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Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established…Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law (Romans 13:1, 8).

Last March, when the Ontario Government announced the first lockdown, our church’s executive met to work out our response. Today’s text provided two of the guiding principles that were used to navigate our congregation through COVID times.

We committed ourselves to being subject to the governing authorities and to loving one another and our neighbour. Despite the warnings that this could take a long time, many of us assumed that this would soon all be over, a month or two, September at the latest.

Well, September came and went. Now its January and we find ourselves back in lock down. We need to return to these two guiding principles. When I think about them, I’m still quite willing to find ways to love my neighbour. But I find myself waffling on the issue of following the governments instructions.

On the one hand, I am just tired of it all. COVID fatigue. Yep, I can check that box. But on the other hand, I find it difficult to understand what the government is trying to do. Will this lockdown really halt the spread of the virus? What about all the issues that will be created by this lockdown? How will we deal with them? Will these restrictions (whatever they might bemean) really solve more problems than they create? I’m not convinced.

And so, I find myself resisting the principle to submit to the governing authorities. Do we need to follow a government we disagree with? Or a government enacting laws that appear to defy logic?

Then I remember that Paul lived in the Roman empire which persecuted Christians. Paul took his cue from Jeremiah who lived under the Babylonian empire which had taken Israel into exile.

When I think about that, I realize that there is no way that our current situation would justify defiance of the authorities.

I may not like these new restrictions and they may defy logic, but my primary allegiance is to my Lord and Saviour. He calls me to submit to the governing authorities and so I will make every effort to do so.

And it strikes me that one of the ways we can love our neighbour is to live and speak in ways that do not promote descent. There is too much political division already. And Christians have caused some of it. Christians need to bring people together, not drive them further apart. Will you join me in this?