COVID-19 has turned the world upside down. The world that people always thought would keep spinning, by and large, has stopped spinning. It’s been well over a month since businesses shut down, senior living communities closed up, and the world as we know it moved online.
But the silver lining behind this life-taking tragedy is that more and more people are open to receiving the Gospel. After all, the church is where you’ll find the world whenever a crisis happens.
But whenever a door like this opens, someone professing the Christian faith always says something to make people slam it in our faces. So what should we not (I repeat, NOT) say that will keep those doors open? I can think of at least three things.
1. “The coronavirus is God’s judgment for our sins.”
Whenver a crisis happens, this kind of statement always seems to come from a popular preacher with a call for repentance. If you hear this in your church or on the street, ask that person to read the book of Job.
Job’s so-called friends spent 34 out of 42 chapters (just over 80% of the entire book!) trying to convince him that his crisis was a divine punishment. It only made Job more resistant, up to the point where God Himself had to step in and remind him that He is in control (Job 38-41).
Not every crisis is a divine judgment. If Job’s friends remembered this and stuck to comforting him in his time of need (Job 2:11-13), it would have done more to help him. HINT, HINT.
2. “We need godly laws passed in the land.”
Statements like “You took God out of _________, now we’ve got ______________” fly everywhere during a crisis and one solution that seems to always come up is for the U.S. to pass laws. “Christian laws.” Read that again. That statement is so profound, you can’t help but see the Bible is true if you study the prophecies enough.
Our First Amendment rights guarantee religious liberty for every American. So-called “Christian laws” would force everyone to worship God against his conscience. That’s exactly what Jesus didn’t do when He was on the earth. It was wrong in the days of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 3) and it will be wrong in the days of the mark of the beast (Rev. 13:11-18). Why would it be any less wrong now?
More importantly, the only kind of Christians God wants, especially in the last days, are those who do what He says because they love Him (Jn. 14:15; Rev. 22:14). Forced obedience can’t save anyone and our God is not a tyrant. Satan has deceived many into believing this lie, but God sent His Son into the world and proved that that’s not the case (Jn. 3:16).
3. “I’ll pray for you.”
This one’s a doozy, but just listen. If someone just lost a loved one because of the coronavirus (and two of my friends lost a close relative in the past two days alone), “I’ll pray for you” is a promise to do something in the future. But they’re in pain right now. Satan can easily make you forget your promise by keeping you busy (Lk. 8:14).
If that person is in pain right now, do something right then. Pray with them. Offer condolences mingled with Bible promises (1 Thess. 4:16-18). Offer an ear to them if you see they need to talk. Send a card, a social media post, or some food. But make it plain right then that you care. If you don’t know what to do, ask God right there. This is how they can see that God loves them.
We’re living in the end times and Jesus said that pestilences would be coming (Matt. 24:7). He told us these things for a reason. He wants us to get ready for His coming and be ready to share the gospel at anytime. Being ready includes knowing what to and what not to say to open hearts. So ask God to “give you a mouth” (Lk. 21:15) in this crisis, one that will minister grace to your hearers, (Eph. 4:29), one that will encourage (Jos. 1:9) and comfort them, especially if they lost a loved one (1 Thess. 4:18). If it worked for Jesus in His day, it will definitely work for us in the last ones.
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