Loving my neighbors – soul first.

There has been a tug-of-war between my heart, mind, and spirit for more than a year now about what it means to love our neighbor in the context of public health.  Generations of the enemy’s efforts promoting sin, greed, and destruction, have imposed a legacy of perpetual health crises upon the human race.  Chronic disease, learning and developmental disabilities, and mental illness are now plaguing American children in record numbers, and there is no end in sight for this steadily rising trend. We are desperate for answers and solutions that will spare the next generation from this morbid mantle or may extend the earthly stay of loved ones who we cannot bear to see depart.  This condition continuously tempts us all to turn our eyes to the many golden calves produced by the pharmaceutical industry, or to the social conditioning rituals promoted by public health officials.  We position doctors as deities – to be obeyed without question.  We may even go so far as to vilify and fear those who do not conform.

What will save us from our infirmity?  Vaccines?  Masks? Social distancing practices?

Must we all participate in these modern-day rituals, these futile attempts to preserve the remnant of health that we still have?  Must we conform to these practices in order to protect our neighbors from death and destruction?  Are we lacking in love for our neighbors when we choose to seek God’s direction for our family’s health over man’s?

I could choose now to you down a path of science, evincing the many weaknesses in the theories behind these rituals.  One doesn’t have to dive very deep into the research to discover sobering failures in all of them.[i]  But I will leave that part up to you. The Bible tells us that a discerning heart SEEKS knowledge (emphasis mine)[ii].  To do this, we should be reading science and reports from all angles and sides, not only searching for those that would confirm our existing beliefs.[iii] In our honest search, we must beware of powerful people with impure motives, of false prophets and hired hands.[iv]  We are to seek knowledge and wisdom with the help of the Holy Spirit. “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.”[v]

I think that the reason I’ve been so stifled in advising my Christian brothers and sisters on how to love your neighbors is because, well, it’s not my job.  I don’t know your neighbor.  I don’t know what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you.  I may be in a wildly different culture from you.  I am not your Holy Spirit. However, since I have been seeking God’s wisdom and spending substantial time communing with the Holy Spirit about these things for months upon months, I feel that now I can at least share the insights that I have gained as they may be a help to you in your own searching.

• God has not given us domain over the health and safety of others. We just do not possess the power to prevent others from suffering the consequences of generations of sin and degradation now manifest as disease.  But we humans – especially in America – really want to control things!  We are a culture of self-reliant personal life curators.  This drive, meant to give us strength, becomes a weakness when we grasp for control over things that are out of our control.  We are destined to fail. Rather than admit defeat, however, we tighten our grasp.  We are playing God – an effort that will never produce divine results.

• The Bible does not tell us to do what makes people feel most comfortable.  We are instructed in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  When we see the world creating a pattern, we MUST question it.  We must do our due diligence, especially when it concerns stewardship over the things that God has entrusted to us, such as our bodies and our children.  We must seek knowledge and wisdom and renewal of our minds,  trusting the Holy Spirit to provide us with the discernment necessary to determine whether it is appropriate for a child of God and ambassador of Christ (that’s us!) to participate in a particular pattern.  Jesus never tells us to play it safe and not raise hard questions, nor did He or his disciples model this type of behavior. 

• Security achieved by earthly endeavors is counterfeit.  If we think that the world’s methods or our own actions can keep us safe, we are buying into an exquisite lie. Jesus plainly told us that in this world, we will have trouble.[vi]  Nowhere in scripture are we instructed to work hard to avoid such trouble, or to strive to delay death for ourselves or others.  From my study, I’d say that the opposite is true. Revelations tells us that those who “did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death,” are the ones who are able to overcome the devil. If we live with an unwavering assurance of our eternal life, the reality of our destination in heaven being as real to us as the ground we walk on, our fearlessness will be a testimony to all who know us.

• We cannot make appeasing the masses our motivation.  We must conduct a searching and honest examination of our motives in order to discover whether approval from the world is an element driving our behavior. We, who are born again and indwelled with the Holy Spirit, do not belong to the world.[vii]  We are in the world, but not of it.  Seeking acceptance and approval from the world, the majority, the masses, is a sign of spiritual sickness.  Jesus’ words tell us, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.  Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.[viii] 

• If we see death as the enemy, living in agreement with a culture that puts forth endless efforts to avoid it, we negate the entire purpose of Jesus’ death on the cross.  Jesus became flesh and blood so that by his death, he might break the power of the devil, and set free those who all their lives lived in bondage because they were afraid of dying.[ix] All fear is a form of bondage, because it is from the devil. God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.[x]  The truth for those of us who have accepted Christ is that death, which will bring us face to face with Christ, is better than life![xi]

• God desires mercy over sacrifice.  We are called to offer mercy, defined as readiness to help those in trouble, without sacrificing the freedom that Jesus died for us to have.[xii]  Jesus came and gave up his life so that we could live ours to the fullest.[xiii] Showing people the way out of fear, out of the bondage of the fear of death, is the greatest act of mercy we can offer. 

• Spiritual health is not second to physical health.  This may be the principle that the Western world will most fiercely resist and find wholly perplexing.   The imperious Western medical establishment has worked for generations to override this Biblical truth with the idea that physical health should be our primary focus.  The secular culture latched onto this man-made ideal, probably in some effort to bring itself comfort in its rebellion to the loving God. The world puts earthly health on an altar, held up by the pillars of medicine and demigod doctors.  This substitutionary compensation for the one true and loving God invites the forces of darkness in this world to promulgate fear, sickness, destruction, division, and infirmities of all kinds – maintaining its hold by perpetuating fear, dependence, and bondage through the entire population. The enemy comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.  Jesus came so that we may have life, and have it to the fullest.[xiv]  We must be the light.  Just like Jesus said it is easier to heal a man’s body than to offer him the freedom of having his sins forgiven, it is easier for us to conform to the world’s ideals of physical health than to minister to the spiritual wellbeing of our neighbors. 

• If I truly desire to treat others as I want to be treated, then I must offer all people the dignity to make their own choices, free from coercion or discrimination.  I must value their choices just as I wish for them to value mine.  I cannot force my will on others.  Actually, I would go further and say that according to Micah 6:8, it is my duty to ensure that all people are given this same dignity of choice.  I must especially apply this to my fellow believers, trusting that they will seek God and that He will provide them specific wisdom and discernment just as He does for me because this is His promise in scripture.

After painstaking consideration of what it means to die to myself and take up my cross, to love my neighbor with a Christ like love, I have become convinced that conforming to worldly patterns that over-value physical health and promote an unattainable ideal of tangible security is NOT the way.  Living boldly in the freedom of Christ is unpopular and uncommon.  It invites persecution and hate.  But it is by this type of death to self (ego), and bravely throwing off the chains of comfort, safety, and the false security of the world, that we most brightly shine the life-giving light of Jesus and partner with him in the arduous mission of setting free the oppressed and downtrodden.[xv]  Anything less, for me, would be denying Christ within me, who is right now working in me to will and to act according to His good purpose.  

Despite the persecution and misunderstanding that will surely be hurled my way, I will obey the Holy Spirit’s direction and work hard to love my neighbors, all my fellow humans, with the death-facing, abundant-living, captive-freeing, fearless love of Christ.

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[i] InformedConsentPA.org/printable-resources

[ii] Proverbs 15:14

[iii] Proverbs 18:2

[iv] John 10:12, Matthew 7:15, Psalm 58:1-2

[v] James 1:5

[vi] John 16:33

[vii] John 15:19

[viii] John 15:18-20

[ix] Hebrews 2:14-15 

[x] 2 Timothy 1:7 

[xi] Phillipians 1:21

[xii] Strong’s G1656, Matthew 9:13

[xiii] John 10:10

[xiv] John 10:10

[xv] Luke 4:18