Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Should Christians Stay In or Get Out and Serve?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Before the episode starts, I want to invite you to a special online-only event with Keith and I. We are going to be doing a lunch Bible study on Friday, April 3rd, from 12 to 1230. We're going to do this for four weeks, actually. And we're going to be asking the question, are we living in the end times? Right now I'm getting so many questions from people who are asking.

Starting point is 00:00:34 actually literally asking the question you know, is coronavirus a sign of the times? Or they're just wondering, what does the Bible say about these kinds of things? There's a lot of questions, a lot of misconceptions. We're going to address those. Again, we're going to put a link to that online event right at the top of our show notes. Pause it right now. Click that link. Sign up today.

Starting point is 00:00:53 And you can join us on April 3rd from 12 to 1230 and a few weeks afterwards. On this episode, we are going to talk about some of the challenges that this coronavirus has exposed. Anytime you face a new set of circumstances, you've got to think through as a church, as Christians, how are we going to handle this? And none of us have ever been in this situation where we are trying to navigate the Christian life during the middle of what health experts are calling a pandemic. So we're just going to try to answer the question, what's the right Christian response here, especially wrestling with the question? Should Christians go out and serve in the community and help meet needs? Or is it best for Christians to stay inside, self-isolate, shelter in place,

Starting point is 00:01:39 whatever you want to call it, socially distance themselves so that their neighbors don't get sick? Okay, so I don't know if this is just a millennial thing. How many text message chains are you in? Are you in lots of text message chains? Or does that be? No, as few as possible, just your family. Well, I have a few others, but I'm always annoyed when I get something from them. So sometimes I silence them. I think I'm silenced on a lot of your text chains right now. So I am in a lot of text chains and in particular with, with guys who are in my small group, with just other friends that I've known for a long time. It's just a way that we connect. But a lot of these groups are Christians. And in all of my text chains right now, people are lovingly, but they're debating,

Starting point is 00:02:19 how should Christians respond to this? I've got some friends who are saying, look, if you love your neighbor, you're going to stay inside, you're not going to spread the virus. I've got others. He said, we can't live in fear. We've got to live by faith. We've got to get out there and start doing stuff. Well, I do hear that kind of argument playing out in a lot of different ways. Some people are saying that by self-isolating, we are doing more damage in our economy and that kind of thing than if we just went about our normal life and others are saying that that's extremely callous and uncaring toward people who are more vulnerable. But that's not quite what you're saying, is it? No, you know, another example. I sent out an email to everybody

Starting point is 00:02:55 in their 20s at our church, The Crossing. And in that email, I was challenging people if they were kind of in a low-risk category to get out and serve at our local food banks. And our local food banks right now, they've got a huge responsibility. They are feeding kids who are at home from school, who have free and reduced lunches. So without school, a lot of these kids aren't eating, and all of their volunteers are quitting. And so we thought this is a great way for us to serve. But the interesting thing for me is the minute I sent out that email, I started getting responses.

Starting point is 00:03:25 Some people saying, finally, this is so good, I can't believe it's taking this long for you guys to do this. And then I get emails from others, and they're saying, why are we doing this? This is terribly dangerous. This isn't loving. Well, and you can understand where each of those groups are coming from because we're getting messages that says that if you go outside, you are somehow an unloving person not caring about people. And we know as Christians should love our neighbors. So it's being cast as the loving thing to do is to stay inside. And I've been struck here because I'm beginning to wonder if we frame this whole thing as an either or, right?

Starting point is 00:04:00 It's either you stay inside and you don't spread this or you go out and you serve and you take the risk. And as I think about it, I'm wondering, is that a choice in some senses that we have to make? I mean, obviously every person has to make the choice, but is it something that we as Christians, we have to say this is the right one and that's the wrong one. Isn't this kind of an issue of discernment? Well, I know that Christians are kind of judging. other people. In other words, I have my own opinion on that, and I judge people who have taken the opposite course. And so maybe the better thing for us to do is saying that this isn't as clear

Starting point is 00:04:36 cut as we might expect. That would be great if we just knew a verse in the Bible, or if it was just clear from Christian history, that this was always the right thing to do. You always did X and never Y, but that's just not reality. And so we're going to have to give people some grace to make decisions different than us, kind of believe the best about them. And that's something I'm trying to do myself. I mean, I will be the first person to own that I probably have been judgmental. I mean, I'll lay my cards on the table. I'm planning on volunteering several times throughout the next week at our local food bank because personally, I thought, well, I think that's the right thing for me to do. What a crazy world where you

Starting point is 00:05:13 get judged for serving in your local food bank, right? I mean, that's where we are. Now we have, we have like coronavirus righteousness, self-isolation righteousness. that I judge you because you're going out to serve people, righteous people like me, good people, moral people, godly people, we stay inside. It sounds crazy, doesn't it? Although you can kind of see where people are coming from. Yeah, I can't because I kind of have my own self-righteousness in the midst of it, you know, because I'm talking to my friend who says, well, you know, that's nice you're doing it, but I'm going to stay, you know, hunkered in here. And my immediate reaction is the exact opposite. Well, you know, why aren't you getting out? You're in a low risk. Why aren't you doing it?

Starting point is 00:05:50 So we can become self-righteous about doing good or just about any choice that we make. We feel confident in our choice, and we look down on people who make a different choice instead of going, hey, you know what? Good people, good Jesus-loving people can come to different conclusions about what the right thing to do here is that the point isn't always what you do, but a lot of it comes down to your motive for doing it. You can go out and serve for the wrong reason or the right reason. And you can stay in for the wrong reason or the right reason.

Starting point is 00:06:20 No, I think it's a really good point. And it makes me think about one email I received. And I just want to say it was a very sincere question. But someone asked me, they said, is it safe? Is it safe for people to be going out, to be serving at the food bank? And it brought out this question of motivation. Because in my head, I thought, you know, is safety supposed to be our lead motivation in our Christian lives? I mean, I don't think safety is a bad question, you know.

Starting point is 00:06:45 Put it on your seatbelt. Don't smoke. Don't do dumb things that put yourself at risk. But I mean, to answer the question, I just had to say no. I mean, obviously, this is not safe. No one's safe right now. No one who goes out is going to be safe. But is asking whether or not we're going to be safe the first or the best question Christian should be asking. One thing I know is that love is never safe. Whenever you love people, it's always demanding. It always requires some sort of sacrifice. It requires you to open yourself up to be vulnerable to spend your resources that you might need later, to give up your time. Love always demands something from us. And we see that even in Jesus. He sacrificed his life for us. The safe thing would have been him to stay with his father on his throne. But he got off the throne and came down to us and made great sacrifices, costly sacrifices, loving sacrifices, gave his life kind of sacrifices for us. It's a question I keep asking myself,

Starting point is 00:07:47 where would my life be right now if Jesus made all of his decisions based on what's safe? It's not a hard question for me to answer personally. If Jesus made all of his decisions based on what's safe instead of what's loving. And again, by the way, it's sacrificial to stay at home

Starting point is 00:08:04 when you could go to the office. It's a lot easier to be in the office in many ways. And it's also sacrificial to go out and serve in a place where you could get infected. with something that could really have a life impact. So maybe the better question is, what does love require? I could imagine that someone shelters in place or stays inside of their house because they want to love their neighbor and not contribute to their neighbor getting this virus. But I could also imagine that someone stays in their house out of fear, anxiety, or self-sitterness. Just like we talked about,

Starting point is 00:08:35 we could imagine someone going out and to serve as a way to build themselves up, to show that they aren't worried to draw attention to themselves, or they could go and serve their neighbor who is sick or in need and do it out of a sense of love. So what does love require me to do? God's probably more concerned about her heart than he is interaction. Here's a great verse to meditate on. First John 316 through 18. And it's easy to remember, because everybody knows John 316, just had a one before it, and you're right here. This is what the apostle John says. By this, we know love. Okay, so how do we know love, that He, Jesus, laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And by brothers, he means all of our fellow believers, all the people who God has put around us in our

Starting point is 00:09:23 life. Verse 17. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but indeed and in truth. It's been a good challenge for me because I'll be the, again, let's talk about myself. I am a talker more than I am a doer. I am a big idea person more than let's land the idea and bring it into reality. And right now, in this dire circumstance that everybody who's listening to this podcast is in the middle of, I think we need to be doers. We need to not just be talkers. We need to actively be saying whatever choices I'm making, They need to be motivated by love.

Starting point is 00:10:06 We'll put that verse in the show notes. So if you want to go back and look at it, meditate on it, like Patrick said, it'll be there for you. Another thing we'll put in the show notes is this quote by Martin Luther. You might be familiar with him from history. He lived in the 1500s in Germany and was a leader in the church there. And he experienced something very similar to us. His community was going through some sort of epidemic health crisis that people were dying. and they didn't have all the information that we do today about germ theory and all,

Starting point is 00:10:38 but they were smart. They knew that people were coming into contact with others, and that was leading to their death. And so he had to lead the church there through a situation very similar to what we are going through. And so here's what he says. He says, I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. So in other words, the first response of a Christian who loves their neighbor is just to pray that God would bring protection. He goes on, though. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. So he's saying, look, I'm going to be responsible to do my part. Yes, I believe God is sovereign, and we'll see that in a few moments later in the quote, but that doesn't absolve me of my responsibility to take medicine, purify the air, whatever it is. He keeps going then. I shall avoid places in persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance and infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.

Starting point is 00:11:37 So here, evidently, he was encouraging some sort of self-quarantine, where Christians, by choice, would stay inside so as not to get sick or give others that sickness to not be a carrier of it. He keeps going, though. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me. See, here's this trust in Luther. He knows that he can follow all the protocol. He can fumigate, purify, cleanse, sanitize, take their bath in Purell, whatever it is. But his life is in God's hands. The number of his days are ordained by God. And so he knows that he can't save his life if he's come to the end of his race. He says, I want to have done what he has expected of me, what God has expected of me, so that I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of

Starting point is 00:12:29 others. If my neighbor, now catch this last part. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely. So Luther seems to be saying there are occasions when we might want to temporarily not meet together for church or out in public motivated by love for our neighbor, but there's never a time that a Christian should refuse to meet the needs of others. And that's a really important distinction. He said, look, I'll freely go to make. meet other people's needs, even at expense to my own health, because that's exactly like Patrick just read. That's exactly what Jesus did for me. And not just at the expense of his own health. I mean, from what we know of Martin Luther, he had a wife, he had many kids. I mean, and they did not

Starting point is 00:13:14 have modern medicine. You catch the plague. There's a good chance you're going to die. So him going out is actually quite a bit different even than me going out today. But what I like about Luther is that he's refused this either or dichotomy. I got to pick one or the other. And he's got to got both and. He's saying both stay at home and love others by not spreading this around, and if you're needed, go out and serve. So here's what I'd like to do for a second. Let's just help people who are listening think through, well, what should I do? What should love be motivating me to do? And maybe let's start with this question. Why should we stay at home? Well, based on what we've been told that we should stay at home because we don't want to be carriers and infect other people,

Starting point is 00:13:57 especially those who have underlying health conditions or who are senior citizens who are more susceptible to the serious consequences. Of course, everybody's susceptible to serious consequences. I don't want to minimize that. But there are some who are more at risk than others. But I think that we have to push deeper as Christians and say that the reason we're doing that is love, not fear, but love. It is easy to be motivated by fear. And again, temperamentally, everybody's going to have their own dispositions. But speaking for myself personally. For me, this looks like I might not want to limit gathering with people or spending time with friends. But for a time, for a short period, that's exactly what I think God's probably calling me to do. I've got two little kids at home. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is sit in my

Starting point is 00:14:44 house with two little kids who are running around, screaming and driving me crazy because we can't get out of the house. But if that's what it takes to love my neighbor, I think it's the right thing to do. So just to be clear, going out and hanging out with people so you can have fun. or a good time or because you're bored, well, that's unwise thing to do. That you might even say is a sinful thing to do in our context right now. So it might make sense to go out because you love people, but it doesn't make sense to go out just because you're ready for a good party. That's a great way of putting it. One of the cool things I've seen to in the midst of this is I have friends, multiple friends who have sent me pictures from their neighborhoods where people

Starting point is 00:15:22 are all going out into their driveways. And they're all actually practicing good social distancing. they're not getting super close to each other. But I had a friend he said, I didn't even know my neighbors before this, and now all of a sudden we're all out, and I'm beginning to know who they are. And it's amazing how this is bringing people together, even as we're trying to be safe and distanced. That is a good outcome of this. For me, I have a more selfish take on it that I like social distancing because I don't like to be touched. And so nobody touches me anymore, and I'm pretty thankful for it. So there is some benefits to social distancing.

Starting point is 00:15:54 get to know your neighbors and nobody touches you. I'm happy for you, Keith. Let's talk about reasons why we should go out. We're in Missouri, and right now there's a ban on groups gathering and groups that are larger than 10. But one of the questions I think you could ask again, if it's being motivated by love, is to say, is there an appropriate time for me to get together with some friends, especially if I've got a friend who's maybe living at home alone and they're isolated, or maybe a friend who's really struggling with anxiety and fear in the midst of this. We humans are not designed to live isolated lives. We might be able to do it for a very short period of time, but we are fully integrated people. We need to be in community with each other. And so sometimes loving people in this circumstance is going to mean saying, hey, if I'm totally healthy and they're totally healthy, let's find a way to get together. And then you can use your discernment to decide whether that's best through FaceTime,

Starting point is 00:16:48 Zoom, something like that, or if it's best just to go, again, groups under 10 and keeping your distance from one another, washing your hands, all the precautions, but still go over and hang out together. That might be appropriate too. I think the other reason to go out is to obviously help and serve others. Maybe also, you know, right now again in Columbia, a lot of businesses are offering drive-through services. It might be to go and support and patronize a local business that you want to have stay open. You know, I've had some friends who say, why can't everybody just stay in? Just do your job from home. Don't go out. No one has to do it. And I've had to press back. And I said, well, hold on a second.

Starting point is 00:17:25 If you're able to stay at home and do your job on your laptop, that's a privilege. That's a sign that you probably have a white collar job, that you're decently far up on the ladder of your work organization. People who are laborers, who are working hourly wages, who are running local businesses, a lot of these people have no choice. They either have to have people come to them or they aren't making any money. And if they aren't making any money, it's not just, ah, bummer, I didn't make any money this that means maybe I can't afford food for me and my family or I can't afford rent and I'm terrified

Starting point is 00:17:59 that in two weeks I'm going to be kicked out of my apartment. So we have to be really careful about just writing off the consequences of people not going out. I think about if you are a server at a local restaurant, well, maybe that restaurant is closed and how are you going to do your work from home? Or I was trying to take my car into the garage on Friday, late afternoon, about 4.30. I pull up to this place I go to and my brakes were going out. So I got to get this solved. And I pull up and I was like, well, it's closed. It's weird to be closed at 4.30.

Starting point is 00:18:29 And then I realized that there was a sign on the door that still said open. And I thought, well, somebody just forgot to turn off the light before they left. But I got closer. I thought, well, I might as well just see if the doors unlock it. They were open. No one was there. They had no business. So now I just thought, well, what if you're a mechanic?

Starting point is 00:18:45 How do you going to do that job from home? One of the most heartbreaking emails I've gotten over the last week was from a woman who takes some Bible studies that I lead here. And she shared that she's widowed. She was widowed at a fairly young age, and she started her own business. And she said, finally, for the first time, after running this business for years, they began to turn a profit. And it's not a big business. I mean, it's a pretty small, little operation. I think it's mostly just her. But she said, then this crisis hit, and all of a sudden everything's fallen apart. And we have to remember stories like that. Whenever we're talking about things like social distancing, not going out. We need to remember that there are people across the board

Starting point is 00:19:25 who are already immediately suffering. And we need to practically ask the question, what does it look like for me to love someone in those circumstances? I mean, one cool thing I've heard people doing is small things, like buying gift cards. Like, okay, I can't go to this business, but I could buy a gift card from them and I'll go back and I'll use it later. Or if there's a business that you support regularly, find a way to buy something to patronize them in the present, even if it doesn't mean you get to go in and be there in person. So there are human costs beyond the health costs. There are real consequences for not going out and not taking the initiative to help people

Starting point is 00:20:02 in need. Patrick said earlier there are kids who depend on free and reduced lunches. And as I've talked to people in the school system, you'd be surprised to learn how many kids eat two or three meals a day at the school. And it's likely that they don't get much, if anything, outside of school. school. Now, it's one thing to know that in theory. It's another thing to say, well, what if that was my kid? Would I want someone to go down to the food bank and put together buddy packs or packages for kids like that? What I want them to go out in the neighborhoods and distribute those to kids in

Starting point is 00:20:37 need? Yeah, I think if it was my kid who was going without food, I would be thankful that someone loved them enough to take a little bit of a risk and come serve and meet that need. Again, this is an issue of discernment, and I believe that God's spirit is going to guide Christians to come to different conclusions on this. And I would urge you to follow your conscience, follow his spirit. And you're like, well, how do I know if it's his spirit? Well, we've already given you, I think, the key question, what's loving? What is love driving and motivating me to do? And again, I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't issue a challenge to people like me out there who are lower risk, you're young, you're healthy, there are people in your community who are in desperate need. Don't go out and serve in stupid ways.

Starting point is 00:21:22 Follow all the rules, follow all the guidelines, try to limit contact, do everything that you read online about how to limit the spread of this. But if that's you, man, I think you really have to reflect and ask, might God be challenging me to go to a place like a food bank and serve and make sure that the most needy people in our community don't suffer more than they have to. Back in the fall, our church partnered with RIP medical debt in order to pay off the medical debt of people living below the poverty line in our area. Really, it just went incredibly well. Over $430,000 was donated. We paid off nearly $50 million in medical debt of people in over 30 counties in Missouri. And what everyone said was, wow, I can't believe that church stepped up and did

Starting point is 00:22:10 that what got their attention was not our building. It wasn't our fantastic programs. What got a lot of people's attention who don't think very highly of Christianity or church were Christians caring for people in need at sacrifice to themselves. So here we have a chance to do that again, right? We have a chance to at sacrifice to ourselves, we can serve and help others and draw attention to King Jesus. our life is in his hands. He has given us this race to run, and our goal is not to live as long as we possibly can, or as comfortably as we possibly can. Our goal is to be faithful to our king, to hear at the end of our life, well done, good, and faithful servant. So when you're out serving, say you're doing it in the name of Jesus. If somebody says, what brought you here? Say, well,

Starting point is 00:23:02 Jesus served me. I want to serve others. That's what we did with the medical debt. We just said, well, why did the church contribute? Well, because Jesus rescued us when we were in debt, and therefore we want to help others who are in debt. He rescued us from the debt of sin, so we want to help rescue other people from medical debt. If you're located in Columbia and you want to find a way to help others, just check out our show notes. We'll have a link in there. If you click that link, it's going to take you to a page where you can sign up to volunteer and share how you can help. Let me just say this. We don't have it all figured out yet, so you're not going to get immediate response from us. But right now, what we're trying to do is gather volunteers. And if you're not

Starting point is 00:23:42 in Columbia, you're living somewhere else. I hope that this podcast is challenging you in your own small way, wherever you're at, to own loving and serving people. Maybe it's the person you live next door to in your neighborhood. Maybe you're a church leader, and it looks like asking what can our church do. Wherever you're at, just be asking the question, what does it look like to love others the way Jesus has loved us? Don't forget, these can be small things. Texting senior citizens. writing letters to people in nursing homes, FaceTiming people. These can be lots of small things.

Starting point is 00:24:13 Don't think you have to do a huge thing or doesn't count. That's great. Let me end with this little exhortation from the Apostle Paul from Romans chapter 12. He says this, Let love be genuine. Abore what's evil, hold fast to what is good.

Starting point is 00:24:27 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice and hope. Be patient in tribulation. constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality.

Starting point is 00:24:42 My hope is that people who hear this podcast are going to go out and serve in the name of Jesus. So when people ask, why did you call? Why did you write me that letter? Why did you show up at the food bank? We'd all say the same thing. Well, because Jesus showed up for me when I was in need. Also, don't forget to sign up for our online Zoom Bible study. Friday, April 3rd from 12 to 1230. the end times. We're going to talk about questions people are asking right now and a lot of the misconceptions that come along with those things. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family

Starting point is 00:25:30 member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Should Christians Stay In or Get Out and Serve?

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