Sickness 693
- God’s Chastening and Sickness
An amazing fact is found in the Bible: that it is relatively easy for
a “heathen” to be healed, but healing for a Christian is not so easy.
The New Testament overwhelmingly shows us that whenever an
unbeliever seeks the Lord he is cured immediately. Now the gift of
healing is for the brethren as well as for the unbelievers. Yet the
Bible tells of some believers who are not healed; among them are
Trophimus, Timothy and Paul. And these are the best of the brethren.
Paul left Trophimus ill at Miletus (2 Tim. 4.20). He exhorted
Timothy to use a little wine for the sake of his stomach and his
frequent ailments (1 Tim. 5.23). Paul himself experienced a thorn in
his flesh from which he suffered much and was reduced to great
weakness (2 Cor. 12.7). Whatever the nature of that thorn, be it eye
trouble or some other disease, it pricked his flesh. One feels great
discomfort should a little finger be pricked by a thorn. Paul’s,
however, was a big thorn, not a tiny one. It gave him such discomfort
that he could only describe his physical condition as weakness. These
three are brethren par excellence, yet none was healed. They had to
endure sickness.
It is quite evident that sickness is different from sin in its
outworking. Sin does not produce any fruit of holiness, but sickness
does. The more a person sins the more corrupt he becomes; sickness,
though, bears the fruit of holiness because the chastening hand of
God is upon the sick. Under such circumstances it behooves a child
of God to learn how to submit himself under the mighty hand of
God.
If one is ill he ought to deal with every cause of his illness before
the Lord. If, after all has been dealt with, the hand of God still
remains upon him, then he should understand that this illness is for
the purpose of restraining him from being proud or loose or for some
other purpose. He should accept it and learn its lesson. To be sick is
valueless if the lesson is not learned. Sickness itself does not make a