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Ready When Sickness Comes to Stay 1
FEB 15
Sickness in the
Bible refers to spiritual and physical illness.
We will address spiritual illness first.
2 COR 4:16-17 "Faint" is
the same Greek word as in verse 1. For the cause of spreading the Gospel to the
lost and the growing new Christians,
Paul does not stay knocked down. Paul stayed spiritually healthy in "the
inward man." Here is the Key to Spiritual Health: Doing the work to which
we are called as Christians:
This is best
done by recognizing that Jesus (and the Father) sent the Holy Spirit to
represent Him by indwelling every saved person. (John 15:26 RSV) "But when
the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me;" (John
16:7 RSV) "Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that
I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if
I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world
concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do
not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and
you will see me no more; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world
is judged. "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them
now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for
he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak,
and he will declare to you the things that are to come." This Jesus
restated from (John 14:26 RSV) "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to
your remembrance all that I have said to you."
All
our actions are to be based upon (John 15:12 RSV) ""This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." To stay
spiritually healthy (or return to health) we must do (John 15:14-18 RSV)
"You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you
servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have
called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known
to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you
ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love
one another." However, Jesus never said this would be simple or easy.
Jesus spoke of physical abuse from the lost in (John 15:18 RSV) ""If
the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you."
This verse
addresses many of the false religions of today: (John 15:23 RSV) "He who
hates me hates my Father also." Any who reject Jesus rejects the Only True
and Living God.
2 COR 12:7 In
verses 1-6 Paul told of his visions and revelations from God. Paul was the
"man in Christ." The actions of the Corinthians in 1 Cor 12-14 show how easily the desire for showy gifts can affect people. Paul was not
without that possibility. So God gave him a "thorn in the flesh."
There is no general agreement as to what this means. But Paul's parallel is
"a messenger of Satan." That most likely means the Gnostics. They
continually, along with the Judaizers, said Paul was not a real Apostle, so he
could not be trusted with the truth. So in this manner Paul was working out the
most good for Paul and people Paul would influence. It certainly is not how we
would pray for such good, and Paul is with us on this.
2 COR 12:8 Three times Paul prayed
"in faith believing" to have the thorn {Greek aorist tense"
immediately and finally depart from him. Three times God said No. Three times
God answered Paul's prayers with NO! God would not take out the Gnostics, or
the pagans, or any other false religion. Why not do so? If God did this, then
numerous people would send themselves to Hell with no chance of a witness that
might lead to saving faith. The lost must live to give these chances to be
saved. Remember (John 3:16 RSV) "For God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life." God loves the world and the Gnostics were part of the world. God
wants whosoever to believe. A dead person cannot believe.
2 COR 12:9a As
part of his answer, God (meaning here God the Father) said to His child in
Christ, you can live with the thorn. Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs, Studying Adult Life
and Work Lessons, Jul-Sep 94 pointed out that "said" is perfect
tense, hence God's final word on the matter. The Greek is teleo meaning "is
perfected." It would take time for Paul to be able to live with and
overcome the negative aspects of the thorn. But as Paul grew in Christ, God's
grace would make this happen. Naturally Paul had to continue to grow to achieve
it.
2 COR 9b-10 Paul did continue to
grow, Paul found that God's No gave
him more than the Yes he wanted.
Verse 10 further supports the premise that his thorn was the Gnostics. Dr. Hobbs
also noted that "may rest" translates a verb meaning to pitch a tent.
So Paul would continue to have this benefit so long as he moved with God and
not seek again his own Yes answer. For
Paul, No was a better answer than Yes. Obviously, at first he did not
think so. After he learned God’s answer was the best, he agreed with the No. Can we do the same? God does indeed
work out the most good for us. So when he says No or Wait, you help
ourselves and God by accepting this as being best for us.
Remember, the Abba Father always answers our prayers!
But always for the most good for us and those we impact. Thus it may not be the
way we see the good, but it is always
God’s definition of the good. (Rom 8:28 RSV) "We know that in
everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according
to his purpose."
What of physical sickness?
(Acts 19:11-12 RSV) "And God
did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or
aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and
the evil spirits came out of them." However on other occasions Paul did
not have this power (2 Cor. 12:8; Phil. 2:27; 1 Tim. 5:23; 2 Tim. 4:20).
In
the Bible God used both doctors with medicine and miracles to physically heal
many people. An example is in (Acts 28:8-9 RSV) "It happened that the
father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery;
and Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him healed him. And
when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had
diseases also came and were cured." Paul did do a miracle for the father
of Publius. But the rest of the people on the island
who had diseases were cured. The
Greek for cured is a medical term as noted by Dr. W. A. Criswell. The only
doctor there was Luke. Only one was healed of their diseases by a miracle. The
rest waere healed by Dr. Luke.
Note
(James 5:14 RSV) "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of
the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of
the Lord;" God may heal directly, through medicine, or in answer to
prayer, as here. The oil is a symbol of the presence of God (cf. Ps. 23:5); it
may also have been considered medicinal in James's day (cf. Luke 10:34), though
hardly as being effective for all diseases. Prayers of faith are answered not
simply because they are prayed in faith but only if they are prayed in the will
of God (1 John 5:14). God does not always think it best to heal (cf. 2 Cor.
12:8; 2 Tim. 4:20). Here the healing is dependent on confession of sin.
Some understand
the word sick in verse 14 to refer to spiritual, not physical, weakness and the
different word translated sick in verse 15 to mean "weary" (these
meanings are valid). Thus the discouraged person will be restored to spiritual
vigor by the elders' prayer and anointing. So is James addressing spiritual
illness or physical illness?
“Sick”
here does mean produced by illness. “Anointing with oil” was both used for
ceremonial anointing and as an internal and/or external medicine. The “elders”
in those days meant pastors or bishops. However, we are not to take it to mean
only these can pray for the sick. As Dr. Hobbs notes on page 77 “It was not oil, but “the prayer of faith shall save
the sick.” As for “save”, he wrote “”Heal” is the idea here. In Matthew
God does heal
with and without miracles. In fact, if there is miracle healing, God does the
healing. It may not be in God's will for miracle healing to occur in a
particular case. Believers are instructed to pray for healing, but they are
also instructed to seek God's will (1 John
Once
again our lesson title is somewhat misleading. It implies that God will heal
when diseases come. This may or may not be the case. God did not heal me of
cancer, although I asked for it as did others praying for me. He did provide me
access to an excellent medical facility where I got the best of care and the
off and on intelligent use of medicine. So God answered my prayers and those of
others not in the way we wanted, but in the way of the most good for the
situation. At this time the residual cancer I still have is held at bay by my
body’s immune system. I have not needed helper medicine for three years and the
latest tests still show there is no need. This is certainly the easiest way to
handle this residual cancer. But if I had not availed myself of this medical care,
or had not taken the medicine after my surgery, I would probably be dead by
now. In like manner if I had not worked to keep myself as healthy as I can, I
would probably be dead by now.
God’s
readiness is always to work out the most good for us. The method He uses is not
always as we seek. It may be painful. As the old hymn says “Trust and obey.” Paul
did so with his thorn,
and look how it turned out for him. This title also means we are to be ready to
help and comfort when spiritual and physical illness comes.
Marvin Ganote, Advanced Bible Study Class, Adult Teacher. Lesson
at: http://dma1.org/~ganotemd/lesson.htm
or http://academic.udayton.edu/MarvinGanote/Bible/lessn.htm