This is a chapter from J.C. Ryle's classic book Practical Religion.
SICKNESS
"He whom You love is sick." John 11:3
The chapter that text is taken from is well known to Bible readers. There is something here no unbeliever can ever account for, so striking is its account of God at work. It begins with a short, desperate message to Jesus from Mary and Martha regarding their brother, Lazarus. Christ's help was their first thought in the day of trouble. Christ Himself was the refuge to which they fled in their great need. Blessed are all who do likewise (Psalm 2:12; 34:8).
Notice the simple humility of what they write about Lazarus: they do not say, "He who loves You, believes in You, and serves You" but "He whom You love." Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were well taught. They had learned that Christ's love towards us and not our love towards Christ is the true ground of expectation, and true foundation of hope. Notice also that Lazarus, although a believer in Christ, friend of Christ, and heir of glory, is sick. Therefore, sickness is no sign that God is displeased. Sickness for the believer is intended as a blessing, not a curse, since "we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). Blessed are all who can say when they are ill, "This is my Father's doing. It must be for ultimate good."
1. The universal prevalence of sickness and disease. Sickness is everywhere, among all classes, and of every sort and description. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city" (Proverbs 18:11), but there are no doors and bars that can keep out disease and death. Sickness is one of the most humbling and distressing trials that can come upon a person, for it can soon make a strong man afraid of heights and feel like the weight of a mere "grasshopper is a burden" (Ecclesiastes 12:5). There are ailments of the nervous system that can reduce a Solomon in mind to the thinking of the youngest child.
The average duration of life may be somewhat lengthened, and the enforcement of wise sanitary regulations will greatly lower the death rate in a land. We are rightfully thankful for the skill of doctors in discovering new remedies, but what Moses wrote about 3,400 years ago is still generally true: "The days of our lives are 70 years; and if by reason of strength they are 80 years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away" (Psalm 90:10).
How shall we account for the universal prevalence of sickness? How shall we answer the perceptive child who asks, "Why do people get ill and die?" Can we suppose for a moment that God created sickness and disease at the beginning? Did He who formed our world in such perfect order create needless suffering and pain? Did He who made all things "very good" (Genesis 1:31) make Adam's race to sicken and die? No! The only explanation that makes sense is what the Bible gives: something came into the world that dethroned man from his original position and stripped him of his original privileges. Like a handful of gravel thrown into masterful machinery, that something has marred the perfect order of God's creation. That something is sin: "sin entered the world, and death through sin" (Romans 5:12).
Sin is the cause of all the sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death that prevail on earth. They are all part of the curse that came into the world when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and fell. There would have been no sickness if there had been no fall, no death apart from sin. Those biblical doctrines directly challenge atheists and deists. Atheists believe there is no God, no Creator, no First Cause, and that all things came together in this world by chance. Take such a person to a surgical school and show him the matchless skill with which every joint, vein, valve, muscle, nerve, bone, and limb has been formed. Show him the perfect adaptation of every part of the human frame to the purpose it serves. Show him the myriad delicate contrivances for serving wear and tear. Ask him if this wonderful mechanism is the result of chance. Would he think that of the watch he looks at, the bread he eats, or the coat he wears? Design is an insuperable difficulty in the atheist's way. There is a God.
Deists, sometimes calling themselves agnostics or liberals, believe there is a Creator God, but not the God of the Bible. Take such a person to a hospital and show her some of the dreadful effects of disease. Take her to the bed of a child, scarce knowing good from evil, with an incurable cancer. Take her to a ward where a loving mother of a large family is in the last stage of some excruciating disease. Ask her to give account for the racking pains and agonies to which flesh is subject. Ask this woman who sneers at Christian theology, thinking herself too wise to believe in the fall of Adam, how to explain the universal prevalence of pain and disease. Sickness and suffering are insuperable difficulties for the deist, agnostic, and theological liberal.
The Bible alone looks the subject in the face. It boldly proclaims that man is a fallen creature, and with equal boldness proclaims remedy from God in Christ. Christianity is revelation from heaven. "Your Word is truth," declares Jesus (John 17:17). Anchor your soul firmly on this safe principle: that the whole Book is God's truth. Tell enemies of the Bible that there is no book that compares: none that so thoroughly explains the state of mankind and meets our needs. Regarding the hard things in the Bible, tell them you are content to wait. You will find enough plain truth in the Book to satisfy your conscience and save your soul. The hard things will be cleared up one day. What we do not know now, we will know later.
2. The benefits sickness brings to mankind. I use that word benefits advisedly, for I am aware that many consider the existence of sickness proof against the goodness of God. But that is as unreasonable as doubting the existence of a Creator because the earth is disturbed by earthquakes, hurricanes, and other storms. Cast your eyes on the world around you and notice the extent to which we submit to present pain and loss for the sake of future joy and gain. The seed is thrown into the ground and rots, but we look for a future harvest. A child is sent to school for many tears, but we hope for him or her to gain wisdom and skill. A man undergoes a painful operation in the hope of future health. Similarly, God allows pain, sickness, and disease in this fallen world not because He loves to trouble mankind, but because He desires to benefit our heart, mind, conscience, and soul for all eternity.
A. Sickness reminds us of death. Most people live as if they were never going to die. They follow business, pleasure, politics, and science as if earth were their eternal home. They plan and scheme for the future like the rich fool in the parable, as if they had a long lease on life and were not tenants subject to God's will. A significant illness sometimes goes far to dispel such illusions, which is a great good to the soul.
B. Sickness helps us to think seriously about God, our souls, and the world to come. Most in their days of health find no time for such thoughts. They dislike them and shove them aside, but a severe affliction can have the wonderful power of mustering all those thoughts before the eyes of the soul. Pagan sailors, when death was in sight, were afraid "and every man cried out to his god." They soon honored the one true God when they saw Him at work through the disobedient prophet Jonah (Jonah 1).
C. Sickness helps to soften our hearts and teach us wisdom. As a result of the Fall, the natural heart of every person is as hard as a stone. It can see no good in anything not of this life, and no happiness except in this world. A long illness can go far to correct those ideas. It exposes the hollowness of what the world calls good, and teaches us to hold them with a loose hand. The man of business finds that money alone is not everything the heart requires. The worldly woman finds that costly apparel and the latest news and events are miserable comforters in a sick room. Surely anything that obliges us to alter our weights and measures of earthly things is beneficial.
D. Sickness helps to level and humble us. We are all naturally proud and high minded. Few, even the poorest, are free of this defect. Most people look down on others and secretly flatter themselves that they are not like them. A sick bed is a mighty tamer of such base thoughts. It forces on us the reality that we "dwell in houses of clay," easily crushed like a moth (Job 4:19). We realize that rulers and the ruled, rich and poor are all dying creatures who will stand side by side at the judgment seat of God. It is not easy to be proud in the sight of the coffin and the grave. Surely anything teaching that lesson is good.
E. Sickness puts our religion to the test. Whether that religion is no religion or other beliefs gained from one's upbringing, few have a religion that will bear inspection. Most are content with traditions received from family or friends, and can offer no reason for the hope that is in them. Disease is sometimes most useful to a man in exposing the worthlessness of his soul's foundation. It often shows him he has nothing solid under his feet. It may make him find out that, although he may have had a form of religion, he has been all his life worshiping an "unknown god" (Acts 17:23). Many beliefs that look fine on the smooth waters of health prove unsound and useless on the rough waves of sickness. Just as the storms of winter reveal the defects in a man's house, illness exposes the chinks in a man's soul. Surely anything that makes us find out the real character of our faith is good.
I do not say that sickness confers all those benefits on all to whom it comes. Sadly, many are laid low by illness and restored to health who evidently learn nothing from the experience. Even sadder, many are passing from sickness to the grave, yet receiving no more spiritual impression from it than the beasts that perish. While they live they have no feeling, and when they die "there are no pangs in their death" (Psalm 73). These are dreadful things to say, but they are true. The degree of deadness to which a man or woman's heart and conscience can attain is a depth I cannot fathom. But many do learn and profit spiritually from the school of sickness. Churches and missions have had a blessed ministry to such people since the days our Lord walked this earth. The sickness of people's bodies has often led, in God's wonderful providence, to the salvation of people's souls. Let us therefore never complain about sickness, but seek to learn what we can from it.
3. The special duties to which sickness calls us. What lessons can we learn? What, in a fallen world of disease and death, ought we to do?
A. Live habitually prepared to meet God. Sickness is a reminder of death, the door through which we pass to judgment, when we see God face to face. When are you prepared to meet God? Only when your heart is renewed, your sins forgiven, and your will taught to delight in the will of God. The atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ alone can cleans those sins away. His righteousness alone can make you acceptable in the sight of God. Faith in Him alone gives you a stake in Christ and all His benefits. To live in the actual possession of those things in a world full of sickness and death is the first duty I press home upon your soul.
B. Bear patiently with our afflictions. Sickness is a great trial to flesh and blood. To feel our nerves unstrung and our natural force abated; to be obliged to sit still and be cut off from our usual activities, to see our plans set aside and our purposes frustrated, and to endure long hours, days, and nights of weariness and pain is a severe strain on poor sinful human nature. The temptations to irritation and impatience are great. How shall we learn to bear sickness patiently when it is our turn? We must store up grace in our times of health, seeking out the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit over our unruly tempers and dispositions. Daily ask God for strength to endure His will as well as to do it. Such strength is to be had for the asking, for our Lord invites us, saying, "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:14). He likes being asked. James cautions us, "You do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2).
I believe some graces of Christianity receive far less attention than they deserve. Meekness, gentleness, patience, faith, and long-suffering are mentioned in the Word of God as fruits of the Spirit. They are passive graces that glorify God by manifesting His character. They often make people think, even those who are repelled by the more active side of the Christian faith. Never do those graces shine so brightly as in the sick room. They enable many gravely ill people to preach a silent sermon that those around them never forget. Do you want to adorn the doctrine you profess? Would you make your Christianity beautiful in the eyes of others? Practice your gentle patience now and when sickness comes, whether it leads to death or not, it shall be "for the glory of God" (John 11:4).
C. Sympathize with and assist others who suffer. Sickness is never very far from us. Few are the families who do not have a sick relative. Few are the churches where you will not find someone struggling with a significant illness. Wherever there is sickness is a call to duty. A little timely assistance in some cases, such as a kindly visit, a friendly inquiry, or a mere expression of sympathy may do vast good. Those are the sorts of things that soften rough edges, bring people together, and promote good feeling. They can help you lead suffers and their families to saving faith in Christ. These are good works every professing Christian should be ready to do. In a world full of sickness and disease, we ought to "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2) and "be kind to one another" (Ephesians 4:32).
Conscientious attention to these little acts of brotherly kindness is one of the clearest evidences of having "the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16). Our Lord Himself always "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), especially to the sick and sorrowful. They are acts to which He attaches great importance in a solemn passage describing the last judgment. He says there, "I was sick and you visited Me" (Matthew 25:36). Beware of unfeeling selfishness and neglect of your sick brethren. Assist them if they need aid. Show your sympathy and try to lighten their burdens. Above all, try to do good to their souls. It will do you good even if it does no good to them. God is testing and proving us by every case of sickness within our reach.
In conclusion I ask a few questions. First, what will you do when you are ill? Where do you mean to turn for comfort? On what do you mean to build your hope? Please do not ignore those questions. Allow them to work on your conscience and do not rest until you can give them a satisfactory answer. The body that now takes up so much of your attention must one day return to the dust. Think what a dreadful thing it would be to have provided for everything except the one thing most needful: your eternal soul.
My counsel is you acquaint yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ without delay. Repent and be converted; flee to Christ and be saved. Of all the gambling in the world, there is none so reckless as the man or woman who lives unprepared to meet God, yet puts off repentance. Either you have sins or you have none. If you have—who is foolish enough to deny it?—turn away from those sins without delay and go to the only One who is able to grant you complete forgiveness and give you new desires. Commit your soul to Christ's keeping. Cry mightily to Him for pardon and peace with God. He will hear and honor your prayer if you are sincere for He has promised, "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37).
Beware, I beseech you, of a vague and indefinite Christianity. Do not rest until you can say with Paul, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day" (2 Timothy 1:12). Mere perfunctory church attendance will never do in the day of sickness. It will break down entirely when death is in sight. Nothing will do but real union with Christ, with Him interceding for us at God's right hand as our Priest, Physician, and Friend. He alone "can release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15). Turn to Christ first in the day of sickness, like Martha and Mary did. Keep on looking to Him to the last breath of your life. The more you know Him the better you will love Him.
I exhort all true Christians to remember how much they may glorify God in the time of sickness. Are you one of them? Be sure to lie quiet in God's hand when you are ill. I have marked how prone some good people are to torment themselves with morbid thoughts at such seasons, like, God has forsaken me. Please remember you may honor God as much or more by patient suffering than by active work. It often shows more grace to sit still than perform considerable exploits. Christ cares for you deeply whether you are sick or well. He is working in both states for your good. He felt specially for the sick in the days of His flesh. He feels for them specially still. Sickness and suffering, I often think, make believers more like their Lord than does health. Fulfilling prophecy, He took their illnesses and bore their diseases, and was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief (Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:3).
Keep up a habit of close communion with Christ and never be afraid of going too far in your religion. Love Him more deeply, copy Him more thoroughly, confess Him more boldly, follow Him more fully. Religion like that will always bring its own reward, especially when facing illness and death. Worldly people may laugh at it, weaker brothers may think it extreme, but it will wear well. At all times it will bring us light, in sickness it will bring us peace, in the world to come it will give us a crown of glory that will not fade away. We travel towards a world where there is no more sickness, where parting, pain, crying, and mourning are done with forever. In just a little while, "He who is coming will come and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:37). Christ shall wipe away all tears from His people's eyes. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death; death itself shall one day die (Revelation 20:14; 21:4).
In the meantime, let us live a robust life of faith in the Son of God. He is alive and powerful, declaring, "O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!" (Hosea 13:14). He has already redeemed His people from death and will one day change their mortal bodies into their own unique likeness of His glorious body. In sickness and in health, in life and in death, let us lean confidently on Him.
