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You Too Can Make the Sick Better
By David W. T. Brattston
Like Jesus, you can cure the sick or make them better. This truth is not only the teaching of the Church of God International based on one possible interpretation of the Bible among many, but was shared by early Christians, some of whom knew the writers of the New Testament personally and could ask them for clarifications or explanations of what they had written. The following article will include these non-biblical authors to show that ancient Christians embraced the same ideas about healing as taught in our own day.
No doubt all Infuse readers are familiar with Christ’s command in Matthew 10:7-8 and Luke 10:9 that missionaries and other traveling preachers are to cure the sick before telling them that the Kingdom of God is near. Few readers will have heard of a writing, from a minority of early Christians called the Gospel of Thomas. Although different from the majority in many ways, it repeats the commandment and extends it to all who travel. Indeed, Mark 16:18 widens the power of healing to all who truly believe.
Christian healings continued after the first century. Irenaeus, a pastor in France, mentioned them as still current in the AD 180s. So did Clement in Egypt, dean of the world’s foremost Christian school in the next decade. So also did Tertullian in Tunisia early in the third century.
Clement’s successor as dean was Origen, who recorded in the late 240s that “traces” of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including cure of the sick, remained in the church. Although still occurring, they were apparently less common than in apostolic times.
Besides healings, Origen considered among the gifts of the Spirit to be “a marvelous meekness of spirit and a complete change of character.” He thought physical healing to be less important and less indicative of the working of the Holy Spirit than works of mercy and love. Even if you cannot perform a cure, you too can perform such works.
A chief way of helping the ill is to visit them. Remember Christ’s teaching in Matthew 25:34-39 that it is deeds of love and mercy—such as feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners, and looking after the sick—that will be rewarded in the Kingdom of Heaven. This agrees with Matthew 7:21-23, where Christ said that performing miracles does not replace such works. What we do for the least sick person we do for Christ (Matthew 25:40). Visiting might not cure the patient but it can make their symptoms less uncomfortable, making their lives better, although not perfect.
Visiting the sick was strongly encouraged in early Christianity. Clement quoted Matthew 25:34-40 to remind Christians of this duty in the 190s. Tertullian spoke of it as one desirable fruit of a happy Christian marriage. Another ancient Christian writing considered it a very serious duty.
Shortly before AD 249, Three Books of Testimonies classed visiting the sick to be among such important Christian activities as forgiving sins, helping the poor, loving enemies, and the Golden Rule itself—which indicates that Christians held visiting the sick in the highest regard. The author repeated Matthew 25:36 and quoted an earlier author: “Be not slack to visit the sick man; for from these things thou shalt be strengthened in love.”
It is particularly appropriate for ministers to visit the sick. James 5:14 instructs church officers to do so, adding that they should also pray for them and anoint them with oil. A church manual written around AD 217 encourages deacons to find out who is sick and inform the pastor so that he can pay a visit; ill people, it says, are much comforted when they know the pastor (their “high priest”) is mindful of them.
Your loving acts such as visiting can make the situation of the sick better. But can you actually cure them? Remember one thing: the Bible does not say that healing must always be caused by a miracle; you can contribute to their welfare by ordinary means. In describing Christian good deeds in the early third century, Bardesan in Syria included healthy workers giving toward the support of the ill, while one martyr for the Faith around AD 165 noted that it was common for church funds to be used to relieve Christians in financial need due to illness. Even the most ordinary person can donate to Christian medical missions and hospitals and thus cure (help) the sick.
While the church fathers saw no miracle was involved in visiting and donating toward the sick, they usually considered actual cures to be miracles and thus evidence of divine power, but did not regard it as necessary for every healing to be supernatural. Divine love was the only essential ingredient for all cures. This is shown by a second-century instruction that patients are to give testimony to God for all healings, even when the cure came about through drugs.
According to John 14:12, whoever believes in Jesus, will do greater works than His. Although people gifted with the grace of divine healing have never been plentiful, certainly not all Christians, the Bible and church fathers state that anyone at all can do great works equal in love and mercy to those of Christ. By visiting the sick, taking care of their bodies, and helping with their finances, we can all make the sick better and so fulfill the law of God.
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