On mask wearing and obeying civil authorities

Not very long ago we were told by Christian leaders that it would be wrong to gather for worship even while wearing masks because the civil authorities had forbidden us from gathering in groups of more than 5.  It was - we were told - a matter of Christian obedience pure and simple.  Since then we have seen some interesting (and worrying) developments.   The government has allowed us to gather in larger groups and many (though certainly not most) churches have begun to do so.  However, the authorities have told us that while we may gather we may not sing, and more recently they have told us we must wear masks.  

So, how have churches responded to these developments?  Many churches have decided to play it safe.  I will call them ‘group A’.  Worried about the virus they have decided to resume worship in the fall or even later.  Eventually they will begin meeting again, but they are in no rush to do so.  They have told their congregations they are waiting until it is safe to do so.  Like the seed sown in rocky soil I suspect these would not fare very well in persecution.  Other churches have resumed gathering but have decided to obey the authorities on both points.  I will call them ‘group B’.  They do not sing and because the government has told them they must, they wear masks.  Other churches have gone a different route.  I will call them ‘group C’.  They are obeying and disobeying.  They require masks but they sing (though they have been told not to).  And then there are those of us (in ‘group D‘) who have chosen to carry on as before.  We have continued to gather for worship since this began, we have continued to sing, and we do not require masks.   

To the average born again believer this must all seem very strange and troubling.  Clearly, group A are concerned about something other than submission to authorities.  Originally that may have been part of the decision making, but something else has taken over.  I suspect it is fear.  They may use the language of love, but in preserving the physical body from a potential virus (with a mortality rate of 0.01% or less) they are neglecting the emotional needs of the congregation and community, they are neglecting the soul, and they are neglecting God.  This is unChristian.  As William Secker put it, “a Christian cares not to what danger he is liable, so long as Jesus is but honoured thereby.”  

Group B have decided very simply that it’s up to the government.  If the government allows them to sing to God they will.  If not they won’t.  Should the government reduce the size of gatherings down to 5 they will obey them.  If masks are required they will wear masks.  This group are rendering unto Caesar not only what is Caesar’s but also what is God’s.

Group C are represented by many in the reformed churches.  They are colleagues and respected leaders in the Church many of whom I love and admire; but I find their position the most puzzling.  Remember that these same voices told us that wearing masks to worship early on wouldn’t cut it.  It wasn’t just about the virus it was about submission (Romans 13 and the 5th commandment).  Now these same voices are telling us once again that we should obey the government when they tell us to wear masks.  And when parishioners question the lawfulness or reasonableness of the bylaw they are told its the loving thing to do.  To refuse a mask is selfish.  Here’s the strange irony: they insist on singing though the same government tells them not to!   Their explanation for this inconsistency is that in the one case the government’s authority is circa sacra whereas in the other it is in sacris.  In other words, in the one case the government’s authority is around the things of the Church (which is legitimate) whereas in the other it is in the things of the Church (which is illegitimate).  The government (they tell us) in forbidding us from gathering is simply exercising their rightful authority around the things of the church.  But when the government tells us not to sing they are overstepping and wrongfully meddling in the affairs of the Church.   I have seen complex lengthy treatises with references to our forefathers, but I haven’t seen the biblical basis for this fine distinction.  Actually, I wonder if some of the criticisms that have been levelled at John MacArthur by these same men might equally have been levelled at the apostle Peter.  It seems a simple “we must obey God rather than man” isn’t theologically refined enough for the modern theologian.   But what exactly are we saying when we say the government can forbid gatherings for worship but cannot forbid singing?  It’s like saying your neighbour can’t come into your home and tell your kids what to eat, but they can come into your home and tell your kids not to eat at all.   Strange reasoning!  I would think that if they can’t tell my children what to eat they certainly cannot tell them not to eat at all.  The one is the foundation of the other.  To say that the government can lawfully prevent us from gathering for worship altogether but mustn’t tell us what to do or not do in worship is logically inconsistent and biblically unwarranted.  I fear though that it is all too convenient because it allows them to carry on unmolested by the authorities and respected by the world.  

It is no surprise, then, that groups A, B and C are for mandating masks.

Here’s the basic problem...

Few are entirely clear on what the issue actually is.  Is it Romans 13 or love your neighbour?   I often hear both, but neither argument seems able to stand on its own merits.  If holes are found in the Romans 13 defence Matthew 22 is cited.  If holes are found in the Matthew 22 defence Romans 13 is cited.  At best wearing a mask has the appearance of love, but what is sacrificed for this appearance is real meaningful love - love between saints, love for the lost, the sick and the alienated.  The irony in all of this is that the same people who have never lodged a stranger, who neglect the hungry, the naked and the prisoners tell us it isn’t loving when we refuse to wear masks.  Many in the church never invite the poor and the maimed around their dinner tables, but in the name of love they would have the rest of us put a piece of cloth over our mouths.  This when the virus is known to be far less deadly than initially thought.

I suspect, actually, that for many church leaders the real issue isn’t Matthew 22 but Romans 13; otherwise they would have worn masks before the bylaws came into effect and they would wear them long after the bylaws are forgotten!  So it comes down to obedience.   

So let’s think in basic terms about obedience to the civil authorities as it relates to mask wearing, particularly in the church.

1. First, church leaders haven’t a right to legislate.  But this is precisely what many reformed churches are doing.  Members are told they must wear masks if they come for worship.  Now God hasn’t said so.  Which means it is their say so.  That should worry every Christian.  What is that if it isn’t an abuse of power?  Can our elders command their people to wear black to church?  Can they require the people to abstain from alcohol?  How do we typically answer those questions?  “Not if God hasn’t said so.”  We bear mercifully with those who impose such laws on themselves, but we wouldn’t think to bind them on the conscience of God’s people because we know we haven’t the right to do so!   Churches need to remember that the authority of presbyteries is ministerial rather than legislative.  We cannot make up rules.  God legislates, we minister.  We seriously err when we add or take away from what He has said. 

2. Second, masks are a symbol of a lie.   We are living in an age of experts.  Instead of thinking for ourselves we are urged to trust the word of the men and women with expertise.  This is true in society and sadly also in the Church.  We take it on the ‘say so’ of scholars and doctors, pastors and theologians.  We are forever quoting what someone else has said.  As Bereans, however, we are to think for ourselves as we search the Scriptures to see if these things are so... whether we have seminary or medical training or whether we don’t.  Anyone can search far enough to discover that covid-19 has a very very low mortality rate, but there is something else we all have: common sense.   All of us can see by our own experience that this pandemic isn’t nearly so serious as we are being told.  Very few of us know one anyone who has died as a result of covid.  Few of us know anyone who has even had the virus.  In previous pandemics, every home was somehow affected, and not merely economically.  Everyone knew someone (often many) who had died.  And yet we are told we must wear masks in case we have the virus in case we infect someone in case they should be one of the very very small number who get very sick.   This is madness.  As Christians we must speak the truth in love.  Never forget that we are in a fight not so much against flesh and blood as against principalities and powers.  Satan is the father of lies.   What we are witnessing (in terms of the deception and fear) comes rather from the pit of the hell than from the Lord of glory.   Many Christians sense this.  What should we do?  We need to keep in mind that the same experts warning us about this virus don’t know the difference between a male and a female, they call the murder of babies a woman’s choice, they redefine marriage to allow abomination, they call good evil and evil good.  They aren’t trustworthy.  So, how do we bear witness for God in this world?  How do we shine as lights in this darkness?   We don’t give in to the lie.  We cheerfully and lovingly refuse the mask.

3. Third, masks are a symbol of ungodly slavish submission more becoming Islam than Christianity.  It is interesting isn’t it that the only physical sign of submission in the Bible is a head covering.  The only piece of cloth to be worn is to be worn by women on the head (1 Corinthians 11).  Yet, in most churches instead of cloth on the head, cloth is now being placed on the mouth.  Where is the biblical precedent for this practice?  Covering the mouth is a symbol of shame nowhere required by God, except (in shamefacedness before Him) as we put our hands to our mouths in repentance.  Yet the government would have us bow before their authority by donning a mask not for God but for them.  How opposite God’s law!  There it is the sick, not the well who are quarantined.  There it is women not men who wear the symbol of submission (on the head not the face).  There it is God not government to be worshipped.  But what is so tragic in our situation is the response of the Church.  We are told by Church leaders that we are supposed to wear it for one reason.  Not because it makes sense in the old fashioned common way.  Not because it is actually loving.  Not because God has commanded it.  Rather, wear it simply at their say so.  The say so of the government and the say so of the Church.   This is not responsible nor lawful leadership.  When Romans 13 is cited it is forgotten that the apostle Paul carefully qualifies his statements.  The civil authorities he is speaking about are ministers for good, and the commands we are to obey are lawful commands.  We have neither the one nor the other.  Our ministers have long since ceased being ministers for good and their commands are neither based in common natural law nor are they based in biblical law. 

4. Fourth, masks are a symbol of fear.  What has the government told us this is about?  Saving lives.   Have you seen the visceral fear in their eyes?  Have you watched as people shrink away from you?  Have you gone to greet another believer not with a kiss but a handshake only to be refused?   Has it seemed strange to you how Christians have reacted so much like the world as if also afraid?   When we speak of masks we are not talking about masks worn by surgeons performing surgery.  Neither are we talking about masks worn by physicians dealing with highly infectious patients.  We are talking about masks worn by people who have no symptoms in the hope that by doing so their lives and the lives of others might (possibly) be spared.  This is so utterly unlike the Christianity of our forefathers, and so far from the hall of faith in Hebrews it would be unrecognizable to them.  Dear brothers and sisters, we have a better message than this for the world!  We say with Paul, “to die is gain!”   We are to be a people whose lives make no sense to an earthbound world.  None.  We ought to be like Paul as if beside ourselves in the service of our Master.  Paul wrote about this to the Corinthians.  “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour?  I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord.  If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”  Does our behaviour in recent months send a message like this to the world?  Can we say to them, “why do we endanger ourselves every hour?”  They ought to be asking us why we aren’t afraid.  Our lives should look foolish to them.  In fact, the resurrection alone should make sense of what we do.  Sadly, most Christians in this (as in so many other things) look just like the world.  When we put on a mask we are communicating to the world something about our priorities.  We show ourselves to be influenced by the world and lovers of the world.  On other hand, what happens if we don’t?   They won’t understand.  They will think possibly we are beside ourselves.  A bit mad...  They may even ask us questions, and then we can tell them why we don’t.  We can tell them the gospel of Christ and share with them our hope and our longing for heaven

5. Fifth, by the man made ‘tradition’ of mask wearing we make void the commandments of God.  God says repeatedly, “greet each other with a holy kiss.”  We can’t do that while wearing a mask and socially distancing.  But it gets worse.  We can’t even fulfill the spirit of that law.  Masks communicate something.  They are a visual reminder to stay away, and that’s exactly what we are witnessing.  Where masks are worn people remain at a cool distance.  Ask yourself, is this like New Testament Christianity?  Then there were deadly diseases on a scale unknown to us and they didn’t have the luxury of antibiotics nor the luxury of worrying about limited supplies for intensive care units.  They didn’t have such things. They had none of the remedies we have now.  And what did Jesus do?  Can you imagine Jesus wearing a mask?  I can’t.  Actually I don’t need to imagine what He would have done.  At a time when it was far far more dangerous to do so He did the opposite.  Instead of distancing He went where others wouldn’t dare go.  He regularly touched the sick.  We know we ought to imitate Him, but can we walk like Jesus in this world?  Not if we obey our government. 

 I recently visited another church while on vacation.  We had to register beforehand and when we arrived they had to verify that we had, indeed, registered.  So, no last minute visitors allowed.   That day there would be no tax collectors, no Charles Spurgeons turning in last minute from a storm to hear by ‘chance’ the gospel message like he had never heard it before... just those registered.  Inside the church we were not warmly greeted, but checked off a list and then made to feel like outsiders because we didn’t have our masks.   And when the service was over everyone scattered for their cars because not allowed to mingle and fellowship.  This in the name of obedience to the government.  How many of God’s laws are we breaking for this new tradition?  How many “one another” commands are left unfulfilled in the name of love?  We have allowed the world to define love, we have bowed to godless authorities, while having the audacity to criticize good men who have dared to “be a Daniel”.  What has happened to us?    When will the Church realize that God is sifting her?  When will the Church have done with lesser things and answer with the simple courage of a Peter, we will obey God rather than men?

May God help us to stand with boldness in this evil day and shine as bright lights for Him who is worthy.

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For the follow up go here.

May 24, 2021: For a recent follow up go here.