Ever since the pandemic began, Christians have taken sides on this issue. Do we believe what the government is telling us—that this is much bigger than the flu, we should wear masks, and that we should maintain social distancing?

To be honest, I still am not 100% positive on those questions. If you put a gun to my head and told me to give a definitive answer, I’d tell you that yes, it’s bigger than the flu, we should maintain social distancing for a period of time, and should wear masks when and where we can’t maintain social distancing.

Why do I take that position (albeit not a set-in-stone one)? I hold this belief because I believe, for the most part, that the government—federal, state, local—is telling us the truth. Or, at least, enough of the truth, if that makes sense. I don’t believe everything Big Brother says—nor should anybody because they, like we all know, have corruption. But there are two reasons. One less important and the other far more important. First, I believe the government is, for the most part, actually trying to slow this thing down. Sure, some of the higher-up officials might have their own agenda. That’s possible. However, I think for the most part they are truly trying to calm this thing down, even if it might not be as dangerous as we thought. Second, and more importantly, Romans 13 bounds me to obey them always unless they tell me to sin against God. To me, that’s a hard line.

I am not a conspiracy theorist—not even remotely close. Do I believe conspiracies happen? Sure. But not necessarily the ones you see embedded deep within the recesses of the Internet. For instance, I don’t believe 9/11 was an inside operation. Do I believe our government was and is capable of pulling an inside job like that off? Absolutely. But I don’t believe they did that.

Here’s my point: I don’t believe COVID-19 is a conspiracy operation that Big Brother put out there to achieve their hidden agenda. I just ain’t buyin’ it—sorry. Sure, I believe the virus was “created” so to speak in a lab in Wuhan and something happened to where it got put out into this sin-ridden world. That seems plausible to me. Whether it was accidental or intentional, I don’t know.

But COVID-19 still exists. It’s real. It kills. But I also don’t believe it’s as fatal as people thought it was. Cases have surged for weeks now and yet, daily death numbers have remained steady. What does that tell us? Maybe COVID-19 isn’t as deadly as we thought—so maybe we should all stop freaking out over large new cases.

These are questions Christians need to answer. Convictions can and will vary. But I do stand on the fact that if our government requires—or evening recommends—us to wear masks where you can’t maintain social distancing, I think we should do it because of Romans 13. So again, we obey the governmental authorities at all times unless they tell us to sin against God in any form or fashion, and in that case, we will obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29).

What’s my point here? I’m calling for Christians to “let [our] reasonableness” be evident to all. Let’s look out for our neighbor first instead of ourselves. Loving your neighbor might compel you to wear a mask when it’s inconvenient for you. And that’s okay.