Don’t you just love it when God’s people come together for a holy convocation/convention? At Christian conferences one can sometimes be enlightened by gifted biblical teachers helping us understand how to continue growing in God. But, one must also be aware that sometimes
teachings that are not supported by the Bible and harmful to the Christian walk are sometimes promoted even amongst believers at a holy convention.

Case in point: I was attending a Christian convention quite some time ago where the Sunday session included a number of Bible classes one might choose to attend. I found a seat in the class designated for my gender and age and prepared myself to hear the teacher expound on the lesson. To my horror, the gentleman began to teach extremely harmful and biblically unsupportable doctrines. He proclaimed that anyone who is spiritually mature and has the faith that they are supposed to have, should not be ill. In a nutshell, his position was that no Christian should ever be unwell (i.e. infirmed).

It is not my wish to go around publicly agitating my Christian brothers and sisters. However, this teacher’s doctrine had the possibility of causing much discouragement to faithful Christians who find themselves infirmed in their bodies. So, I felt compelled to at least ask a couple of respectful questions to the teacher.

1) I raised the question as to whether we should consider the Apostle Paul to be lacking in spiritual maturity and faith based on the fact that he suffered an infirmity of the flesh, as the Apostle Paul shares in Galatians 4:13-18. This passage reads thus:

13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.
16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

I find it interesting how The Living Bible (which is a paraphrase) describes these particular verses:

even though I was sick when I first brought you the God News of Christ. But even though my sickness was revolting to you, you didn’t reject me and turn me away. No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God or even Jesus Christ himself. Where is that happy spirit that we felt together then? For in those days I know you would gladly have taken out your own eyes and given them to replace mine if that would have helped me. And now have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

The teacher did not deal with these scriptures, but one of the other class attendees that supported this teacher’s beliefs jumped up and shouted in response to me that he was not following Paul, that Jesus was his example. Now, that might have been an excellent reply except that I noticed that both this fellow class attendee (and the teacher himself) wore prescription eyeglasses.

2) The other question that I asked? Well, I raised my hand and when allowed to speak, I stood up and began to pull of my own eyeglasses and said the following:

I have a physical condition (i.e. infirmity) with my eyes that causes me to wear these glasses. Do you mean to tell me that if I am where I am supposed to be in Christ that I can get rid of these glasses?

Well, at this point, the teacher became enraged and would not answer my question as he stood there wearing eyeglasses to correct a physical problem with his own eyes.

Yes, sometimes we can be sick due to our own lack of faith, or maybe some improper unhealthy practices we have indulged in. But, we also know that sometimes sickness is due to no fault of our own as the Old and New Testaments give us examples where faithful followers of God were allowed to suffer sickness. We should be careful to be consistent with the Bible; God’s word is always consistent, so if we find ourselves teaching contradictory doctrines, we can be sure that we are not consistent with the Bible and should strive to get back in harmony with the Bible.

Oh, by the way, all of you who proclaim that one should never go to the doctor, who say
that God never approves of Christians going to doctors, please remember that even a trained dentist is a type of doctor (i.e. DDS).

So, if you are infirmed, pray about your situation, ask your church to pray. If appropriate, see a doctor. But don’t automatically assume that it is your own fault that you are sick. And remember that all of us who are faithful to God are on our way to a place where infirmities will no longer be able to afflict us.