Is it just me, or does it seem like the coronavirus has the potential to infect our churches spiritually, to taint our healthy functioning as the body we were meant to be? I’ve been re-reading the apostle Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians about who they are as a church. As Eugene Peterson explains, the Corinthians were “all jockeying for preeminence, asserting themselves and at the same time putting others down. Each one claiming that what they had was better than what others had”[i]  Paul calls the fractious and fractured community to live as the renewed body under Christ their head. From his charge in 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and other letters, we discover six gospel principles that will strengthen our health as a church body during this difficult season.

1. See your sin, and note how it has corrupted your healthy functioning (1 Corinthians 11:18).

Paul frankly points out the Corinthians’ sin: “I hear that there are divisions among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18). Sin has twisted our body parts, causing dysfunction—just as I will never raise my hand again without some pain in my shoulder due to a worn-out rotator cuff, sin hampers our free movement. Given our sin, can we possibly function as we were meant to function? Paul insists that in Christ, the Spirit has given us gifts for the “common good,” gifts that build up and strengthen the body as a body” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). In Christ, we are set free from the binding yoke of sin to function as the renewed body part God has designed us to be (Galatians 5:1). We must “go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

2. Submit to Christ, who is the head of the body (Ephesians 4:15-16).

We must lean into our union with Christ, who is the head of the body. We must grow up into him, as Ephesians 4:15-16 instructs. Christ makes the “body grow,” restoring our healthy function, equipping us to “work properly” (Ephesians 4:16). Christ, the head, is the brains of the operation. He transforms our minds, conforming us to his image, stimulating us to move fluidly in faith, hope, and love.

3. Strengthen the weaker members (1 Corinthians 12:22-23).

Whether physically or spiritually. Perhaps you don’t struggle with worry or fear, but your brother does. His sixty-seven-year-old sister died due to complications of the coronavirus; he witnessed its ravaging effects. He wants to wear a mask when he returns to church, and he wants you to wear one too, for his protection. He knows that singing is the third leading cause of spreading the virus, and he doesn’t want to sit in front of unmasked people while they sing. What will you do? What would Paul suggest you do? Strengthen the weaker member.

4. Serve the other members of the body as service to Christ (1 Corinthians 12:14-20).

You have a gift: you must use it to serve the rest of the body, not to hamper the rest of the body. The eye shows the body where to go and keeps it from stumbling over hindrances. If you’re an eye, watch carefully. The whole body stands on the foot. If I’m a foot, I’d better act like a foot, or the body will fall over. The ear alerts the body to danger. If you’re an ear, listen up, and lead the body away from it.

5. Suffer with other members (1 Corinthians 12:26).

As Paul explains, “If one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Corinthians 12:26). Just as we would never slap our own faces or pummel our own bodies, we should beware of writing a scathing post on Facebook that might injure another member of the Church. Because our actions affect others in our body, we should consider before we speak, share, or act, “Would this word or deed contribute to the suffering of my own body?”

6. Celebrate other members so that all may rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:26).

On the other hand, when we honor other members, respecting differing viewpoints within the scope of Scripture (mask or no-mask; staying home, going out with appropriate cautions), we will rejoice together. In a word, we will do what a healthy church body does: we will worship. In all of our words and deeds, let us aim for rejoicing together, because the body was not made to be divided.

Dear friends, in this season, let us take up the whole armor of God, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Let’s not merely protect our own bodies from the coronavirus; let’s protect our church body from the virus of sin, which causes dysfunction and division. God God has chosen and exquisitely designed this body, and each of us as individual members. Let’s lean into the more excellent way of love, which bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). As we do, we have the opportunity to bring the hope and healing of the gospel to a hurting world.

[i] Eugene Peterson, Conversations: The Message Bible with Its Translator (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2007), 1790.