About Those Variants
As I type these words, we are still dealing with something that most of us had never heard about a couple of years or so ago. When we did start hearing about it, most of us probably thought that it would be ancient history by now. As I recall, we were concerned at first with something called the Coronavirus. Over time, that concern was focused on something called COVID-19. I won’t pretend to be intelligent enough to explain how all of that is related. I’ll leave that to others who have a lot more information and understanding.
What I do know is that it seems like we’ve been shooting at a moving target for a couple of years. I also understand that one of the reasons for that has to do with something called “variants.” It seems that, just about the time we find a way to minimize the effects of this disease, we hear about another variant.
The newer variant may or may not respond in the same way to vaccinations, treatments, etc. as previous variants. This results in confusion about appropriate actions in the medical and scientific communities and those of us who depend upon them.
It seems to me that there may be a spiritual corollary to this. The Bible informs us that people are “infected by the world” in one or more of three ways.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:26, emphasis added)
That verse is easy to read and may even be easy to memorize. It may not be quite so easy, though, to understand when/if we start thinking about “variants.” Do you want to start your own list of all of the things that could be listed under each of those “categories?” Would that exercise get more complicated if/when you realized that your list and my list might not exactly be the same? In other words, what might be a temptation to you may not be a temptation to me (and vice-versa).
It gets even more complicated when things like social environment, age, and a host of other things are involved. It seems that sin has an unending list of “variants.”
That shouldn’t surprise us. After all, Satan is described as both “a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8) and “an angel of light” (2 Cor. 7:14). There is a great deal of room between those two seemingly polar opposite descriptions for countless variants in how he presents himself, is described, and the types of tactics he uses to destroy us.
The Bible teaches that sin is a universal problem. We are informed that “..all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). It also teaches us that there is a solution that is available to all of us: “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
I will not enter into the debate here about whether or not individuals should or should not receive one of the Covid vaccinations that are available. I will, however, suggest that all people everywhere should contact the blood of Jesus by being baptized and live a life that is characterized as “walking in the light.”
That would be the solution to every variant that could do much more than put our health at risk. It would go a long way in helping us to be with Jesus for all of eternity.
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
