A volunteer preacher who has spent his strength on the road and in the pulpit may one day find that he cannot stand long enough to speak, or cannot leave the house at all. The question of how to serve God when you are sick is then a daily one, and Scripture answers it more fully than most people expect. This article is written to the preacher who is himself the patient, and to the relatives who tend him.
When the Body Fails Before the Work Is Finished
A preacher is used to measuring his labor by what he does: the miles traveled, the sermons given, the homes visited. Sickness removes most of those measures at once, and a faithful man may begin to wonder whether he is now of any use to the Lord.
The Bible does not measure service only by activity. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16, “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” The body may waste while the inner man is strengthened, and God sees both. A preacher confined to his bed is still a man whom God is dealing with, and still a man through whom God may speak.
Medical care has its place. Luke, who traveled with Paul, is called “the beloved physician” in Colossians 4:14, and Paul advised Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach’s sake and his frequent infirmities (1 Timothy 5:23). Seeking a doctor and resting are acts of obedience.
What Paul Heard When He Asked for the Thorn to Be Taken Away
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul describes a “thorn in the flesh” that troubled him. Scripture does not say what it was, so no one should claim to know. What it does record is that Paul besought the Lord three times that it might depart from him.
The Lord’s answer was, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” The thorn stayed, and Paul received something to carry it with. He concluded, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities… for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
A sick preacher may therefore pray for healing without embarrassment, as Paul did, and may also listen for the answer given to Paul. Sometimes God removes the illness. Sometimes He leaves it and shows His strength through the man who must lean on Him entirely. In both cases the prayer was heard.
Epaphroditus: The Sick Man Whom Paul Honored
Philippians 2:25-30 tells of Epaphroditus, whom the church at Philippi had sent to bring Paul their gift and to serve him. He fell ill, “sick nigh unto death,” and the church heard of it. Paul writes that “God had mercy on him,” and on Paul also, “lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.”
Look at how Paul describes him: “my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier.” He does not call him a failure for becoming ill. He instructs the Philippians, “Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation,” because “for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life.”
The illness of a servant of Christ does not cancel his honor. It can be part of the labor itself. If a relative is caring for a preacher who is laid up, that relative may take Paul’s words as his own instruction: receive him with gladness, and hold him in reputation.
Three Kinds of Ministry That Need No Strength: Prayer, Patience and a Word to Visitors
Some ministry requires a voice that carries and legs that travel. Three kinds require neither.
Prayer. James 5:16 says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Epaphras, a fellow laborer of Paul, is described in Colossians 4:12 as “always labouring fervently for you in prayers.” Prayer is called labor there. A man in bed has the hours to give to it: for his congregation, for the young preachers he knows, for the children of his relatives, for those who bring him food. A relative who keeps watch may find help in a daily prayer for the preacher who also keeps watch at a sickbed.
Patience. James 5:11 says, “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” Job lost his health and his comfort, and said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). He also said, “I know that my redeemer liveth” (Job 19:25). Those who visit a patient man hear that confession even when he says little.
A word to visitors. Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt.” A visitor who comes to cheer a sick preacher can leave having been cheered, and having heard a short testimony of God’s faithfulness. A few sentences are enough, and the preacher need not raise himself from the pillow to say them. 1 Peter 3:15 asks believers to be ready to give an answer for the hope within them, and the sickroom gives that answer a very attentive audience.
How to Receive Food and Help Without Shame While You Are Laid Up
A man accustomed to giving may find it hard to be given to. Meals arrive, a neighbor offers transport to the clinic, a child is asked to run errands, and the preacher feels like a burden.
Scripture supports receiving. Galatians 6:2 commands, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” If burdens are to be borne, someone must be willing to let them be borne. Jesus also said, “I was sick, and ye visited me” (Matthew 25:36), and He counts such kindness as done to Him. A preacher who refuses help takes that opportunity from the one who offers it.
Receive plainly and say thank you. Where it is possible, name something you can give in return, such as a prayer for the giver by name. Paul himself received the gift that Epaphroditus carried from Philippi, and he called it “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God” (Philippians 4:18).
If daily needs have become hard to meet, you may also say so honestly to your congregation or relatives. The same Lord who fed Elijah by the brook has not changed.
Teaching Your Household From the Bed What Endurance Looks Like
Children and grandchildren who visit a sick preacher are watching how a believer behaves when the body is weak. Deuteronomy 6:7 tells parents to teach God’s words diligently to their children, “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down.” The words “liest down” apply here as truly as the rest.
A household can be taught from the bed in small ways:
- Ask a child to read a psalm aloud to you, and say a word about why it comforts you.
- Pray aloud with the family at the usual hours, even if the prayer is short.
- Let them see you give thanks for a meal that is simple.
- Tell them honestly that you are tired or in pain, and tell them also that God is with you.
The psalmist prays in Psalm 71:18, “Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.” A weak man can still show God’s strength to the next generation by what he leans upon.
The Reward Promised to the One Who Endures
Hebrews 10:35-36 says, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Patience is named there as a need, and the reward is named as a promise.
James 1:12 adds, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” Paul writes in Romans 8:18 that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
God also keeps an account that the sick man cannot see. Hebrews 6:10 says, “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name.” And 1 Corinthians 15:58 closes the matter: “Your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Those who have preached without pay may read further in a whole life of unpaid preaching ends in a crown. The same promise reaches the preacher who now preaches only by enduring.
If a preacher you know is laid up today, write him a short letter of encouragement. Tell him that his endurance is a sermon God sees, and quote him one of the verses above so he can read it again when the day is long.