Face Masks and Christian Liberty

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock or living on the International Space Station, here on Earth we’re three months or so into the COVID-19 pandemic lock-down. After weeks of infection counts and death, a number of regions are feeling confident enough that they have control over the situation to start opening up again. People are emerging from state-imposed quarantine and going back to work, to school, to the park, and other activities they used to enjoy before the virus apocalypse.

It is a cautious re-opening, however. This is indicated by the fact that authorities are still imposing restrictions. Business should only have a certain number of people in store or in the office at any one time. Keep your distance from other human beings (we’re assured animals can’t transmit the disease), preferably six feet or two meters, so you aren’t showered with virus-filled saliva when they talk to you.

And wear a mask. Initially, health authorities were hesitant to recommend masks. And by masks I mean face masks, the kind that cover the nose and mouth. Not Batman and Robin-style masks.

Though I suppose a Spiderman mask would be acceptable…

There are basically two kinds of acceptable mask. There are the hospital-grade masks that are as good at stopping viruses coming in and out of your air passages as you’re going to get without causing you to pass out because you’re essentially recycling your own breath (not a good thing). And then there are the cloth masks that will catch most of the moisture from your nose and mouth, reducing the chances you will pass disease onto those near you. These don’t, however, protect from incoming viruses.

Initially, healthcare workers were afraid people would buy up all the hospital-grade masks leaving none for the doctors and nurses who need them most. That’s why, I believe, they downplayed the importance of masks. A little dishonest, perhaps, but that reasoning makes most sense to me.

Now, however, most places have plenty of cloth masks, and there are a plethora of YouTube videos showing you how to make your own. So along with washing hands and avoiding other people, we’re being told to wear a mask.

In the U.S., most businesses where customer interaction is unavoidable (stores, restaurants, etc.) require their employees to wear masks. Some even require customers to wear them. But not everyone is happy about this. Some people complain the masks make them claustrophobic, or they can’t understand people when they try to talk with a mask on, or they feel their freedom is being violated by someone else telling them what to wear. Others shrug it off as comparable to being told to wear a tie at a fancy restaurant.

With the threat of an increase in COVID cases due to people coming out of lock-down, some governments are considering making public mask-wearing mandatory. In the U.S. there are already some city mayors and state governors who have issued compulsory public mask-wearing orders, with fines in the hundreds of dollars for non-compliance. Again, some are okay with this, but others are very uncomfortable, and not just with the masks. The idea of the government telling citizens what they can and cannot wear, and penalizing dissenters, does not sit well with a number of people, especially here in the U.S., where freedom of expression is a cherished principle. They already feel government has intruded excessively into their lives by closing their businesses, their gyms, and their churches, and keeping them locked inside their homes. Now Big Brother is only going to let us out if we wear a mask?!

A fair few of these objectors are Christians, some of whom are prepared to take on the government bare-faced, daring the authorities to make them mask up. But is this an appropriate attitude for Christians to take?

Submitting to Authority

Scripture does exhort Christians to submit to governing authorities. For example, Paul in Romans 13 tells us:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ⁴ for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷ Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. [Romans 13:1-7, ESV]

This would suggest that we ought to do whatever the “ruling authorities” tell us to do. But did you notice the implicit caveat? “He is God’s servant for good.” This means that, insofar as the ruling authorities are telling you to do good, then you are to obey them. If they direct you to do bad (e.g., stop preaching the gospel), then you are at liberty to disobey, accepting the consequences of your actions.

Doesn’t mask-wearing fall into that “doing good” category? After all, you are helping to prevent the spread of an infectious and potentially deadly disease. Dissenters would say, first, whether COVID is as lethal as initially thought (most deaths are among the elderly and immuno-compromised) and whether masks are effective at preventing spread are both questionable assumptions depending on how you read the data. Second, they would say that insofar as government is unnecessarily robbing people of their liberties and overreaching its authority, it is doing bad and can–even should–be resisted.

Christian Liberty

But there’s another principle I want to draw attention to, and that’s the concept of Christian liberty. Again, turning to Romans, Paul talks about how, in Christ, we are no longer subject to sin. Jesus’s death on the cross has broken sin’s hold on us. We are no longer under God’s wrath because Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin. Further, we are no longer under sin’s dominion, but we are “slaves to Christ” which is, in fact, true freedom (see Romans 5). This doesn’t mean we don’t sin and are not tempted to sin. But, as Paul goes on to say in Romans 6, our freedom in Christ gives us the desire to be obedient to the Lord. And when we fail, we know that sin which we feel and grieve over has been paid for. Indeed, as Paul says in Romans 8:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,^[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. [Romans 8:1-11, ESV]

What does all this mean in terms of Christian liberty? It means that the Christian is free to operate according to his conscience, as informed by Scripture. This doesn’t mean the Christian can do whatever he or she wants. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit means that our desires are to please the Lord. This desire compels us to honor Him with our beliefs, our lives, and our decisions. Of course, because in this world we still battle the temptation to sin, we sometimes struggle to do what we ought even when we know what that is. Sometimes the correct path is uncertain to us, in which case we have to make the best of the light we have and trust the Lord to guide us.

This means not all Christians will agree on what is correct in every situation. To be sure, there are fundamental beliefs within the Christian faith that define what it is to be a Christian. Those essential beliefs unite us all. But then there are those “adiaphora,” or non-essential (though often imporant) issues over which we can disagree. Paul addresses some of these in Colossians 2:

¹⁶ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. [Colossians 2:16-17, ESV]

Also in Romans 14:

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ² One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³ Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ⁴ Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵ One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶ The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸ For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. [Romans 14:1-9, ESV]

In Paul’s day, perhaps out of tradition or ignorance, there were those in the church who still held to certain food laws or special days. Paul’s point throughout his letters is that these things don’t put you in a better standing before God than those who don’t observe them. But as long as you are not clinging to them for your salvation, the Christian is free to observe them, or not. Paul’s main concern is that we don’t judge each other, or break fellowship with each other, over them. Sure, discuss them, and maybe even debate them. But do so out of love as brethren in Christ.

Notice the principle here: there are many things in the Christian life which we are free to do, or NOT to do. Christians may or may not eat meat, drink alcohol, celebrate Christmas, observe birthdays, smoke, watch movies, listen to Beatles music, and so on. Certainly, not all of these things are healthy for everyone. If the Lord has rescued you from alcoholism, you may choose to avoid alcohol out of a desire to not be tempted back into that sin. If you are sensitive and easily offended, there may be movies or music you may prefer to avoid. Again, there is no law for or against these. Your freedom in Christ allows you to exercise personal accountability and discernment. And we should not judge each other over them.

Christian Liberty and Face Masks

This same principle applies to face masks. I can see situations where, even if you don’t want to wear a face mask, wearing one may be beneficial. For example, if you are attempting to share the gospel with some mask-wearing people, they might be more comfortable spending time with you if you also wear a mask. Your freedom in Christ allows you to wear one or not wear one. It avoids unnecessary offense (which, by the way, also shows your love and respect for them), and allows you to get straight to the point of the conversation without being distracted by secondary issues. I think a similar case can be made for a female Christian wearing a hijab in a Muslim culture.

If your local government mandates wearing face masks, you may have no choice in the matter. Christian liberty allows you to submit to the magistrate, even if you disagree. Some may object to this and want to fight the law. If your country allows you to, feel free to use the legal procedures available to you. But before you decide to be a rebel and forego wearing a mask, consider whether it is worth the arrest and the fine. The New Testament church was willing to submit to the social and legal restrictions of their day. And within Roman law, they didn’t have much of a voice to object. It was only when the law of the land conflicted with the explicit command of the Lord were they willing to rebel and pay the penalty for their civil disobedience.

Above all, however, let’s be sure we don’t judge one another over whether or not we wear a face mask. To follow the biblical example, we should respect one another’s decision on this issue. We can certainly disagree and discuss whether or not it is appropriate to wear a face mask, but this is not an issue over which we should divide.

Whatever happens with face masks and our culture, I hope these thoughts are helpful to you. I welcome respectful discussion in the comments!