God Still Heals Today
There should be no doubt in any Christian’s mind that God still heals today. In fact, I myself have been the personal recipient of numerous healings over the decades and have also seen others healed by God. Divine healing is definitely for today. In spite of that, some groups who believe in healing have over-emphasized its importance to the harm of the saints! This is proven with Epaphroditus, the man bringing gifts to Paul from the church at Philippi. He is only mentioned in Philippians, with his name appearing twice.
Paul was sending Epaphroditus back to the church at Philippi ill. He had almost died while with Paul, but was still ill (Phil. 2:25). With his partial recovery from death in mind, Paul stated God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on himself, to spare him sorrow upon sorrow (Phil 2:27). Then Paul totally destroyed the warped elevated importance some place on physical healing with this:
Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him (Phil 2:29)
Paul told the church at Philippi to honor men like Epaphroditus, even though he was still sick and had been sick for an extended time period! The reason why he should be honored is because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to help Paul (Phil 2:30)! The point is, Paul’s attitude about physical healing and those who don’t get healed was not harmfully warped, like some in our day! Paul knew a man like Epaphroditus should be honored, not dishonored with his physical affliction.
I once attended a congregation which over-emphasized healing like that. While there, I noticed a particular woman was absent for a couple weeks and when she finally returned I asked her where she had been. She said she was ashamed to admit it, but she got sick! The unfounded shame she had was the result of an unscriptural warped importance placed on being physically healthy. Paul was different, even though he was used by God to miraculously heal others (Acts 14:9,10; etc.)! In fact, signs, wonders and miracles were the norm for Paul and other true apostles (2 Cor. 12:12), but walking with no physical illness was not the big issue! Being faithful to the work of God, even to the point of risking his life, is why Epaphroditus was to be honored. Shamefully, many healed people have no such commitment to the Lord Jesus!
BTW, Epaphroditus was named after the pagan goddess of Aphrodite. EpAPHRODITus was apparently raised by idolaters, but his name never crippled him spiritually to where he didn’t come to eternal life in the Lord Jesus and to be honored for his commitment.
