I know what many of you are thinking: “The last thing those who are sick need to be told is that it is because of sin!” But, I agree. To do that would be dumb. How would I know if their sickness is the result of some sin they have committed?
But it’s not that simple and El Diablo is at work.
Many Christians err by completely disconnecting sickness from sin, and Christian apologists need to speak up at any and every point that the truth of God is distorted and this is one of them.
Of course, not all sickness is due to our personal sin–in fact, most of it is due to the fall of Adam. After all, Job was very sick indeed, but was falsely told his sickness was the result of sin. John 9:1-3 is another example: “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” The take away from these two passages is that we aren’t in a position to pontificate that someone’s sickness is due to sin.
But, as I said, it’s not that simple.
Notice that Jesus doesn’t rebuke the disciples in the John 9 passage. Jesus could have said, “How long do I have to remain with you? Why even ask such a stupid question? Sickness is never the result of sin!” But He didn’t.
Jesus didn’t rebuke them because Scripture regularly portrays sickness as the result of sinfulness. I’m going to give just two passages. In 1 Cor. 11:27-32 we read:
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
Notice two things. First, not honoring what Jesus accomplished on the cross may result in weakness, illness, and even death! Isn’t it too bad that every sin doesn’t come with a warning label? Second, and this is huge, although only a few had died, it says that many of the Christians in Corinth were weak or sick because of sin! Many! God will use weakness and sickness to discipline us and apparently He has done that a lot!
What this means then is that when someone else is sick we can’t judge that it is because of sin, but if we ourselves are sick we should ask God if, perhaps, it is because of sin, and, if so, then confess and forsake it! Of course, the last thing Satan wants you to do is examine yourself to see if you are living a life worthy of God. He’d rather you blundered through life like a drunken pirate on high seas.
Then there is James 5:14-16:
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Amen.
But it’s not that simple and El Diablo is at work.
Pray for me Clay, I’m nursing a cold after the first round of triple therapy for a bout of H. Pylori. But worst than that, I remain a very great sinner indeed (and you might find my article What Sin Is of interest). Anyway, I have a couple of points to add to yours.
First, sinners that we are, we do so badly want there to be a one-to-one correspondence between “a sin” and “the punishment”. This may arise from our hypocritical judgement that we ourselves aren’t really that bad and so everybody else is to be blamed. The exquisite yet awful beauty in the pain of the curse is that it permeates every part of creation save that one and only holy thing, Christ Jesus. What frightening and terrible wrath God hath against the unholy!
Secondly, “modern” man looks down his nose at the notion of describing sickness as demon possession. Yet what is sickness if not a bit of death? And did not death enter the world when Satan’s lie beguiled Eve to commit the first sin? What are demons but the agents of Satan, a.k.a. El Diablo. Given this world view, isn’t it perfectly logical to say that someone who is sick is demon possessed or in other words, subjected to the wrath upon the rebellion? (I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to work out which is worse: (a) being kidnapped from God by a demon— a victim, or (b) stealing oneself from God— a thief?)
The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. ~ Matthew 4:24 (NASB)
Hi Lustus,
Although some sickness can be the result of demon possession, certainly there is no Scriptural warrant to believe that that is the case for all, or even most, sickness.
By the way, why the moniker “lustus”?
Clay
Almost didn’t see your reply since I didn’t get a notification by e-mail, so I’m glad I checked back. Clay, I didn’t mean to imply that every sick person is a demoniac. I suppose there is a spectrum from demon “possession” to simply demon impacted. My point was that all sickness seems from sin.
As to my moniker, it’s mildly amusing you should ask in conjunction with this topic since it involves a demoniac. I’m surprised you didn’t discover the explanation yourself at the my blog in the article Why Lustus, why?
May God bless your labors on behalf of the Kingdom of Light through King Jesus.
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. ~ Hebrews 9:27-28 (NASB)
This is basically why I’ve never found the “problem of evil” (or “problem of pain”) argument too persuasive: the Bible makes it clear that we did this to ourselves. Or, as Pogo might say, “We have met the enemy- and he is us”. While it is true that it was Adam and Eve who sinned in the Garden of Eden, we confirm that we would have done no differently by our own sins. We suffer and die because we have cut ourselves (and continue to cut ourselves off) from God, who is the source of all life. It is not God who prohibits anyone from receiving this life, but rather those who reject His offer of life that block themselves from it.
I think there are several problems, though, from going from sickness in general is caused by sin in general to one-to-one identification between sickness and sin, not the least of which is that it would equate physical health with spiritual health.