Priorities of the Kingdomნიმუში

FORGIVENESS COMES BEFORE HEALING

MAIN IDEAS

• Four men brought their paralyzed friend to JESUS, to be healed. JESUS’ priority was to forgive his sins.

• The priority of JESUS is always a person’s soul, which is eternal. Physical healing may accompany spiritual healing, but it is not mandatory.

• The faith and love of those who brought the paralyzed man to JESUS played an important role in his forgiveness and healing.

This paralyzed man and his friends were convinced that the sick man’s main problem was bodily - his physical infirmity. Knowing his heart, JESUS is aware that he has a problem that comes before his physical illness – a spiritual disease brought on by sin. Since spiritual health takes priority over physical health in the KINGDOM OF GOD, JESUS deals first with this man’s sin and speaks His forgiveness over him. Our physical body is only temporary, while our soul is eternal. If JESUS had freed him only from bodily affliction, in a few years he would have died in his sin and his soul would have ended up in Hell. But by receiving JESUS’ vital forgiveness from sin, his soul was freed and healed from its spiritual illness, and even if he were to die sick, he would have been saved. What good is it to be "healthy as a horse” your entire life, to have everything, but to have your soul end up in Hell at the end of your life, where there is eternal pain and suffering? Without the help of the four friends who brought him to JESUS, the paralyzed man had little chance of receiving forgiveness and healing. He needed the help of those around him to get close to JESUS; once he was there, JESUS knew what to do, so that when he left, he was forgiven and transformed. Unfortunately, there are many, even among the Christians, who change the order of priorities and enlist the help of people around them for earthly interventions, but their spiritual problems are always hidden and postponed, even though disease and physical suffering are quite often caused by a spiritual disease. This incident should encourage us all to bring to JESUS those who have a spiritual disease that they might not even be aware of.