Pleasure in Moderation: Medicine in Moderation

I'll begin reading in verse 17, when you have that please stand. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages.

Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So, also, good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden. Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We ask that you would help us to understand the things that you have blessed us with and how we are to enjoy them in moderation. We ask that you would open our eyes to understand your word.

Medicine as a Gift to Be Used in Moderation

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, the text for today is verse 23 of the passage that was just read to you. That parenthetical that you see in the ESV. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

It might be odd to consider medicine in a series on pleasure in moderation because you don't usually think of medicine as being something pleasant. In fact, you need something pleasant in order to help the medicine go down as the song goes.

But as you consider the various gifts that God has given us, medicine is certainly one of them. In the Westminster Larger Catechism, I believe it is question 102, I may have gotten the question wrong, but when it talks about the duties that are commanded to us in the sixth commandment, it speaks of food, drink, physic, physic meaning medicine, before it continues to others.

So it keeps medicine as one of the chief things that we are to have a moderate use of, using the word sober to describe moderate use. You might think of sobriety only in terms of a fit mental state, but a sober use of things is talking about simply a moderate use of things.

So what is commanded to us by God is a moderate use of all things that he has given us, including medicine. Medicine is to be used moderately. It seems evident that this is a verse that commands us to a moderate use of medicine.

It says, no longer drink only water, so in other words, don't completely avoid the use of something for medicine, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. And so it also says, use a little wine, in other words, not an excessive amount, and for what purpose?

He has given a medicinal purpose here. Now, last week we looked at alcohol and the purpose for pleasure, not for the purpose of medicine, but here we are looking at it as a kind of medicine that might be prescribed.

Medicine is supposed to be received moderation. Now to consider the rest of this passage, this is something that is put here in our English versions in parentheticals because it's hard to understand how exactly it fits with the rest of it.

I do believe it does fit together with the rest of it, but some are so skeptical about the way that this is presented that they hypothesize that maybe this doesn't even belong in the epistle at all. Well, no, it is the Word of God.

It is here for us. All of scripture is useful for teaching, for correction, for reproof, for training in righteousness. The man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work, and that is true of this as well.

This is not some side note that is just for Timothy that doesn't apply to us at all. It does apply to us today as we see to understand moderate use of even medicine. He says to him right before this, keep yourself pure.

Medicine Is Good to Use

It makes sense at this point when he's talked about keeping himself pure and he has spoken to Timothy also of an overseer not being a drunkard and other officers not being addicted to much wine. Maybe Timothy has avoided wine completely in order to make sure that he is above reproach in this matter, but if he has a health need that can be remedied with the substance, he should not avoid it completely.

And so he goes on from there to commend Timothy by way of encouraging him that his good works that are hidden now cannot remain hidden. So encouraging him as he pursues sobriety to use a little wine, but then also reminding him that his good works which are hidden will not remain hidden forever.

So the first aspect of this, of course there are two aspects, there are the use at all and then avoiding excess use. First, medicine is good to use. God has made all kinds of things in our world with all kinds of healing properties and those are things we should take advantage of when they have healing properties that would be good for us.

Isaiah 38 verse 21, when Hezekiah has been told that he will die because of his illness, but then has sought the Lord and God has told him that he will be healed and has asked for a sign, Isaiah says, let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil that he may recover.

So we have here a kind of medicine that's being used in order to heal his ailment, his boils so that he may return to the house of God. This is the proof text that is used in the Westminster large catechism to talk about a sober use of medicine, a moderate use of medicine.

Also, Luke chapter 10 verse 34 says, when in speaking of the parable of the good Samaritan, he went to him and bound up his wounds pouring on oil and wine, then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

So just like today, you would use rubbing alcohol or something on a wound and then also some kind of substance to keep it from cracking, to keep a wound from cracking and make it smoother and heal easier.

This is what the Samaritan is doing and these are good things to do. Now, it might be surprising to even address this at all. Maybe it's just obvious to you that you should use medicine. If you're sick, use medicine.

But there are many people who consider that to be not trusting in God. Well, it is trusting God if you use it in the capacity that God has given it for you to use it. And also, there are many who avoid medicines with a kind of self-righteousness about it.

Maybe once again that sounds foreign to you, but I'll tell you from my own past that I had a sort of self-righteousness about not using medicines. My parents had had certain concerns about medicines growing up and then I adopted that and applied it to all sorts of things where I just refused to use any kind of medicine in really any circumstance.

It didn't matter what kind of sickness I had, I would just avoid it completely. Until one time in college, I had a sprain that was so bad that when I was talking to others and understanding how ibuprofen worked, that it didn't just take the pain away, it also actually reduced the swelling in such a way that it would keep the injury from being worse.

You know, actual tissue damage being done by excessive swelling. I realized this was just foolish what I was doing and this self-righteous attitude that I had in avoiding medicine for so long. So this is an attitude that many people have today, even if it doesn't seem something that's very natural to you, it is one.

Comfort, Anesthesia, and the Proper Purpose of Medicine

And maybe you have that about certain things that would be good, would be good to take advantage of. This is true, not just of things that have healing properties, but also of things that have comforting properties when applied properly.

So consider the first example that we have of such a thing in Genesis chapter 2. Genesis 2, verse 21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

So God, as he creates woman, causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep before he removes, does surgery on him, removes the rib and closes up the flesh. This is something that God could have done while Adam was awake.

What is he communicating to us by causing Adam to fall into a deep sleep, a deep sleep being one that he would not stir from while he's being operated on? Is it not telling us God's compassion for man, that man be comforted and not have to endure a pain that would be too much to bear while he undergoes some kind of surgical procedure?

In Proverbs chapter 31, verses 4 through 7, this is a passage I believe we looked at last week talking about a improper use of alcohol, but also this passage tells us of a proper use of alcohol. It says, It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed, and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress. Let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more. Now I don't think that we should take this to the fullest extent that would say that it's right to stupefy the dying rather than to encourage them in a sobriety and watchfulness, yet it does give us an example of alleviating the pains of one who is suffering in death, in the course of dying, that we should alleviate that.

Yeah, it is good to do such a thing. Now you may ask yourself, how does this accord with the commands to sobriety? But this passage, first of all, tells us that it does because it's commanding sobriety and then explaining a right use of wine otherwise, but how does it accord?

Well it accords if you understand that God gives different things for different purposes and then if you use them for that purpose to make yourself more fit for his purposes in your own life, then it is a right use of the thing.

If you consider just anesthesia and going under surgery, let's say you needed open heart surgery, do you think that you would be fit for that apart from anesthesia? You would not be fit for that task.

In fact, you would ruin all the doctor's work if you were awake and able to feel everything. So that is, you would not be fit for the task. So you have to ask yourself, what is it that God has called me to and how may I be most fit for that thing?

You can ask yourself this question as you consider what a right use of medicine would be and what a wrong use of medicine would be. Is this something that makes me more fit? Is this something that makes me less fit?

Is this something that supplements the functions of the body in a way that is good? Is it something that keeps the body from working as it's supposed to without any sort of purpose in mind? Is this something that comforts in a way that does not harm me or is it something that comforts at the expense of healing?

As many comforts do. And so we can ask ourselves then about excess, excess when it comes to medicine. Now if you think about this, if you step back and just think about it in the purpose for which God has given things that we might receive them with gratitude, praising him, knowing his goodness and kindness to us, then the matter just becomes one of understanding that purpose and asking ourselves, are we trusting God the way we ought?

Trusting God Without Overtrusting Physicians

Are we not under trusting him and are we not over trusting man? So consider the ways that you might under trust the Lord himself, that you might not be going to him. If you go to physicians without any kind of prayer, without any kind of concern for God to take care of you, thinking that this is something that man should take care of and that God does not take care of you, that would not be a healthy way of going about things.

The second Chronicles 17 .12 says, in the 39th year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians.

You know, it's by this verse in particular that many people have, especially people who are parts of certain cults, have rejected all kinds of physicians, not seeking doctors for anything. But what this passage does tell us is that it would be wrong to go to physicians without a trust in the Lord for healing.

Okay, so that would be an example of not sufficiently trusting the Lord and instead trusting man. This does not necessarily represent an over trust in man so much as it represents a lack of trust in God.

But there are things that do represent an excessive trust in man. So many people go to doctors or trust physicians in such a way that they really have a hubris about them, about man's capacity to cure all things.

Once again, I think of myself as a younger child, and I looked at all the technology around me, and I was just so impressed at what man could do. It seemed that all things were possible and anything could be solved by man if he set his mind to it.

I always thought it was funny that other people would be scared in certain things, like for example a roller coaster, other things, because it was just impossible that man could fail at such things. Now that I'm older and I've had more opportunities to see man fail repeatedly, all kinds of things, I don't have that same hubris about man's capacity to cure every ill, to fix every problem.

When you go to man for healing, there has to be a right kind of assessment of his capacities. This is especially true when it comes to anything that would be experimental. If there are great risks in your life and it is worth the long shot of going to something experimental, then by all means do so.

But all kinds of people are eager to try experimental things that are very risky without really any concern about whether or not those things have been sufficiently tested. I wonder, things that might come about in the future, what's the one product, Neuralink, brain-computer interfaces, all kinds of things that people may use.

Right now, it's good to use those things for people who have severe disabilities, but how eagerly might someone use something that's relatively new, not knowing the way it might affect them, might affect their brain, when there's all kinds of reasons to not totally trust something that has been newly introduced without understanding all the risks that may be involved.

All this to say, simply have a reasonable understanding of man's capacity so that you would not overtrust him with something where there is not a great risk and a need to throw yourself into the hands of physicians in such a way.

I believe that for most people, hopefully this is not a too controversial comment at this point, but I believe for most people, looking back during COVID, it is easy to see how the risk did not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we should trust just the absolute newest kinds of vaccines that were coming out without the same sort of testing that had been required for all sorts of vaccines that had come before, especially given that those vaccines were even new kinds of vaccines.

They were not just new, but new in the whole category of the mRNA vaccines, et cetera. I don't think that should be a controversial thing to say at this point, that the kind of risk that was being faced and the kind of newness of the cure, of the approach to that disease was such that it seems very clear that many people were overtrusting in man and the way they were so eagerly going to this.

And it was evident in the way that people would receive the vaccine, just crying out of joy that they could now no longer live in fear, but go about without fear. Does this not describe kind of a replacement for trusting God, a replacement for the salvation that we should have from Christ?

If someone's living in fear and then feels that they have been freed from fear by man in such a way, not that God can't use man to free man from fear, but you have to ask yourself whether or not these are all instances of people failing to trust in God as they ought, and instead trusting in man in a way that they ought not.

Excessive Use, Addiction, and Medicine Used for Spiritual Needs

Now, other things that you can think about as you consider how medicine might be used in excess are ways that it would help the body beyond what God has permitted. So, for example, when you are supplementing the body's function, aiding it in the way it is supposed to function, that is a good thing.

When you are inhibiting it without the cause of making man more fit, like you might with certain kinds of anesthesia in certain circumstances. But if you are inhibiting the function of the body, as people often do when they are not satisfied with the way that their body is working and inhibit it, there's all kinds of surgeries that people will do to restrict their body.

There are all kinds of medicines that people will take to inhibit the function of their mind because they're so overwhelmed with anxiety or whatever the case may be. These are things that are not obviously supplementing the body's function and are often inhibiting the body's function, especially when it comes to sobriety, especially when it comes to the right function of the mind.

Also, there are many substances that have great risks to become addictive. Now, I would not say that you need to avoid every kind of substance that may be addictive. Wine is a substance that can become addictive, as the Bible talks about, and yet also it commends a proper use of it.

So just because something could be addictive, I'm not saying that that is a reason to avoid it completely, yet that must be taken into account. That is another thing that would go contrary to what God would have for you, to become dependent upon some substance that you were not previously dependent on.

Now, going on from that, there are also things that not only help the body in ways or help, quote unquote, the body in ways that God did not intend, but also things that are designed to assist the soul as opposed to actual spiritual cures.

So when someone takes a physical cure in order to deal with the soul, this is something that God does not intend. Medicine, in a lot of ways, is designed to be a reminder of our need for God spiritually.

And so to use medicine to address spiritual needs would be a great problem. Many people have joylessness and they approach that with medicine, with wine, as addressed last week, or all kinds of other medicine to address their joylessness.

Their body may have real problems and it is right to address those problems, but often medicine is used without any kind of understanding of there being a problem, just that there is joylessness. If there has not been a real diagnosis, not a diagnosis of the symptoms of prolonged joylessness, etc., but a diagnosis of an actual physical issue, then the medicine is trying to cure not a physical thing.

It's an assumption that it's a physical thing based on materialistic doctors who don't believe in the soul trying to address this. Instead, if there is not a physical issue that is known, you should seek spiritual means to correct spiritual things.

You should seek the blood of Christ to cure guilt, to cure joylessness, to cure anxiety, not other kinds of medicine. Christ is the good physician. He is the one who came and he opened eyes, he opened ears, he cast out unclean spirits out of people, healing them from their afflictions, their afflictions that are very similar to epilepsy, etc.

So even when he's casting out demons, he is healing people from physical ailments that are demonically oppressing them. When you take medicine rightly, you are upholding an understanding of Christ as the good physician.

When you take medicine in excess, you are trusting in man in a way that removes God from his place, no longer understanding him as the one who you are supposed to trust to take care of your needs. You know, the woman who had the flow of blood for 12 years, she trusted physicians, she placed herself in their hands and they were not able to help her.

The only thing that she ended up with at the end of all this was being poor. She did not end up any better, she only ended up poor, but Christ, by his mercy, healed her from her sickness. But more importantly than healing her from her sickness, cleansed her of all sin and forgave her.

When we experience sickness, it is an opportunity for us to remind ourselves of God's kindness to the sinner. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves of our need for salvation from sin, for cleansing from all unrighteousness.

Do not fail to take those opportunities when you are sick, when you have some kind of impairment. These are all opportunities to remember Christ's goodness to the sinner, that he is the one who heals.

When you are in a condition of wellness, do not miss that opportunity to remember that you are in need of him in every moment. So whether you are sick, sickness is a good opportunity to remember. But when you are well, do not forget or else you are asking for God to teach you once again that you are in need of the great physician who is a healer over all.

Taking Inventory of Medicine Use and Preparing for Death

Now, beyond this, you should take inventory of your life and the way that you use medicine. You should ask yourself whether or not there are any ways that you are avoiding cures that might be good for you out of some kind of laziness, out of self-righteousness, out of any ingratitude toward God.

And you should ask yourself if there are any ways that you're using medicine excess, either seeking pleasure, pursuing comforts that are not actually making you more fit for the tasks, but only comforting you at the expense of fitness.

This is what a lot of people do. I've known multiple people who have dealt with a lot of pain in their life. And so because they don't want to deal with the pain, they take the medicine that's been prescribed to them to deal with the pain to such a level that they're basically going around stoned most of the time.

They're just not fit for the tasks that God has called them for. And it's not that they were under so much pain that they really couldn't handle life in any measure. It was just a lot of pain and they wanted comfort and they wanted comfort in such a way that they were willing to make themselves less fit rather than making themselves more fit by the medicine they would take.

So do not make yourself less fit for what God has called you for by medicine. Make yourself more fit and take inventory in your life about whether or not you're doing things this way. Some thoughts for those, for the dying, for when you face death, and then also for those who would assist those who are dying.

When you face death, first get your household in order. This is a pattern you see throughout scripture. People, when they are dying, get their household in order is what you should do. You should care about the inheritance that you would leave.

You should care about your loved ones, whether or not they would be ready to take care of anything, any gap that you would leave behind. But then also, this is an opportunity. This is a blessing from God.

A lot of people don't realize that if you have a heads up on your death, not everybody gets that. We all have a long term heads up that we're going to die, should the Lord tarry. But for a shorter span one, not everybody receives that.

In a lot of ways, it is a gift. This is an opportunity for spending time with the Lord, for sobriety, for watchfulness. James 5, 14 says, is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him.

Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Why is prayer commended there? It's not just because God would heal. It is also there because it is speaking of the need for someone to examine his life and ask whether or not God has brought that sickness on for any reason.

Now, I know that we want to avoid any kind of one to one relationship between sickness and sin, such that we would say the one who is sick necessarily brought this upon them by their sin. Yet, what is this passage telling us?

But that this does often happen that oftentimes people are sick to death because of their sin. And so it is an opportunity for confession to God, for self-examination, for asking yourself if there's anything that you need to get right with him.

This is true in small sicknesses, but this is especially true if your very life is being threatened. If that is the case, then you have the opportunity to come before the Lord to confess your sins and also with the elders of the church to come and pray for you.

These are things that God has commanded. Also, if you should attend the bedside of one who is dying or walk with them in their final days, it is good to speak of weighty things. You may think that your job is instead to take their mind off of weighty things.

It is not your job to take their mind off of weighty things. This is not your job. It is your job rather to help them as they think about the weighty things that they would bear. This is not to say that you cannot comfort them with talking of the things of their earthly things, but do not do that as an effort to avoid speaking of weighty things.

And it is good also to encourage them in what I just mentioned, in confession of sin, in asking them whether or not they are right with God. There was a controversy, I suppose it was a year or so ago at this point, where one famous minister had attended the bedside of another famous minister who's dying.

Maybe you know the situation that I'm talking about, and reportedly asked him, are you right with the Lord? And when people heard this, many were very offended that such a person would be asked a question because he was such a godly man who had lived his life in the eyes of other men as so righteous that how could you ask him such a question of whether or not he was right before the Lord?

But almost certainly this was appreciated. In fact, that is the report that the other man gave, that he appreciated the question that he was asked whether or not he was right with the Lord. This is a good thing to ask.

Do not avoid that. Do not think of it as an accusation. It is the right kind of question to ask, and James 5 tells us that it's the right kind of questions to be asking as someone faces death. With all this, remember that Christ is the great physician, that he has created this world in such a way that he permitted sin to enter into it, and with that fall, he has permitted sickness, but that sickness is part of what Romans 8 .28 speaks of when it says, all things work together for good.

Even sickness works together for good to those who love God, and so even sickness working together for good shows us of God's love for us. It shows us of our need for a savior and how kind he is that he heals.

Do not pursue any kind of cure, any kind of medicine in a way that removes God from your life and supplants him. Instead, pursue it with gratitude as you would every other kind of gift that he has given because he is a great God, he is a great comforter, he is a great healer who has cleansed us from sin.

Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we pray that we would receive all things in moderation. We pray this of medicine as well, that you would make us people that are holy, that are fit for your purposes. In Jesus' name, amen.