The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. | 1 Corinthians 15:55- 57
This post is written by Kim Griffith, co-leader of women’s ministry at the church.
Yesterday, I wrote on how our identity as Christians informs our response to COVID-19 and the news, shutdowns and fear surrounding it. Now I want to get a bit more specific on some of the ways I believe that this manifests itself.
At the heart of the current “Stay home, Stay healthy” orders, regardless of your opinion of them, is the noble desire to preserve and extend human life. Our political leaders implore us to stay home, to only venture out for “essential” business, stay 6 feet away from others and wear face masks, out of a desire to “flatten the curve”. This is an effort to make sure that hospitals are not beyond their capacity to treat the sick, and to protect others from contracting the virus and potentially dying.
This virus has society confronting death in a new way. Even though, as the old saying goes, “None of us are getting out of here alive,” it feels different when any excursion out of your own house may expose you. The insidiousness of this virus is that asymptomatic people can pass it to anyone around them and the incubation period is anywhere from 2- 14 days. Despite death being an ever-present potential event in our daily lives – car crashes, cancer, random accidents, and on and on – people are experiencing a heightened awareness of it. Death is not a popular topic of conversation – discussion of it will not get you invited back to a dinner party – it is more verboten than politics at family gatherings. And for the unbelieving that makes perfect sense. Death is the end of what is known. It is to be avoided at all costs.
However, as Christians, through the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have faith in what we cannot see: death has lost its sting for us! Praise God! We can find hope in what God has promised us is true:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
Through Jesus we are promised that will have perfect fellowship with Him in Heaven:
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
1 John 5:13
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:3-6
We know where we are going after that final breath, we have nothing to fear. May we all be able to say like the Apostle Paul: for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). The thought of heaven brings a leap of the heart and sustains the weary soul; the promised reward at the end of a life poured out for Him. This should cause us to look with great compassion on our neighbors, family members and friends who do not claim Christ. Our opportunities to serve our community are greatly reduced at this time, but there are still many small gestures of love and kindness that we can extend: from the grocery store to the elderly woman next door and through all the available ways of checking in on people. Most powerful of all, go to God in prayer for those who do not know Him. Many of us are finding that we have more free time than ever before, use it wisely.