“Should we cancel church?”
How should the church respond to a crisis such as this? That is a question I continue to turn over in my mind and filter through a biblical framework. In the face of the present epidemic, there have been a variety of answers offered by Christians on this question. These answers seem to me to fall into three primary categories:
1. Soldier on and continue to meet as normal. Those who argue this position cite the 1st great commandment, namely to love God with all that we are, the importance of living by faith in God and not in the fear of death and the encouragement we receive in Hebrews 10:24-25 not to “forsake gathering together.” (We will come to this verse in detail later.)
2. Follow the advice of doctors and governing officials and suspend our services. Christians holding this view cite the commands in the Bible to submit to government and the 2nd great commandment, to love our neighbors as ourselves. They also may appeal to the sixth commandment, as understood in the Westminster Standards (i.e. the Larger Catechism, question 136, states that the sixth commandment forbids “Whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any[one]”).
3. Adopt a hybrid of 1 and 2. Christians holding this view argue that we should continue to meet, but encourage those at greatest risk to remain home.
So how do we determine what the right, biblical, God-honoring, neighbor-loving response? Let me unpack my thinking.
Thinking Like a Pharisee
The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were the elite religious establishment. They were fastidious to a fault in keeping the Law of God. One Sabbath day (the day of weekly Jewish synagogue worship) Jesus healed a man in the middle of a worship service:
He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
Matt. 12:9–14
The error in the thinking of the Pharisee was to pit the 1st great commandment against the 2nd great commandment. Worship, they argued, takes precedence over love of neighbor, and one couldn’t keep both. Obviously Jesus disagreed. If our meeting together would knowingly and unnecessarily endanger the lives of our neighbors, or keep us from preserving the lives of our neighbors, we should not meet.
I am not an infectious disease expert, I am a theologian. I am not a doctor, I am a pastor. But imagine if all churches ignored the guidance of doctors and governors and continued to meet together (positions #1 or #3). In light of the nature of this virus, it appears Christians could not only pass the virus among themselves, but pass it to our neighbors—thus perpetuating the crisis and potentially doing grave harm to those around us.
Those who argue we should continue to meet (position #1 and #3) claim that if we stop meeting, we are failing in our witness to the culture because it would appear we are living in fear of death and not by faith. However, if it could be shown that the church actually perpetuated the epidemic, by its Pharisaical reading of Scripture, what would become of our witness then? Would not the culture charge the church with failing to love their neighbors and therefore reject the message of God’s love for them in Christ?
Forsaking the Gathering Together
What about the “command” to Christians not to forsake the gathering together for worship? Here is what Hebrews says,
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Heb. 10:24-25
First, notice the focus of these verses is on the 2nd commandment, the love of neighbor demonstrated in good works. One of the goals of meeting together is to encourage living out the 2nd commandment. Second, the verb “neglecting” (Grk: egkataleipō) is not a command, but a participle. In order to stir one another up, gathering with one another and going out and serving one another—rather than isolating ourselves—is vital. This verb is used 10 times in the New Testament (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; Acts 2:27; Acts 2:31; Rom. 9:29; 2 Cor. 4:9; 2 Tim. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:16; Heb. 10:25; Heb. 13:5) and it carries the connotation of permanently forsaking. For example, “…I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). God will never forsake, permanently abandon, His people.
No church that I know is advocating forsaking the gathering of one another together in this sense. Nor is the government requiring churches to do so. The government is asking us to put the needs of our community first out of love.
The word “habit” is also important in this context. This word “habit” (Grk: ethos) is used 12 times in the New Testament and is most often translated “custom.” (Luke 1:9; Luke 2:42; Luke 22:39; John 19:40; Acts 6:14; Acts 15:1; Acts 16:21; Acts 21:21; Acts 25:16; Acts 26:3; Acts 28:17; Heb. 10:25). For example, we read about the historic, long-standing “custom” of selection for priestly service in the Temple, “…according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense” (Luke 1:9). Again, no one is advocating for Christians to establish a custom of staying home from church gatherings. This is a temporary measure.
Thinking Like Jesus
Jesus did not see the 1st commandment and the 2nd commandment as competitors. In light of the teaching of Jesus, we cannot use the 1st commandment as an excuse not to keep the 2nd commandment. Therefore, I believe staying home for now (position #2) is the loving thing to do.
If I came to church with the flu, would that be loving my neighbor? Of course not. We would never say to a person who has the flu, “Well, you still have to come to corporate worship.” The problem with COVID-19 is that we could be asymptomatic for 14 days and unknowingly and unlovingly infect many other people. Wisdom and love would suggest isolation is the best option at this time.
And when this crisis passes, and we gather together once again as God’s people, I pray we would have a deepened conviction concerning the importance of gathering with God’s people for corporate worship and a greater desire for genuine, person to person fellowship within the body of Christ. Amen.
— Pastor David Camera
