Editorial April 3, 2017 Issue

The healthy body

Barbara Vining

To be in good health is a natural and right desire of every human being. Christ Jesus certainly understood this. Compassion and tender care for the welfare of others were constant features of his ministry, which he expressed in very practical terms—not only uprooting moral weaknesses but also curing physical and mental diseases and infirmities, restoring sight and hearing, providing food for hungry followers, and even restoring life to those who had died.

Yet, unlike the intense focus of today’s society on the human body, Jesus almost never spoke of the physical body, except to encourage people not to be anxious about it—as when he said: “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? … your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:25, 32, 33).

Because of these practical effects, Jesus’ approach is definitely worthy of consideration today. His emphasis was on turning one’s attention to God, and to the body of spiritual ideas and qualities that are inherent in each individual as God’s spiritual creation, man—the embodiment of all God includes and expresses. He proved wholeness—health—to be the only and forever condition of God and man. In this way, Jesus met human needs, including the need for healing, through the power of God, divine Love.

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Bible Lens—April 3–9, 2017