Health by Faith Versus Health by Works
By Francis M. Wilcox
THERE are two kinds of success. One is the success based upon right principles, the victory of faith; the other is a so-called success, the result of wrong principles. There are two kinds of righteousness. One is the righteousness of faith, the true righteousness; the other is the righteousness of works. One points to Christ, the other is self-centered. One seeks to do good in order to become good; the other does good because of having been made good by the power of faith. There are two ways of seeking for health. One is the way of God, the other is the way of human effort. In the realm of Christian experience God has a standard of right, the moral code of ten commandments. These are an expression of the character of God. By conformity or nonconformity of the Christian experience to this standard, it may be determined whether or not the life is in accordance with the life and character of the Life-giver. How shall one become like God? Shall he take this expression of God’s character, the ten commandments, and by mental processes and physical strivings seek to obey their requirements?—Nay, verily. Righteousness works from within outwardly. The principles of this divine law must first be instilled in his heart. Then can he say with the psalmist, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” And in the prophetic words uttered of Christ, “I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.” The keeping of the ten precepts should be but an outward expression of the inward possession of the same principles. In the physical world, in those things that pertain to the material, as of food and raiment, God likewise has a standard,—certain principles which determine the proper course of conduct,—principles which have their origin in the great moral code of which we have already spoken. That which tears down and destroys the body, the temple of God, violates the law of God. That which nourishes and builds it up, and makes it a fit dwelling place for the Spirit, accords with that law. How shall one seek to observe this law of his being? In other words, how shall one relate himself to the question of healthful living? How shall he choose the good and reject the evil? In what spirit should he leave off those things which he knows are harmful, and adopt better habits of eating and drinking? Should it not be in the same way in which he relates himself to the great moral code? Should not those principles be first brought into his heart, and he receive them in the love of them? This is God’s way. If it is not a thing unreasonable that God should raise the dead; if it is a matter of daily occurrence that God can change the heart and natural affections, is it too much to believe that God would take the perverted appetite and change it, that he would take away the cravings for strong drink, the lust for flesh, the desire after evil things, and put in their place the love of the wholesome and the pure? Overlooking this point,—the willingness of divine aid,—many have made the question of healthful living a laborious process; they have sought, by their own works and efforts, to bring themselves into that place where God wants to bring them physically, the same as he wants to bring them spiritually,—into harmony with his own divine will. We may expect the operations of this principle of health by works in the man who knows not God. Indeed, we see its exercise in the world to-day. We see men accepting God-given truths and precious principles of health, and following them purely from the scientific or physiological standpoint, leaving God out of the question. Though recognizing the principles of heaven, they are seeking to follow these principles without God. It should not be so with his professed children. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” If there could be grasped in this question of healthful living the element of faith,—if that could come in in the application of every detail, the principles of health would not be the yoke of bondage which, in the experience of too many, they have proved to be. It is one thing to sit down to a table loaded with the bounties of heaven, and eat and drink from a sense of duty, while the thoughts continually wander off to the viands of Egypt, and the appetite craves those things which God condemns; and another thing to sit at the same table, and eat with thankful heart, delighting in the bounties of God, rejoicing in them because they come from God, and are the best for the upbuilding of his temple. “Health reform” has been the curse of too many in the world because they have sought it by works and not by faith; because it has been taken up from a sense of duty, and not entered into through faith, as the blessed thing of God that it is. God does not want his people to-day to go about, as did mourning Israel, loathing the food they eat. There is for them a better experience than this. God wants them to eat their food with joy and gladness of heart. He wants them to eat it because they believe that it is the best food; because they relish it; because they rejoice in it; because physically, spiritually, mentally, and in every other way, they would rather have it than anything else that earth might produce. The principle of righteousness is far reaching. It pertains not alone to the exercise of the mind, but it enters into all of life’s doings and activities. It is this principle that God wants us to recognize in the matter of healthful living. Education is necessary. God has bestowed upon us the powers of thought and of reason and of discernment. By the aid of his Spirit we are to recognize the good, and choose the good. And so upon this question of healthful living education has its place. Having learned what is best for us, and what God wants us to eat, then let us eat it with joy and with gratitude, eating it because it is good, and because we like it. Living health reform from a sense of duty places one in the old-covenant relationship. It puts him in bondage, and that bondage brings death, and has brought death upon thousands who have gone down supposing they were following the principles of high heaven. They may have seen those principles, but they related themselves to the principles in a12wrong way, even as the children of Israel related themselves in a wrong way to the words of God spoken from the summit of Sinai. God wants every one of his children to live out health principles by faith, even as they keep the Sabbath by faith, even as they pray by faith, even as they perform any other Christian service through faith in the Lord Jesus. When that is done, a song of victory and triumph will well up from every heart, and the joy within will manifest itself in joy without, and love and happiness and peace and prosperity will reign in every heart and in every home, and the body of every one of his children will be truly and appropriately and fittingly that which God wants it to be, the temple of the Holy Ghost.