YOU MAKE ME SICK!
No doubt we have all heard this at some point in our lives. This statement is often used by children (and sometimes by adults) when someone has done something they deem repulsive. The statement is usually understood to be taken figuratively in most situations. It is a way to tell others of the disgust they have caused.
We also understand that “sick” can mean physically impaired in some way, as there are about 80 or so verses in the Bible that indicate such a condition. As the fame of Jesus spread around Syria, Matthew 4:24 tells us the friends and relatives of those that were ailing brought their loved ones to Jesus to be healed. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. The proof that people don’t want to be sick is evidenced by the fact that in the next verse, people followed Jesus from all over, no doubt to be healed and to hear Him teach. 4:25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan. We know this as Matthew 5:1-2 begins the Sermon on the Mount as the disciples (followers) had come to Him. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
But, one can also have the spiritual condition of “sickness” if they have not, or will not follow the Word of God. This is what Jesus indicated in Mark 2:17 when the Pharisees and scribes questioned with whom Jesus shared a meal. When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Those who are spiritually sick are sick inside and out.
While Jesus did much healing while He lived here on earth, and even raised the dead on several occasions, that was not the main purpose of His coming. The Jews, in John 5:18 wanted to kill Jesus after they had accused Him of blasphemy as well as breaking the Sabbath when He had healed the infirm man on that day. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then, as we move down to John 5:39-40 we find that Jesus, in His defense, told them His real purpose for coming to earth as well as why they should have known this. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
In Isaiah 1:4-5 we see how sick Israel had allowed themselves to become long before Christ, the Messiah was sent as prophesied. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. As we can see here, the spiritual sickness that is depicted here, was of their own doing. NOTE: The sinner is not what “sickens” God, but what the sinner does. We can also see that this spiritual sickness continued into the days of the church. As Paul spoke to the chief of the Jews in Rome in Acts 28:27, the Spirit had him remind them of what else Isaiah had been inspired to say about Israel. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Because it was always God’s plan for redemption to be offered to all, the Spirit also had Paul to tell these spiritually sick Jews that there were those who would readily receive the “healing” Words of the gospel in Acts 28:28. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.
But have we ever thought how a Christian’s infidelity affects God? When one becomes a Christian, they are not guaranteed to be free from “spiritual illness”. When a child of God sins, and fails to repent, it definitely produces a reaction from God. At times when we are “sick” we throw up. The church of Laodicea sickened God by their lackadaisical attitude. Revelation 3:15-16 shows the reaction this would produce if the attitude and actions on the part of that congregation did not change.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. They were being duly warned.
Do we ever think that we, in this day and time, could possibly make God feel the way He did toward the church at Laodicea? This must be addressed now lest we suffer the ultimate fate of the spiritually sick who seek no healing. Matthew 25:41 is where we see this fate. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Even today, we need to do what God says in His Word that we do not “sicken” Him. One can’t be “lukewarm” if they do as Paul directed the “Christians” in Philippi as guided by the Spirit in Philippians 2:12. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Don’t give God reason to “spew” you out of His mouth. If we sicken God it is our own fault. If we are “cursed” it is we who will have caused it to happen.
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
