To Encourage You

Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

We are living in unprecedented times.  Never in my lifetime have I seen so much focus on a single disease – the infamous Covid-19.  In a period of a few months, this one virus changed everything on a world-wide scale.  People were afraid.  Loved ones were dying.  Businesses closed, schools went virtual, and the government shelled out trillions in a stopgap measure to help those whose finances had been crippled because of the pandemic.  Everywhere we looked people were wearing masks.  People were advised to not get together with loved ones over the holidays. Why? Because, unwittingly, we might have given them or they might have given us Covid.  As such, we could have become a vector that resulted in the death of the people we most cherished in life.  In the midst of it all, the world was hoping for a vaccine, and science pulled out all the stops to develop one. 

As I think about all this today, I am struck by the irony of it all.  Because of this one virus and the danger it posed to our physical lives, the world was turned upside down.  Yet, at the same time, how many gave a second thought to the words of Jesus spoken in the verse above.  It’s a message about priorities.  It’s a message from the eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God that there is something to fear much more than physical death and any person or thing (like a virus) that can bring death.  What He is telling us is that physical death can kill the body, but our physical body is temporary anyway.  We will all die from one cause or another. No one will escape it. However, there is a greater reality than the physical body, i.e., our everlasting soul.  Nothing on this earth can touch our soul.  A murderer has no access to it, and no physical disease can afflict it.  There is only One Who has access to the soul and that is the God Who has given it to us. 

Throughout His Word, God has warned us that the soul is sick with a terminal disease. It’s called sin.  In eternity, no sin will enter the presence of God and any soul that harbors sin will, likewise, be excluded.  It will be social distancing in an infinite and eternal sense!  He has warned us that every soul (and every resurrected physical body) will continue to exist for all eternity in one place or another – heaven or hell.  Only God holds the keys to those very real places (Revelation 1:18). Only He has the power to determine our eternal state.  Because of this, we should fear Him.  That means we should give all our attention to Him, for if we don’t, the result for us will be much more fearful than physical death.  Our focus on what the government, the media, or anyone else says regarding Covid-19 or anything else should pale in comparison with the attention we should give to what God is telling us in His Word about the disease of sin.  And it is this God Who has pulled out all the stops to make it possible for us to be healed from our terminal disease.  He gave the life of His own Son as a sacrifice for the sin that afflicts us and the hell that awaits those who aren’t saved. 

So, have you received the healing touch of the Great Physician?  Have you reached out to Him for the only cure for your sin?  And if you are saved, have you told those you love about their own need for this cure?  Are you as concerned about the effects of sin on their lives as you were about the effects of Covid-19?  Well, if not, you should be, for in the end Covid-19 is nothing compared to the disease of our sin.  May God help us to listen to His Word concerning the things that matter most in this world.  They are things that don’t just affect the body in this life, but both the body and soul forever in the life to come.