The Law Kills But The Spirit Gives Life

Almost daily, I have people write or text me about their philosophy concerning some aspect of the social crisis that we are in.  People are very interested if the school will require people to wear masks.  To me, this question is symptomatic of several other very serious questions that are typically left unasked.

Our State government came out this week with a mandatory, societal, mask-wearing policy. What questions ought we to be asking about this?  The Bible teaches that we should function by principle, not by law.  “The law kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6).  When I hear, “you must wear a mask,” my mind turns to so many other more important questions.  Here are a few.

Who has the power over me? What is the extent of that power? What value system is driving their decision-making? How intrusive will I let them be?  Does the biblical principle behind the unilateral edict validate my obedience to it? Do those rules that are created have collateral damage that I cannot endorse? Does that person have the power to create rules apart from the majority of people or the legislature? How long will those values be imposed on me, our school, or on my child? Is this current health crisis a platform for socially mandated values imposition that will have long term effects? Where is a democratic corrective to the values mandates? Is a unilateral power directive even legitimate in a democratic system?

I could go on and on.  The point is, why do people not ask important questions?  Why do people pose questions that have to do with wearing masks and keeping social distancing recommendations? There seem to be much more important values at stake than my carbon dioxide inconvenience.

I genuinely want people to ask questions about preserving civil liberties. I want people to say to me, how does a Christian’s mandate to sacrificial love factor into mask wearing.  If Jesus was right when he said in John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” than what does that look like practically?  Is the greatest love singing praise to God in church or keeping my mouth shut so as to not infect others with my potentially COVID infused water droplets?

If I am “free from all” and divinely infused with liberty as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:19, what is my Christian obligation to “become a servant to all” as he went on to say?  If I live by the No-Harm-Rule because “Love never does anything that is harmful to a neighbor (Rom 13:10), how do I care for others while at the same time fight against governmental directives that are indiscriminate?

Restrained liberty is not something we are good at. Yet, it is mandated in the scripture.  How do we fight social and racial injustice if we do not exercise liberties to win equality?  How do we not yield individual liberties, if we are forced to live health-care directives that may not be advisable in all situations?

Is my obligation at this point to fight for individual rights and the preservation of freedoms or is it to relinquish them voluntarily or ‘temporarily’ so I can serve others who may be weak (Galatians 5:13)? When do I do one but not the other and vice versa?

I am not convinced there is an easy answer to any of these questions because the answers require that we prioritize one legitimate value over another, sometimes in a situational way.

We have learned through history that exploitation of people is a pattern of government, and those that control a political agenda will surely impose a value system on their constituency that they may not agree with. Yet on the other hand, people are selfish and want to protect their individual rights, rather than do what the Bible says, which is to put others before ourselves and take the lowly road (Phil. 2:3). We are now in a moment of history when there seems to be a daily pendulum that requires we practice one perspective then the other.