“Testing.”
Have we tested God to the point where he has sent this C-19 virus upon us? I cannot answer that question conclusively. Maybe he has, maybe He hasn’t. What I do know is that the world spares no energy and expense in piling up sins against our Holy God. Since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden (Genesis 3) we have all suffered the consequences of the cause-and-effect process to one degree or another. A long list of other sins join the sexual sins of man to “receive in themselves the due penalty for their perversion” (Romans 1:27). We are body, soul and spirit, sin touches every aspect of our being. Things that afflict the body, especially viruses, do not discriminate between Christian and non-Christian. Some naïve Christians may go around apologising for God, as if God is incapable of punishing anyone, but “do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).
The irony of social-distancing will not be seen by most. The prescribed method to contain the spread of a contagious disease by staying away from certain people and things for the sake of one’s physical health and that of the community, is Biblical. But the world rejects it as a cure for its social ills. The Bible calls Christians to stay away from certain people (their influence) and things for the sake of our spiritual health and that of the community. Just as people have tested the quarantine laws and infection has spread, people have tested spiritual quarantine laws and spiritual infection has spread. We continue to be careful for the sake of those who are suffering the terrible effects of the C-19 virus and wait on a vaccine. However, the spiritual disease caused by sin, and ending in death, has a ‘vaccine,’ already – Praise God! Jesus is our cure: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live to righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed (1Peter 2:24). There is a lot of C-19 testing going on at present. It keeps us safe and alive. God calls all of you to Spiritual Testing: ‘Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; TEST YOURSELVES” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
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