Part 2 in a 4-part series on the American churchs’ response to Covid-19 related restrictions.
This piece has been my favorite to write on this topic because I thoroughly enjoyed wrestling with the scriptures that I have heard being used by Christians to justify the cooperation with government restrictions. I went into this study honestly, looking for the truth. What I found was in some cases surprising, and in all cases life-giving. And so it always is with Bible study!
It has been easy for most believers to go along with the reasoning put forth by church leaders on compliance with government requests. Compliance doesn’t challenge the ideas implanted to the public by the world’s fear-based 24-hour news cycle, and it can definitely sound like the Bible commends our cooperation when certain verses are pulled out to justify the actions. These verses affirm the feelings that such compliant Christians are “good” and are “doing the right thing”. But I find this view to be perilously incomplete. Are we no longer teaching Christians that there is nothing good in man? That we are all subject to our sin nature? That we are not to judge another, lest we be judged?
By “taking a side” in the mask discourse by requiring them for entry, the American church has, in action, passed judgement and determined that those who comply are loving their neighbor properly, and those who don’t are not. The church leaders have created a criteria for how a Christian’s love needs to manifest. This criteria is based on the world’s pattern, which wholly nullifies the unique work of the Holy Spirit in individual believers. This practice is NOT rooted in scripture. The Bible DOES NOT require conformity to the world as a requirement for church attendance! Is enabling and affirming a fear-based ritual really the way to love people like Christ anyway? Read more about loving your neighbor “soul first” in a previous post.
The “social” distancing (which is actually physical isolation) and mask-wearing requirements fomented by government agents are rituals, created as an act of worship to their god of the moment – which appears to be “public health.” Prioritizing public health may sound good, but as I have been immersed in the issues of medical policy-making for the last 6 years, I can attest that this push for compliance likely has many less virtuous roots such as control, greed, and power.
One scriptural reference being employed to justify the implementation of the world’s exclusive practices is Galatians 5:13:
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” Some pastors take only a fragment of the verse, stating simply “serve one another humbly in love.” This is followed immediately with the fragment of verse 14, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
What the Spirit revealed to me in my study of Galatians 5 created a mini-explosion in my brain. A naturally curious and skeptical person, I could not just get on board with the justification of painful and foundational changes to the church with just a couple of fragmented Bible verses. I dug in to get a more complete understanding of the meaning behind these verses. Given the heading, “Freedom In Christ,” Galatians 5 serves to remind Christians that they are free from the rituals (such as circumcision) that had led to religiosity and a church culture that had “fallen away from grace” and instead focused on rituals done as an effort to be “good” in the eyes of the church. Paul tells them not to be under these ritualistic rules, that Christ followers were not required to look or act or eat any specific way in order to be accepted into the family of God.
In verse 13, we read “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” I think that this verse clearly encourages selflessness, but I see Christians using it to imply that we should stop acting free if other people are offended by it. I certainly am not getting that conclusion from my exposition. ‘Indulging in the flesh” refers to sin. Paul says that we are now under grace and not under the law, but that doesn’t mean we should just indulge our natural desires and go around sinning.
My summary of this chapter is:
- Christians are not required to perform rituals to earn acceptance, and implementing rituals is a departure from grace.
- Just because we have grace does not mean we can carelessly engage in sinful acts.
- The good work required of us now is to think of others and not only of ourselves.
This doesn’t seem in line with the way the verses are being interpreted and used to justify mask mandates. Does the last point negate the first? Most certainly not. And again, as I have written before, loving others does not mean we should enable and affirm their choice to be immersed in the mindset of the world or to live in fear. Quite the opposite is true.
In my opinion, the most compelling justification for mask mandates in church comes from Romans 14 & 15.
In chapter 14, Paul uses repetition and detailed examples to instruct the church people not to judge those who are still weak in faith and believing that the old rituals are still necessary. He says not to quarrel with them, just love them and don’t make these details into a divider. Again, as in Galatians, the reference here is to rituals deemed necessary for right-standing with God. In this case, however, he is telling the mature Christians, those who know that salvation and grace are not dependent on our efforts or rituals, not to condescend or pass judgment on those who are not yet living in freedom from the old way of thinking. Instead, he points out that both parties are doing what they think is best to please God, and says that “Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.”
We get into some commonly debated meanings in studying the later verses of the chapter, which read:
“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.”
Applying this passage to today’s mask-wearing practices raises some important questions. Mask-wearing, unlike the Jewish food restrictions and holy days referred to here, is not a spiritual ritual that has been practiced for thousands of years in a purehearted and earnest effort to please God, and I doubt that anyone believes that wearing a mask is necessary for salvation. Those deeply convinced that mask-wearing is essential for the health of those around them conclude by this verse that the maskless are the ones “No longer acting in love.” So are the mask-wearers the mature Christians in the passage, or the weak? In that scenario, the mask-wearers, who are making the rules, would seem to be equated with the mature believers in the passage. This would put the maskless in the position of immature or weak in faith. The conclusion is then drawn that the mask-wearers are in the wrong and need to be more loving. But if we apply these roles consistently, the instruction in verses 13-14 and 20-21 would be directed at the mask-wearers.
“Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.”
So following the line of thinking that the mature Christians are those wearing masks means that, according to this scripture, their requiring others who believe differently to do the same means that the mature Christian has passed judgement and would be placing a stumbling block in the way of a (weaker) brother or sister. If it is better for the strong not to eat or drink (in keeping with the ritual), does that mean that the mask-wearers (the strong) should take off their masks for the sake of the weak? By requiring the weak to wear a mask, a “strong” believer is actually forcing someone else to commit a sin according to verse 23 (remember, the eating is being equated with not wearing a mask):
“But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”
The bottom line here is that there should be NO COMPARISON between the examples in this passage and mask-wearing practices. In order for that comparison to be valid, we would have to agree that wearing a mask is a generations-held scriptural practice rooted in the desire to obey and please God. This passage is in no way comparable to the issue at hand, because of the critical difference between the food and sabbath rituals which are based on the Old Testament teachings and had been held by God-loving people for thousands of years, and the practice of mask-wearing, which is a cultural trend based completely on worldly ideas and values. Espousing this twisted belief about masks and imposing rituals to affirm it exemplifies the same type of legalism that has crushed countless souls and destroyed the purity of Christ’s intentions for His church for centuries.
But let’s stick with this passage a bit more and do some role reversal.
Now we will place the mask-wearers in the role of those who are weak in faith and still practicing the old, legalistic Jewish rituals. In that case, the maskless, mature Christians may cause distress to the mask-wearers. Is the logical deduction then that they should put on a mask? Paul tells the Romans to just let it go because it’s just food to them. Nowhere in scripture are Jesus’ followers instructed to participate in the old rituals or to affirm their validity. To do so would misrepresent Christ and rob people of the very freedom that He died for them to have.
The opening verses of chapter 15 continue on this topic of weak and strong believers bearing with one another.
“We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.”
If we continue our comparison with the maskless as the strong, we are told just to be considerate of the weak. In the original context, this might mean don’t bring pulled pork to the church pot-luck if you have new converts who don’t yet understand their freedom in Christ to eat anything, even if you really want to have pulled pork. It does not instruct the “strong” to join them in their misguided practices. We should “help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord,” which would mean that we should empower them to gain a better understanding of their freedom, not to affirm the things they are doing that evidence their weakness. Mask-wearing or not mask-wearing does not apply to spiritual edification because its root is wholly worldly.
Now if we go back to the scenario where the mask-wearers are the strong ones, the same instructions from verses 1-2 would apply – to be considerate of those who are maskless, and help them understand the need for masks. But I implore you not to pain yourself in trying to make these comparisons, because at their foundation, this is improper. Wearing masks or not wearing them is NOT AT ALL COMP[ARABLE to a newly converted Jew keeping the Sabbath.
No matter which way you look at this passage (which you probably shouldn’t bother to do because it isn’t comparable), in the end, no one is instructed to make another do things their way. Forcing one’s will upon another is the beginning of the end of peace, and peace and harmony are the God-glorifying goals of the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus never forced anyone to do anything.
Paul wraps up this section on instructing the strong in verse 7:
“Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.”
For the growing number of healthy people like me who have already contracted and recovered from Sars-Cov-2, wearing a mask is completely ritualistic. Since we now produce antibodies that prevent the proliferation of viral particles, we can’t carry or transmit the illness. The mask is pointless. As for the ritualistic six-foot distancing – we are the safest people to be around! People should be fighting for a seat next to us in church! Yet we are unwelcome to worship unless we follow the ritual.
Accepting each other the way that Christ has accepted us means acceptance without conditions. We are all daily, even hourly, falling short of the glory of God and we can only surrender our own life and will to His care. We cannot surrender for another. We cannot judge another. We must simply accept them. We must welcome everyone to come as they are.
Charmaine Rusin 