How Do I Make a Difference in this Coronavirus Pandemic?

Here I am social distancing myself in a world grappling with the coronavirus pandemic. In the larger area of Charlotte, North Carolina, where I live, most businesses are temporarily closed, save banks, grocery stores, restaurants (offering take out), and other essential services. Cancellation or postponement of gatherings and events of over 50 people along with the avoidance groups of 10 or more has been advised. This is, of course, a stopgap measure to stave off the rapid spread of COVID-19 infections until the outbreak can be controlled. None of this is pleasant.

All of this is a sort of trial by fire. It is a testing of faith. Through the fire of suffering, glorious virtues are refined in the person. The Apostle Paul wrote, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:3-5).¹ Likewise, James tells us, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jas. 1:2-4). It is within perilous times that the fire of suffering allows the glory of Christ shine most brightly in the Christian.

The present crisis is really one in the line of many outbreaks of pestilence that God’s people endure in this life before Christ’s second appearance. What makes all the difference in the world is the way Christians have conducted themselves in such perilous times.

There was a worldwide plague around the third century. The outbreak of that pestilence emerged in Ethiopia around AD 250 and spread to Rome, Greece and Syria. The plague lasted about two decades and it is reported that as many as 5000 people per-day died in Rome.²

Whereas pagans thought the source of the terrible affliction to be punishment from the gods, Christians cared for the ill and buried the dead. Those who contracted the illness were counted as martyrs, and they shared about the rewards of the afterlife to the non-Christians.³ Dionysus of Alexandria, an eyewitness to this pestilence, wrote this about the Christian response,

Most of our brethren were unsparing in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness. They held fast to each other and visited the sick fearlessly, and ministered to them continually, serving them in Christ. And they died with them most joyfully, taking the affliction of others, and drawing the sickness from their neighbors to themselves, and willingly receiving their pains. And many who cared for the sick and gave strength to others died themselves having transferred to themselves their death (Ecclesiastical History, 7.22.7).⁴

Concerning those outside the Church, Dionysus wrote,

They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. And they cast them out into the streets when they were half dead, and left the dead like refuse, unburied. They shunned any participation or fellowship with death; which yet, with all their precautions, it was not easy for them to escape (Ecclesiastical History, 7.22.10).

In a treatise entitled On the Mortality, Cyprian of Carthage contended the resurrection life found in Jesus Christ as the primary source of Christian confidence and compassion in those perilous times. Here are a few passages from On the Mortality,

What room is there here for anxiety and solicitude? Who, in the midst of these things, is trembling and sad, except he who is without hope and faith? For it is for him to fear death who is not willing to go to Christ. It is for him to be unwilling to go to Christ who does not believe that he is about to reign with Christ (Treatise VII: On the Mortality, 2).⁵ 

For it is written that the just lives by faith. If you are just, and live by faith, if you truly believe in Christ, why, since you are about to be with Christ, and are secure of the Lord’s promise, do you not embrace the assurance that you are called to Christ, and rejoice that you are freed from the devil? (Treatise VII: On the Mortality, 3).

This trial, that now the bowels, relaxed into a constant flux, discharge the bodily strength; that a fire originated in the marrow ferments into wounds of the fauces; that the intestines are shaken with a continual vomiting; that the eyes are on fire with the injected blood; that in some cases the feet or some parts of the limbs are taken off by the contagion of diseased putrefaction; that from the weakness arising by the maiming and loss of the body, either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing is obstructed, or the sight darkened; — is profitable as a proof of faith. What a grandeur of spirit it is to struggle with all the powers of an unshaken mind against so many onsets of devastation and death! what sublimity, to stand erect amid the desolation of the human race, and not to lie prostrate with those who have no hope in God; but rather to rejoice, and to embrace the benefit of the occasion; that in thus bravely showing forth our faith, and by suffering endured, going forward to Christ by the narrow way that Christ trod, we may receive the reward of His life and faith according to His own judgment! Assuredly he may fear to die, who, not being regenerated of water and the Spirit, is delivered over to the fires of Gehenna; he may fear to die who is not enrolled in the cross and passion of Christ; he may fear to die, who from this death shall pass over to a second death; he may fear to die, whom on his departure from this world eternal flame shall torment with never-ending punishments; he may fear to die who has this advantage in a lengthened delay, that in the meanwhile his groanings and his anguish are being postponed. (Treatise VII: On the Mortality, 14).

During that third century plague of Cyprian, there was a crossroads of either taking risks, and extending compassionate mercy to the sick along with giving the dead a proper burial, or simply looking after one own self-interest and forsaking the sick and the dying. Early Christianity chose the former.

Moses Y. Lee with Rosebrook Presbyterian Church observes, “As we continue to wrestle with how to respond to the coronavirus, notice how non-Christians in the Roman Empire emphasized self preservation while the early church emphasized fearless, sacrificial service. Whereas non-Christians fled from epidemics and abandoned their sick loved ones as they feared the unknown, Christians marched into epidemics and served both Christians and also non-Christians, seeing their own suffering as an opportunity to spread the gospel and model Christlike love.”⁶ Lee further adds, “We might also seek to sacrificially serve our neighbors by prudently abiding by the advice of medical professionals to help slow the spread of the disease. Instead of just our own health we should prioritize the health of the wider community, especially the most vulnerable citizens, by exercising an abundance of caution without perpetuating fear, hysteria, or misinformation. This might mean costs for us—canceling travel or planned events, or even self-quarantine if we think we’ve been exposed—but we should accept these costs with joy.”⁷

A self-absorbed worshiper at the altar of Me, Myself, and I is the one who exacerbates the problem of COVID-19 infection. Michael J. Kruger at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, blogs: “So, what then can be done, at least on a human level, to stop the virus? Well, here’s where we come to a rich—and perhaps tragic— irony in the current situation: we can only stop the virus by doing what is best for others not just for ourselves” and “the virus will be curbed when people embody a spirit of self-sacrifice. A posture of self-denial. We must limit our travel, limit our social contact, even limit our ‘fun’ so that the virus won’t spread.”⁸

May the Lord preserve us through this perilous time. Moreover, may the Lord grant us the grace to make a difference in the here and now for those struggling through this ravaging pestilence.

—WGN

---

1. All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
2. John Horgan, “Plague of Cyprian, 250-270 CE” https://www.ancient.eu/article/992/plague-of-cyprian-250-270-ce/ Suspects of the plague include: bubonic plague, typhus, cholera, smallpox, Ebola or a combination of acute bacillary dysentery (ibid).
3. Ibid.
4. All citations from Ecclesiastical History from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Arthur Cushman McGiffert, vol. 1 (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1890).
5. All citations from Cyprian from Ante-Nicene Fathers 5: Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886)..
6. Moses Y. Lee, “What the Early Church Can Teach Us About the Coronavirus,” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-early-church-teach-coronavirus/
7. Ibid.
8. Michael J. Kruger, “How a ‘You do You’ Culture Has Made Us Vulnerable to the Coronavirus,” https://www.michaeljkruger.com/how-a-you-do-you-culture-has-made-us-vulnerable-to-the-coronavirus/