by Eugene Higgins
Social Distancing
It used to be a common sight. Someone would be withdrawing money at an ATM, (called “a hole in the wall” by our beloved UK cousins), and others would respectfully stand a few feet away, respecting the first person’s privacy and implying that no larceny was looming. It is still a common sight, but now the line-ups are outside grocery stores, bakeries, and pharmacies. “Social distancing” has attached itself to our language and dictionaries like field burrs (burs?) to our socks and stockings.
Earlier this month, in what could only be called a humorous application of this new rule, a man at the Mercato Testaccio in Rome (a market) wore a huge yellow, cardboard disk around his waist, like a gigantic life-saver. No one would have been able to get within three or four feet of him. Whether he was mocking the demands for keeping his distance (Italian humor), or taking it all terribly seriously (Italian ingenuity), his was an impractical method of keeping others away, however good it might be as a dieting tool.
The change in our thinking has been subtle but powerful. We now feel we are in danger “from others.” We need to “keep our distance” so we don’t “catch” what they have. A cough or a sneeze could create a panicked flight worthy of an old Western cattle stampede. As Christians, we have always been aware of our responsibility towards shut-in believers, those unable to attend meetings or benefit from Christian fellowship and interaction. Well, now, we are all shut-ins! This is the closest we (at least those of us in North America) have ever come to being like “underground believers” in oppressive countries who have had to “practice their faith” in secret. But the engine of Christianity runs on these two rails – fellowship with God and fellowship with other believers. So what are we to do? How do we comply with the rules and yet not grow cold in heart?
We must never forget that we need each other. God never intended that we be loners, mavericks, making our way through this world on a solo flight like Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic. Thankfully, in this temporary time of forced isolation, a number of different attempts are being tried, in a number of different places, to keep believers in touch with each other. The importance of Christian fellowship can be seen in those many “one another” passages dotting the pages of our New Testament. The negative command of Lev 25:17, (Ye shall not therefore oppress one another”), becomes positive exhortations in the New Testament. Here is just a sampling:
- John 13:14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
- John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
- Rom 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
- Rom 15:7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
- Gal 5:13 By love serve one another.
- Gal 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
- Col 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any.
- 1Th 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
- 1Th 5:11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
We are to serve one another, receive one another, help one another, forgive one another, encourage one another, edify one another, and prefer one another. Six times in his epistles John repeats the words “love one another” (1Jn 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11, 12; 2 Jn 1:5).
If, in past days, you were in the custom of making a friendly phone call to one or two shut-in believers, congratulations: your ministry has just widened dramatically! Emails, phone calls, texts – all of these can convey our concern for fellow-saints and our love for them.
And if we need each other, how much more we need the Lord. This crisis will soon pass, as so many other crises have. If it has any permanent effect on us, we must be sure it is one that drives us closer together and closer to the Lord. At a time when public meetings are not possible, personal communion is indispensable. Annie Hawks said that it was out of an overwhelming sense of her dependence on the Lord that she wrote this on an April day in 1872:
I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.
I need Thee, O I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.
1872 was 148 years ago. Do we need Him any less today?