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Key Verse
"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Corinthians 12:9, NKJV)
Learning Objectives
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
1. Explain why some believers are not healed, using the examples of Paul, Timothy, Trophimus and Epaphroditus.
2. Explain the "already and not yet" of the kingdom and why it protects pastors from false promises.
3. Describe the Pentecostal teaching that prayer and medicine work together, and state why no believer should be told to refuse medical treatment.
4. Name at least five ethical rules for a pastor who prays for the sick.
5. Care for a sick or dying member, and for a family whose prayer for healing has not been answered, with honesty and love.
The Voice of This Unit
This unit is written from inside the classical Pentecostal tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and Trinitarian. Unit 5 taught that God heals, and we hold that firmly. This unit teaches the other half of the truth: that believers still suffer and die, that doctors and medicine are good gifts of God, and that a pastor must be truthful and gentle. A church that teaches only the first half will wound people. Course 4, Unit 6 will deal with the practice of altar ministry and laying on of hands, and Course 5, Unit 6 will deal with prosperity teaching.
The Hardest Question
Every pastor who prays for the sick will meet this question sooner or later: "I prayed, and the church prayed, and my child was not healed. Why?" A pastor must not answer it with a slogan.
We begin by saying plainly that we do not know why God heals one person and not another. Anyone who claims to know is claiming more than Scripture gives. But the Bible does not leave us without light. It shows that faithful believers were sometimes sick, that God's purposes are larger than our comfort, and that He is present with the sufferer.
The Bible Shows Believers Who Were Not Healed
Paul. Paul healed many, yet he did not receive the healing he asked for in one trial. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 he writes of a "thorn in the flesh" and says that he asked the Lord three times to take it away. The Lord's answer is our key verse: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Interpreters differ about what the thorn was. Some think it was an illness, some an enemy or persecutor, some a spiritual attack. We do not need to settle this to see the lesson. Paul prayed in faith, was not given what he asked, and was given grace instead. He did not say that his faith was weak. He said that the power of Christ rested on him.
Timothy. Paul advised his young co-worker, "No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities" (1 Timothy 5:23). Timothy had frequent illnesses. Paul did not tell him to claim a healing by confession. He gave practical medical advice.
Trophimus. Paul wrote near the end of his life, "Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick" (2 Timothy 4:20). The apostle who had seen handkerchiefs carry healing left a co-worker sick.
Epaphroditus. Philippians 2:25-27 tells that Epaphroditus was sick almost to death, and that God had mercy on him and on Paul.
Galatians 4:13 says that it was because of a physical illness that Paul first preached the gospel to the Galatians.
These cases are not exceptions that disprove divine healing. They show that healing is a gift that God gives as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11) and that the Bible is honest about that fact.
Already and Not Yet
Pentecostals sometimes use the phrase "already and not yet." Jesus has begun His reign, and the powers of the age to come are real among us: healing, deliverance, the gift of the Spirit. But the kingdom has not yet come in its fullness. Believers still groan, waiting for the redemption of the body (Romans 8:23). Death is still an enemy, and the last one to be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26).
Healing today is therefore a foretaste, and in Pentecostal language a "first fruit," of the final redemption. When God heals a body, He gives a sign of the resurrection. When He does not, we are still waiting for the day described in Revelation 21:4: "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
This teaching protects a pastor from two errors. The first is unbelief, which says that God does not heal today. The second is triumphalism, which says that no believer needs to be sick. The New Testament teaches neither.
Wrong Answers to Avoid
Many harmful things have been said at sickbeds. A pastor must avoid them.
"You were not healed because you lack faith." This is the most common wrong answer, and it does great damage. Faith is trust in God, not a power that we produce to force His hand. The Gospels sometimes show Jesus healing people whose faith was small or unspoken. Paul and Timothy were not unbelieving. Classical Pentecostal denominations have not taught that sickness always shows a lack of faith or hidden sin. The Word of Faith teaching that makes the believer's confession the cause of healing is not the teaching of our classical bodies, and critics inside and outside the Pentecostal family have rejected it. Course 5 treats it fully.
"It is because of sin in your life." Sometimes sickness is connected with sin, as at Corinth, where some who abused the Lord's Supper became weak and sick (1 Corinthians 11:30). But Jesus rejected the habit of blaming every illness on sin (John 9:3), and the book of Job was written to correct it. Job's friends were wrong to accuse him. A pastor may gently invite a sick person to examine his life, but he must never accuse.
"God did this to teach you." We cannot say that. God may use suffering, and Scripture teaches that He comforts us in affliction so that we can comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-4), but a pastor has no right to explain a particular suffering.
"If you were really healed you would stop your medicine." This is the most dangerous answer, and we treat it in the next section.
Medicine Is a Gift of God
Honesty requires us to say that some early Holiness and Pentecostal leaders were suspicious of doctors and encouraged believers to rely on prayer alone. The large Pentecostal bodies of today do not teach it. They teach that prayer and medicine are not enemies.
The Bible supports this.
• Luke, the author of the Gospel and Acts, was a physician, and Paul calls him "the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14).
• The Good Samaritan poured oil and wine on the wounds of the injured man and took him to an inn (Luke 10:34).
• Paul told Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach (1 Timothy 5:23).
• When Hezekiah was sick, Isaiah directed that a lump of figs be applied as a poultice, and the king recovered (Isaiah 38:21).
• Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Mark 2:17), and used the saying without criticizing physicians.
James 5 itself may point in the same direction. Students understand the oil in two ways. Some say it is a sign of the Holy Spirit and of setting a person apart for prayer. Others note that oil was also used as medicine in the ancient world, so that James joins prayer and care together. Neither reading sets faith against practical means.
We therefore teach the following without hesitation. God can heal through prayer alone, through doctors and medicines, through the slow work of the body, and through all of these together. Whatever the means, the Healer is God. To thank a surgeon is not to doubt the Lord.
No believer should ever be told to refuse medical treatment. A pastor must never tell a sick person to stop taking medicine, to stay away from a hospital, to cancel surgery, or to stop treatment for cancer, diabetes, HIV, heart disease, tuberculosis, mental illness or any other condition. This applies even after a prayer meeting in which someone feels healed. If a person believes that God has healed him, the proper step is to ask his doctor to examine him and confirm it, and to follow the doctor's guidance about any change. People have died because someone told them to stop their medicine. A pastor who does this has done evil, however sincere his faith.
The duty is greater for children and others who cannot decide for themselves. Parents and guardians have a moral duty, and in most countries a legal duty, to obtain medical care for a child. A pastor must urge this strongly and may never discourage it.
Mental Health and the Mind
Many people suffer from depression, anxiety, trauma and other disorders of the mind. These are real illnesses and call for the same care as illnesses of the body. Prayer, pastoral support and, where needed, a trained doctor or counselor can work together. A pastor should not treat every such condition as a lack of faith, a sin, or a demon. Unit 7 will return to this point. Faithful believers such as the psalmists and Elijah knew deep sadness. The right response is patient love and referral to those with training to help.
The Ethics of Praying for the Sick
Because people are vulnerable when they are sick, a pastor carries a heavy moral duty. The following rules express widely held standards. They come from the commands of Scripture to love, to speak truth, and to avoid using people for gain.
1. Tell the truth. Never say that someone is healed unless he is. Never say that a person will certainly be healed. Never invent or exaggerate a testimony. A false healing report is a lie told in the name of God.
2. Pray with humility. Ask, and leave the answer to God. We have the authority of Jesus' name, but we do not control the Spirit.
3. Do not blame the sufferer. Never tell a sick person or the family that the illness continues because of weak faith or hidden sin.
4. Respect the person's dignity and privacy. Do not make a spectacle of the sick in a public meeting, and do not expose a person's diagnosis without permission. Pray privately when the matter is delicate.
5. Never link healing to money. Do not charge for prayer, and do not suggest that a gift to the minister will bring a cure. Scripture warns against those who see godliness as a means of gain (1 Timothy 6:5).
6. Support medical care. Encourage the sick to see a doctor, take their medicine, and follow medical advice.
7. Protect the vulnerable. Pray with another person present, and never take advantage of anyone who is weak or in pain.
8. Verify before announcing. Where a serious disease is said to be healed, ask for medical confirmation before the church is told.
9. Stay with the family. The pastor does not leave after the prayer. He visits, listens and keeps praying, whatever the outcome.
Praying for the Dying and the Grieving
There is a time to pray for healing and a time to prepare for death. A believer may pray for healing until the end and also receive pain relief, hospice care and farewells. These are not contradictions. Pastors should help the dying person and the family to speak of their hope in Christ and to say goodbye. At the funeral of someone for whom the church prayed, the pastor should not hide the fact that the prayer was not answered as hoped. He should speak of the resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14) and lead the church in honest grief.
Objections and Answers
Objection: "If you use medicine, you do not truly believe in divine healing." Our answer. Nothing in Scripture sets the two against each other. Luke was a physician and a companion of Paul. Faith trusts God and uses the means He provides.
Objection: "If many believers are not healed, the Pentecostal doctrine is empty." Our answer. The promises of healing are real, but they are for a God who acts as He wills in a world still under the fall. We do not give up praying for forgiveness because believers still sin. In the same way we do not give up praying for healing because believers still die. Hebrews 11 praises those who were delivered and also those who suffered, and counts both among the faithful.
Objection: "Then why pray for healing at all?" Our answer. Because Jesus healed, because James commands the elders to pray, and because the Spirit gives gifts of healing. We leave the result with the Lord.
Pastoral Application
A visiting preacher comes to your church. In his sermon he says that a member of the congregation, Elena, who has cancer and is receiving chemotherapy, should show her faith by stopping the treatment. Elena's family is deeply troubled. She comes to you afterward in tears.
You do not attack the visiting preacher in front of her. You tell Elena clearly and kindly that no one has the right to tell her to stop her treatment, that you believe God can heal her, and that you will pray for her every day. You ask her to continue to follow her doctor's advice, and to bring any question about the treatment to her doctor. If she and the family are willing, you gather a small group of elders to pray and anoint her, in the name of the Lord, as James teaches. Afterward you meet privately with the visiting preacher and, with respect, explain that your church does not teach members to refuse medical care. And you stay near Elena and her family, whatever happens.
Summary
Scripture shows faithful believers such as Paul, Timothy, Trophimus and Epaphroditus who were sick, and God's answer to Paul was grace sufficient in weakness. Because the kingdom is already here and not yet complete, healing is a foretaste of the resurrection, and not a guarantee that no believer will suffer. Pastors must avoid blaming the sick for weak faith or hidden sin. Medicine is a gift of God, supported by the example of Luke the physician, and no believer should ever be told to refuse medical treatment, least of all a child. The pastor who prays for the sick must tell the truth, never link healing to money, protect the vulnerable and stay with the family. Praying for healing and caring for the dying are both acts of faith.
Further Reading
• Gordon D. Fee, God's Empowering Presence (1994).
• Max Turner, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts (1996).
• Wayne Grudem, ed., Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views (1996).
• Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit (1993).
• A. J. Gordon, The Ministry of Healing (1882), a primary source.
• B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (1918), a cessationist argument.
Unit 6 Exam
Certificate track: the 20 multiple-choice questions. Associate track: add the 10 fill-in-the-blank questions. Master’s tracks: add the 10 short-answer questions.