A LOVELESS PANDEMIC
If there is one aspect of modern Christianity that COVID-19 exposed, it is the loveless intolerance amongst believers towards those who think and believe differently. And let’s be honest, were all guilty. I started losing my love for those who kept on sending me ‘ridiculous conspiracy theories’ even before we entered the second wave. And those who sent their messages to me lost their love for me due to my “unwillingness to understand the plots of evil” soon after the first 5G conspiracy. We became a loveless group of Christ-followers who were more concerned about being right, than being kind. In our pursuit for truth, we lost the essence of the Gospel.
It wasn’t always so.
Early Christians stepped up to offer care as early as the 2nd century when the Antonine Plague killed roughly a quarter of the Roman Empire. According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia, the Antonine Plague was a ghastly illness much like smallpox. Roman troops came into contact with it during their invasions east and brought it back as they returned home, effectively killing off an estimated 60-70 million people and leading to the decline of the Roman Empire. At first, Roman leaders persecuted Christians, insisting the epidemic was divine punishment because Christians didn’t pay homage to pagan gods. But this treatment backfired, as people began to develop positive feelings toward Christians and, soon, Christianity. For while many pagans fled to protect their own lives, Christians heeded a responsibility to care for the sick, providing food, water, and other assistance. Their help both fostered goodwill and laid the groundwork for the rise of Christianity. Also, their emphasis on an afterlife brought meaning and hope to a people in crisis. The mathematical equation for the early church was obvious: Love + pandemic = opportunity.
A hundred years later, Christians played even more dramatic a role in tending to victims of the Plague of Cyprian. Named after a Tunisian bishop who preached heartily on the devastating effects of the illness, this plague caused such atrocious death that St. Cyprian and others believed it signaled the end of the world. Again, Christians did all they could to help those ill with the plague, sacrificing their own lives to care for the sick and caring as fervently for non-Christians as for Christians. Not only did the plague further cement the decline of the Roman Empire, but the response of Christians and the benevolence they inspired also helped spread Christianity’s growth, even more explosively than before. Once again. Love + pandemic = opportunity.
Sadly, the 21st century Church will not be remembered for similar reasons. A different equation surfaced during the Corona plague: evil + pandemic = conspiracy. Yes, there are glorious and many wonderful exceptions with amazing testimonies of selfless love and sacrificial service, but sadly Christianity will be remembered for their conspiracies and self-protection, fighting for the right to go to church and for the unwillingness to seek the better for a dying community.
I am reminded again today that according to scripture:
- Loving God is the greatest commandment: Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
- Loving our neighbour, the greatest commission: Mark 12:31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
- loving one another, our greatest witness: John 13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
- loving our enemy, our strongest weapon: Matthew 5:44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
- loving unconditionally (agape love), the greatest virtue: 1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
- and being loved our greatest reward: John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
COVID-19 opened a barn door for love to shine in, but sadly we started cursing the darkness (and one another) instead of simply being a light. So, in an attempt to put the current pandemic into the context of 1 Corinthians 13, I wrote a 1 COVID-19 adaption of the chapter of love. (Please note, I include myself in the content of this letter)
1 Corinthians 13
(1) If I speak with authority on COVID-19 issues, and I proclaim my heavenly superiority with revelations from above, but it leads to a loveless discourse, I am adding noise to the news and provide nothing but an empty, hollow, irritating noise like a dripping tap in an ocean of opinions.
(2) If I presume and proclaim to have insight into the heavenlies, to fathom all mysteries of an unseen virus unknown to man, and to have a greater grasp of the pandemic than bio-chemists, virologists and specialists all put together, but I lack the ability to communicate this in love – I am like a small insignificant star in a galaxy of planets – a nothing. Yes, even if I have enough faith to proclaim God’s protection over me but do not care about the wellbeing of those around me, I become like a hammer in a porcelain shop – dangerous and unusable.
(3) If I have this outward display of care and proclaim how I am willing to suffer for my convictions and boast in my persecution as proof of my faith, but do not have love, I will become a victim of my own obsession and sadly mean nothing to no-one, not even myself.
(4) Love listens patiently to others and responds thoughtfully with goodness – especially when there is a contradiction of convictions. Knowledge does not justify rudeness and does not seek to downgrade or downplay those who think differently. Love is a humble commodity, never boasting about its own wisdom, achievements, or insights.
(5) It does not put others to shame on Facebook or sows suspicion on social media. It always puts others first and joyfully does what is inconvenient, like wearing a mask as a testimony of a willingness to deny ourselves. Love does not steamroller others into our convictions and has no self-interest or self-seeking truths. Love is quiet, it is not easily annoyed by the opinions of others and it places no bookmarks in discussions to later belittle someone for previous remarks made.
(6) Love in nature always pursues, rejoices, and amplifies beauty and never researches, obsesses, and delights in the perceived evil of man.
(7) Love embraces the protection that wisdom offers and trusts the wisdom that God has graciously bestowed on doctors, medics, and health experts. The DNA of love is hope, not fear, trust, not suspicion, and, no matter what, it will not compromise the ability to give life and not death.
(8) Love alone will conquer the uncertainties of COVID-19. The Christianese of prophecies and predictions will not impress a dying world, neither will the spiritual voices that are foreign to people who seek tangible faith in a hopeless season. Yes, all the new variants of the virus will continue to make the wise look foolish and only love will prove to be a solution worth pursuing.
(9) Only an eternal God, with an eternal plan, will one day reveal the depth and the height of His eternal love in a season of despair. Our prophecies and wise words cannot add to this, only our love will.
(10) And this forward faith – waiting patiently for His completeness to come during days, weeks, months, and years of lockdown, make us realise that our current inconveniences are temporary and His love is eternal.
(11) This eternal hope helps us to embrace the virus as mature believers, not gibbering and chattering like immature infants in faith, or expressing our untransformed thoughts with un-Christlike reasoning to anyone who would listen. This season of fear demands calculated and intentional maturity in attitude, and purity in conscience. Our approach should be the same as Christ on the cross – redemption, regardless of our own security.
(12) Only when we offer eternity as a cure shall we see face to face if the God that we portrayed was the real God or a false God. That day will come sooner than many realise. May God have mercy on us when we enter eternity one day and we tell the Lord of our glorious achievements. May we be spared from the deep disgrace of hearing the words of Matthew 7:23: I tell you plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
(13) Think about this: Heaven will be a faithless and hopeless place. Neither will be needed as we will experience the fulfilment of faith and hope when we dwell with God. Love, however will remain. And that’s why it is the greatest of all, especially in a time when all seem to fall apart.
Say what you have to say, but say it in love.
SOURCE
Early Church Pandemic: https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/how-did-early-christians-face-pandemics.html