Unforgiveness, the Breaking of Unity, can also Cause Physical Illness and Death

The physical health of believers, the occurrence of healing in the Church, and the manifestation of oneness in the Church are also tied to one another. Living in disunity can lead to illness and premature death.

Oneness, Health and Healing are also Connected to Each Other

            As the discussion in the previous post suggests, the physical health of believers, the occurrence of healings in the Church, and the manifestation of oneness in the Church are also tied to one another. Sin can lead to physical illness. If the Church is functioning properly, in unity, the elders who go to visit the sick will discover when sin is involved, the sin will be dealt with, and the sick believer will receive forgiveness.¹ Then the prayer of faith will also deliver the sick one from illness. But the spiritual healing is most important and must come first. If the Church is divided, not functioning properly, this will make the restoration of sick individuals in the Church less consistent and less effective.

The connection between oneness and the manifestation of physical healing functioned on an even larger scale than this in the early Church recorded in Acts. Thus, Acts 5:1-11 records the Holy Spirit dealing decisively with a sin against the unity of the Body—Ananias’ and Sapphira’s joint decision to seek the praise of men by pretending to give more than they were actually giving. Peter called this act lying to the Holy Spirit, and the guilty couple died for it. However, once the Apostles had dealt with this sin, Acts 5:12-16 records the miraculous results of the restoration of unity. Prominent among the results listed are that people laid the sick in the streets where the Apostles were passing, so that the Apostles’ shadow might fall on them and heal them.² The text also states that every sick or demonized person who came to the Apostles during this time period, without exception, was healed.³ This was only possible because sin in the Church had been dealt with and unity restored.

Physical Illness and Premature Death are Sometimes Caused by Neglect to Live in Unity

Our failure to recognize the oneness of the Body also leads to much unnecessary physical sickness and premature death in the Church. In a discussion of the Lord’s Supper, Paul wrote to the Corinthians that

 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 11:27-32 (NIV).

            Thus, Paul directly states that many are sick among us and that many have died prematurely because they took communion “in an unworthy manner,” that is “without discerning the Lord’s body.” In the context of the whole of First Corinthians, the “Lord’s body” clearly refers to the Church, the Body of Christ, in its local manifestation in Corinth. First of all, Paul was motivated to write this letter because he had heard that there were divisions in the church in Corinth.⁴ Most of the letter deals with the themes of unity and division, or with specific problems in the church that had led to division. Indeed, the discussion of communion quoted above follows a passage in which Paul criticizes the Corinthians because there were “divisions” among them when they came “together in the church,”⁵ divisions that manifested themselves in their greedy behavior when they partook of the Lord’s Supper—i.e., each one went ahead without waiting for anyone else, so that some left hungry while others became drunk.⁶

Paul then explains the meaning of the Lord’s Supper in verses 23 through 26, and follows this with the above-quoted warning of the consequences of taking it “in an unworthy manner.” Immediately after this warning, Paul directs that, when we come together to eat, we should wait for each other, and those who are hungry should eat at home first, so that our oneness may not be broken by our behavior while eating together.⁷ This is, in turn, followed by 1 Corinthians 12, the longest discussion of the Church as the Body of Christ in the entire Bible. Thus, it would appear that, if we take the Lord’s Supper while living in disunity—not recognizing the Body of Christ that has gathered with us—we leave ourselves open to physical sickness and premature death.

 God gave us a graphic example of this very early in the history of the Church. In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira agreed together to seek the glory of men by pretending that they were giving the whole price of a piece of land to the church to meet the needs of their poorer brethren, when, in fact, they were only giving part of the price they had received. As was discussed previously, that lie was quite directly an offense against the oneness of the Body. To apply one of the medical metaphors discussed in a prior post (“The First Consequence of Division: A Sick Body“), Ananias and Sapphira were behaving like malignant cells—they were acting as if their reputation was the only thing that mattered. God dealt very sternly with them. They both died on the spot. Their premature deaths resulted directly from their sin against the Body.

On this point, compare also 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, in which Paul instructed the Corinthian church to discipline one of its members who had damaged the unity of the Body by living in open, boastful and unrepentant immorality. The discipline Paul prescribed was that this man was to be excluded from the church (see verses 9-11) and the church, in unity, was to remove its protection and “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 1 Corinthians 5:5. However, unlike the story of Ananias and Sapphira, the story of this Corinthian believer had a happy ending–when subjected to God’s discipline, he ultimately repented, and was restored to the protection of the church. 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

In a similar way, 1 Corinthians 11:25-32, quoted above, suggests that many illnesses and premature deaths among believers are a result, at least in part, of their failure to recognize the unity of the Body of Christ. It is God’s correction, designed ultimately to deliver us from the condemnation of the world.