How should Christians respond to the COVID-19 crisis?

I think we should be the most balanced, the most stable, the most sane, the most reasonable, and the most rational. Even beyond that, of course, we have a living hope. We know where we’re headed. Eternity is settled for us. It’s far better to depart and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), so the worst that could ever happen to us would be the best that could ever happen to us.

This is a time for us to make manifest our faith. Yesterday was Sunday. We weren’t allowed to have anybody here, but I preached anyway on Matthew 6, where Jesus three times said: “Stop worrying. Why are you worrying about your life, your food, your drink, your clothing? Your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:31–32). And the Psalms are just full of divine promises that God is our refuge and our strength.

This is an opportunity for Christian people who say that they trust in the Lord and that they put their faith in Jesus Christ to demonstrate it by being stable, and even hopeful, and even joyful. The kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Spirit, and this is a great time for that joy.

This isn’t like the Black Death. As I told our people, seventy-five million people died in the Black Death. One Italian writer said that the bodies were stacked like lasagna. It was a horrific time. Of course, every year, sixty million people die around the world. Death is not new to us.

We should be the people who have no fear. We should be without fear because our trust is in the Lord. This is an opportunity for us. All people have fear when it comes to controlling their life and particularly their death, so this is a great time for us to be a living testimony of what true faith in the Lord looks like.