Transcript:

What should you do as a member of the church do to respond to the coronavirus?

Sacrificially care for those in need.

Fortunately, we have 2,000-years of history of the church facing such crises with love and wisdom. One such example comes to us from a description of the church in 3rd century Alexandria as a lethal epidemic swept through that ancient pagan city. Listen to a church leader describe the response of Christians:

“[During the great epidemic] most of our… [fellow] Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead…. The pagans behaved in the opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled even from their dearest, often throwing them into the roads before they were dead…” (Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, 260 AD).

Fortunately, with modern medicine the personal risk of caring for the sick is somewhat mitigated. However, the impulse to care for the sick and dying must not be. The gospel makes us courageous and loving even in the face of death and disease. Why? Because the One who has so loved us has overcome the mother of all fears—death itself!

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.