As everyone will be very well aware, the world is full
of people who are ill and disabled.
One question that Christians often ask is how much of
a connection there is between sin and illness. If we are struck down with a
serious disease, for example, is it because of something we did wrong? For
many, this is a burning question.
ALL HUMAN
ILLNESS IS INDIRECTLY THE RESULT OF SIN
It is certainly true that all human illness and
disability is at least indirectly the
result of sin.
As a human race, we have chosen to rebel against our
Maker. This has led to each of us becoming damaged in various ways, sometimes
by suffering illness or disability. So when we become ill or disabled, we are
certainly at fault insofar as we are members of a sinful human race. This is
clear enough.
SOME ILLNESSES
ARE THE PHYSICAL RESULTS OF PERSONAL SIN
Something else that I don’t need to bother
demonstrating is that many illnesses are the physical results of personal sin.
One common example of this in Western countries is
people overeating and becoming ill as a result. There are many who suffer
physical illnesses because they have repeatedly committed the sin of gluttony.
No reasonable Christian would deny that this sort of
physical cause and effect exists between personal sin and illness.
THE BIG
QUESTION
The big question that many Christians ask is not about
group responsibility for sin, or about the physical causes of illnesses. Rather,
it is whether there is sometimes a spiritual connection between personal sin
and illness.
If someone suffers from an illness, might it be
because they committed a certain sin or sins, even though there is no physical
connection between the sin and the illness? This is what many want to know.
TURNING TO THE
BIBLE
To try and answer this question, we need to turn to the
Bible to see what it has to say. Scripture is our God-given ‘Manual for the
Human Life’, and what it says is always key.
As we will see, the Bible makes it very clear that
sometimes illness is not the spiritual result of personal sin, but sometimes it
is.
EXAMPLES OF NO
CONNECTION BETWEEN PERSONAL SIN AND ILLNESS
Let’s look first at some passages which tell us of
people who were ill or disabled, without personal sin being the cause.
Actually, the final example doesn’t involve illness or
disability, but it is still relevant for our topic.
The book of
Job
To begin with, a famous biblical example of where
illness, and other disasters, are not the result of personal sin is the book of
Job.
This book begins, in Job 1:1, by introducing Job in
this way:
‘There was a
man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and
upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.’ (ESV)
As the rest of the book goes on to show, however,
Job’s uprightness didn’t spare him from suffering terribly, including in
illness (e.g., Job 2:1-8; 7:5).
Much of the book is taken up by speeches of Job’s
friends, who insist that calamity and personal sin are always closely connected
(e.g., Job 4:1-21; 8:1-22; 11:1-6). But his friends, although sincere, were
just plain wrong (e.g., Job 1:8, 22; 2:3, 10).
John 9:1-3
A New Testament example of disability that is not the
result of personal sin can be found in John 9:1-3, which reads as follows:
‘1 As he [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind
from birth. 2 And his disciples
asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that
this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed
in him.”’ (ESV)
Jesus is clear that this man’s blindness was not the
result of personal sin.
The disciples seemed to assume either that he was born
blind as a pre-punishment for future sins he would commit, or that his parents
sinned in some way. But Jesus leaves them in no doubt that such thinking is
badly mistaken.
Luke 13:1-5
Another passage that is relevant for our topic is Luke
13:1-5. Illness is not actually mentioned in this text, but it is worth noting
nevertheless. The passage reads as follows:
‘1 There were some present at that very time who
told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices.
2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these
Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they
suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell
you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed
them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived
in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but
unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”’ (ESV)
Jesus refers here to two groups of people who had
suffered horrible deaths. And He says that the fact that they died in these
ways doesn’t mean that they were worse sinners than other people.
Although Jesus doesn’t spell out the logic of His
argument, He is probably implying that the suffering these people experienced
was not the result of personal sins. And if people suffer disasters like these
that are not caused by personal sin, it makes sense to think that the same
would often apply to suffering from illnesses too.
EXAMPLES OF A SPIRITUAL
CONNECTION BETWEEN PERSONAL SIN AND ILLNESS
Let’s turn now to look at some biblical passages which
show a spiritual connection between personal sin and illness.
2 Samuel 11-12
In 2 Samuel 11:1-12:12, we are told how David
committed the sins of adultery and murder, and how the prophet Nathan rebuked him
for what he had done.
Then in 2 Samuel 12:13-14, we read:
‘13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against
the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you
shall not die. 14 Nevertheless,
because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born
to you shall die.”’ (ESV)
In verses 15-23 we learn how Nathan’s prophecy was
fulfilled. David’s baby son became ill and died.
Verse 14 is very clear that David’s sin caused the
death of his son.
This whole business of a child being affected by a
parent’s sin is a very difficult issue and not one that I want to discuss here.
For our purposes in this article, it is enough to note
that this passage provides an example of personal sin having a spiritual
connection with illness and death.
Acts 12:21-23
Our next example concerns the Jewish king, Herod
Agrippa I. In Acts 12:21-23 Luke tells us:
‘21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal
robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The
voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23
Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God
the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.’ (ESV)
Although v. 23 says that an angel immediately struck Herod
down, Luke surely doesn’t mean that he died at the time he was before the
crowd.
Instead, Luke apparently means that he immediately contracted
a fatal disease. There are two reasons for this. First, the reference to being
eaten by worms seems to be about suffering from a disease. And second, Luke
implies that Herod was eaten by worms before he breathed his last, and it
surely took some time for him to be eaten by the worms.
It seems, then, that an angel struck down Herod by
giving him a fatal disease. And the passage is clear that the angel did this as
a punishment for personal sin, because Herod accepted the crowd saying that he
was a god.
1 Corinthians
11:27-30
Our next example concerns Christians. In 1 Corinthians
11:27-30 Paul writes:
‘27 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. 28 Let a
person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks
without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and
ill, and some have died.’ (ESV)
The Corinthian Christians were making a real mess of
celebrating the Lord’s Supper. They were not treating it with nearly the
respect that it deserved. So Paul sharply criticises them.
In v. 30 he is clear that many of them have become ill
because they have been committing this sin. And he even says that some have
died as a result.
It may be that some of those who were ill or had died
were not genuine, born-of-the-Spirit Christians. Yet to claim that none
of them would have been is totally unwarranted.
This passage should leave us in no doubt, then, that
personal sin is sometimes the spiritual cause of illness, and that this happens
even to Christians.
SUMMING UP
The texts we have looked at make it clear that illness
is sometimes the spiritual result of personal sin, but that sometimes illness
has nothing to do with personal sin.
James 5:14-16
This conclusion is well illustrated by James 5:14-16,
where James writes:
‘14 Is anyone among you
sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they
are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer of faith will restore the one
who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they
will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore,
confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be
healed...’ (NASB)
Note in v. 15 how James says, ‘and if he has committed sins, they will be
forgiven him’. The way that this immediately follows the preceding instruction
about illness and healing surely means that some Christians who
become ill do so because of committing sins.
There are many, however, who claim that in v. 15 James is actually saying
two separate things about those who are ill: one, that they should be prayed
for, and two, that if, on an unrelated note, they have committed sins, they
will be forgiven.
This is an extremely unnatural interpretation of
James’s words. Under this interpretation, the reference to committing sins
seems to come out of nowhere and fits very poorly with the context.
Instead, we should accept that James is implying that illnesses
are sometimes caused by personal sin, and there seems to be no good reason to
limit this to illnesses that are just the physical results of personal sin.
On the other hand, however, James is very clear that
personal sin is not always the cause of illness. He says, ‘if he has committed sins’, which certainly implies that sometimes
sin would not be the cause.
James, then, sums up the biblical position on this
issue well. Sometimes personal sin is the spiritual cause of illness, and
sometimes it isn’t.
WE MUSTN’T
DISTORT BIBLICAL TEACHING
There are many Christians today who deny
that personal sin is ever the spiritual cause of illness. They will always rush
to tell anyone suffering from an illness that it is not because of sins they
have committed.
I think in some ways their motivation for doing this
is good. They know that people suffering from illness sometimes get depressed
by the thought that they might be responsible. So they want to prevent their
suffering from increasing.
It isn’t right, however, to distort biblical teaching,
even if it is out of a desire to comfort people. We must also be careful not to
give in to the temptation to believe what we want to believe about things.
Besides, if someone does have an illness that has been
caused by personal sin, we are not helping them if we say that sin is not the
cause. Usually, the more we understand the truth about a situation, the better
placed we will be to resolve it.
FURTHER
THOUGHTS
My main aim in this article has been to show that personal
sin is sometimes the spiritual cause of illness. It isn’t my intention here to
discuss the implications of this in any detail.
Nevertheless, I will make a few brief comments.
How often personal
sin is the spiritual cause of illness
Firstly, there is the difficult question of how often
personal sin is the spiritual cause of illness and how often it isn’t.
I suspect that quite a large majority of the time it
isn’t the cause, but I am not confident about that.
When personal
sin is the spiritual cause of Christians becoming ill
Secondly, there is the issue of how we understand the
mechanics of personal sin being the spiritual cause of Christians becoming ill.
As we saw above, this does sometimes apply to believers.
The difficulty here is that we Christians are God’s
saved people, who have received His forgiveness. So it looks quite strange to
suppose that when we sin, God punishes us by making us ill.
However, first, instead of viewing illness caused by
personal sin as God’s justice being meted out, I think it is better to view it
as a consequence of His protection being withdrawn to some extent. The sin
leads to God becoming more distant, which in turn leads to greater exposure to
dangers, including illness.
And second, we can probably see the illness along the
lines of God’s discipline.
In Hebrews 12:7, the writer asks rhetorically:
‘For
what son is there whom his father does not discipline?’ (ESV)
And then he goes on in v. 11 to say:
‘For
the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it
yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by
it.’ (ESV)
I think that looking at this issue in terms of God’s
discipline is a helpful approach.
For Christians who become ill as the spiritual result
of personal sin, then, we do better to view things in terms of God’s discipline
and the withdrawal of His presence, rather than as Him administering justice by
punishing.
Counselling those
who are ill
Finally, because illness is sometimes the spiritual
result of personal sin, this means that counselling those who are ill can be a
challenge.
To begin with, we must avoid assuming that personal
sin is or is not the cause of a person’s illness. And in some cases,
discernment might be needed to help people appropriately.
Incidentally, this point speaks volumes for the
usefulness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit referred to in 1 Corinthians 12:8,
i.e., messages of wisdom and messages of knowledge. Sometimes, one of these
gifts might provide an important piece of information that can be used when
counselling believers who are ill.
Of course, even if we become convinced that a certain
illness is the result of committing a sin, that doesn’t mean that God is any
less able to heal it than if no sin were the cause. Once we confess our sins,
God forgives them (1 John 1:9), so any obstacle to healing caused by
unrepentance is immediately removed.
See also:
Is It Always God’s Will to Heal Christians?
God Wants to Use Christians in Miracle Work Today
The Importance of Ministering to People Afflicted by Demons
Some
Things for Christians to Do When They Are Hanging On by Their Fingernails
