them. You’re part of them.

That’s what God said that the Israelites should do, even in the most difficult of circumstances, as they were being taken away by their captors to a foreign land—an idolatrous land, with an idolatrous, wicked king.

They were going to become part of that society; and God didn’t say, Don’t identify with them at all. In terms of their idolatrous practices, they must not identify with them; but, in terms of being part of the same society, the same segment of humanity, they were absolutely to identify with them.

Listen to Jeremiah 29. verse 7. Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive; and pray to the Lord for it, for its in peace you will have peace.

Isn’t that how Joseph conducted himself in Egypt? Wasn’t he, in many ways, an Egyptian among Egyptians?

And isn’t that the way Daniel conducted himself for so many decades in Babylon? He was such a useful and loyal servant to his king; and he was a good example for us.

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