1. Method of learning. “[Jesus] gathered stores of scientific knowledge from nature. He studied the life of plants and animals, and the life of man. . . . Every child may gain knowledge as Jesus did.”2

“The physician who desires to be an acceptable coworker with Christ will strive to become efficient in every feature of his work. He . . . will constantly endeavor to reach a higher standard, seeking for increased knowledge, greater skill, and deeper discernment.”3

It is the duty of every individual to become acquainted with the laws that govern the entire being and to adhere to these laws. All should be acquainted with anatomy and physiology, as well as with the relationship between mental, physical, and spiritual health.4

2. Discipline in youth. Christ exhibited marvelous discipline and strength of character in His youth. Likewise for us, “one of the first lessons a child needs to learn is the lesson of obedience.”5 Discipline is an essential rule for solving life’s problems and tasks. Without discipline we cannot solve anything nor perform well any task. When we discipline ourselves and our children, we learn together how to grow and mature spiritually. Delayed gratification is the most important technique in attaining discipline. A child is much better trained by denying his or her desires—especially those dealing with appetite—than by satisfying them. Wise parents will know how to combine disciple and compassion, similarly blending justice and mercy.

“Self-discipline must be practiced by everyone who would be a worker for God. This will accomplish more than eloquence or the most brilliant talents.”6

3. Diligence and perfection. “As Jesus worked in childhood and youth, mind and body were developed. He did not use His physical powers recklessly, but in such a way as to keep them in health, that He might do the best work in every line. He was not willing to be defective, even in the handling of tools. He was perfect as a workman, as He was perfect in character. By His own example He taught that it is our duty to be industrious, that our work should be performed with exactness and thoroughness. . . . He expected much; therefore He attempted much.”7

“And those who would be workers together with God must strive for perfection of every organ of the body and quality of the mind. . . . Of every Christian the Lord requires growth in efficiency and capability in every line. . . . Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set. Then set your mark high, and step by step, even though it be by painful effort, by self-denial and sacrifice, ascend the whole length of the ladder of progress.”8

Let us beware of false humility, for “to be clothed with humility does not mean that we are to be dwarfs in intellect, deficient in aspiration, and cowardly in our lives, shunning burdens lest we fail to carry them successfully. “Real humility fulfills God’s purposes by depending upon His strength.” “He designs that His servants shall possess more intelligence and clearer discernment than the worldling.”9

1. Earnestness, strength, and health. “Jesus was an earnest, constant worker. . . . Never another toiled with such self-consuming zeal for the good of men. Yet His was a life of health.”10

2. Benevolence and compassion. “By methods peculiarly His own, [Christ] helped all who were in sorrow and affliction. With tender, courteous grace He ministered to the sin-sick soul, bringing healing and strength.” “None who came to Him went away unhelped. His compassion knew no limit.”11 “We should anticipate the sorrows, the difficulties, the troubles of others. We should enter into the joys and cares of both high and low, rich and poor.”12

Sympathy implies a sensitivity to the emotions of others and a compassionate response to them. This is actually one of the most important prerequisites for social intelligence. Of all types of labor requiring a high level of empathy and social intelligence, surely medical missionary work would be one of the foremost.

3. Sociability. “[Christ] sought access to the people by the pathway of their most familiar associations.”13 As Christ’s followers, we must not withdraw or shy away from social relationships, for most joys in life can be derived from such interaction. It is through personal contact and friendship that the saving power of the gospel reaches people.

People were created to be social beings. “The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). No substitute can fill the need for interpersonal relationships. Money, achievement, work, books, and all else are powerless to supply this human need. God has clearly created a void in the human heart that only another human form can fill. No matter how little money we may have, or how successful we may be—in the end, people discover that what matters the most are other people. Human beings that build relationships—who have friends with whom they laugh, cry, study, challenge, play, and live, whom they love and with whom they grow old and die—these persons live a life that is real.

Studies have shown that people who had bad health habits—yet nonetheless had strong social ties—lived significantly longer than people with excellent health habits but had been isolated. There is no greater pain than that pain which loneliness brings.

4. Avoiding the toxicity of isolation (lack of social contact). Isolation (loneliness) doubles the risk of illness and death! It has been proven that isolation affects mortality as much as smoking, hypertension, elevated cholesterol, overweight, or lack of physical activity. Smoking increases mortality by 1.6 while isolation increases it by 2.0! It is even a greater risk factor! Effects of isolation and persistent social stress may shorten our life. Loneliness is the feeling that you do not have anyone with whom you may share the most intimate emotions or have a close connection.14

5. Interest in the needs of others. “[Christ] taught in a way that made [people] feel the completeness of His identification with their interests and happiness.”15

One of the best ways to show genuine interest in others is to be a good listener. Often it is much more important to listen to others than to talk. We like people who know how to listen to us. Genuine listening and the ability to focus on the other person are always marks of love. The essence of true listening is the discipline of “putting oneself in parentheses” and temporary forgetting our own prejudices, thoughts, and desires. This type of listening enables us to feel and experience more intensely the world of the one who is talking to us. Because true listening implies a temporary suppression of self, it allows a temporary, absolute acceptance of the other. When this happens, the listener and the speaker will feel greater closeness. The energy that this process of listening requires is so great that only genuine love and the desire to help another human being can afford it. The realization that someone is attentively listening to you is in itself therapeutic.

“ ‘Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations’ ” (Job 21:2).

6. Self-sacrifice.  “[Christ’s] life was one of constant self-sacrifice. He had no home in this world except as the kindness of friends provided for Him as a wayfarer. He came to live in our behalf the life of the poorest and to walk and work among the needy and the suffering.”16

“Of all people in the world, reformers should be the most unselfish, the most kind, the most courteous.”17

“There can be no growth or fruitfulness in the life that is centered in self. If you have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, you are to forget yourself, and try to help others.”18

7. Patience and cheerfulness. “[Christ] was always patient and cheerful, and the afflicted hailed Him as a messenger of life and peace. . . . As He passed through the towns and cities He was like a vital current, diffusing life and joy.” “Hope springs up in [the mother’] hearts [who press through the throng with their sick and dying little ones]. Their tears of gladness fall as they catch His attention, and look into the eyes expressing such pity and love.”19

“Christians who gather up gloom and sadness to their souls, and murmur and complain, are giving to others a false representation of God and the Christian life. They give the impression that God is not pleased to have His children happy, and in this they bear false witness against our heavenly Father.”20

“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). Nothing else can improve the health of body and soul like a joyful and thankful spirit.

1. Jesus served the needs of the poor and the rich. “While He ministered to the poor, Jesus studied also to find ways of reaching the rich. . . . Christ recognized no distinction of nationality or rank or creed.”21

“We talk and write much of the neglected poor: should not some attention be given also to the neglected rich? . . . There are thousands of rich men who are starving for spiritual food.” “Those who belong to the higher ranks of society are to be sought out with tender affection and brotherly regard. Men in business life, in high positions of trust, men with large inventive faculties and scientific insight, men of genius, teachers of the gospel whose minds have not been called to the special truths for this time—these should be the first to hear the call.”22

2. He adapted His messages according to circumstances and time. The messages of Christ’s mercy were varied to suit the audience.

3. Necessity of tact in missionary work. “It is of little use to try to reform others by attacking what we may regard as wrong habits. Such effort often results in more harm than good. In His talk with the Samaritan woman, instead of disparaging Jacob’s well, Christ presented something better. . . . This is an illustration of the way in which we are to work.”23

4. “God’s plan is first to reach the heart.”24 This means the emotions. When obedience springs from the heart, then “his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3). The whole Christian life, regardless of trials, is a life of peace and quiet joy. Therefore, in our missionary activities, especially in the beginning, let us lift up Christ, not rules, regulations, or doctrine.

“The man who attempts to keep the commandments of God from a sense of obligation merely—because he is required to do so—will never enter into the joy of obedience…. True obedience is the outworking of a principle within.”25 Medical evangelism reaches the heart.

5. He was strengthened in solitude and prayer. “In a life wholly devoted to the good of others, the Saviour found it necessary to turn aside from ceaseless activity and contact with human needs, to seek retirement and unbroken communion with His Father.”26

“An intensity such as never before was seen is taking possession of the world. In amusement, in money-making, in the contest for power, in the very struggle for existence, there is a terrible force that engrosses body and mind and soul. In the midst of this maddening rush, God is speaking. He bids us come apart and commune with Him. ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10).”27

1. Forgiveness. Christ brought the message of forgiveness: “Many of those who came to Christ for help had brought disease upon themselves, yet He did not refuse to heal them.” “There are today thousands suffering from physical disease who, like the paralytic, are longing for the message, ‘Thy sins are forgiven.’ The burden of sin, with its unrest and unsatisfied desires, is the foundation of their maladies. They can find no relief until they come to the Healer of the soul. The peace which He alone can impart would restore vigor to the mind and health to the body.”28

2. Healing is found in giving as well as in receiving. A deeply peaceful joy results whenever we forgive someone. It is heaven-born. But that is not all. How beautiful it is to realize that in this act of forgiveness, the same divine feeling is also bestowed upon the one being forgiven. The most miserable human beings on earth are those who do not forgive. Those who bitterly crave revenge on others suffer from a weakened immune system, triggered by negative emotions which adversely affect our health.

3. Joy. Medical research has shown that “negative emotions are just as toxic as smoking and elevated blood lipids as risk factors for heart disease. People exposed to long periods of sadness and pessimism, constant tension and discontent, fear, cynicism and doubt—are twice as vulnerable to modern diseases.”29

4. Compassion. Christ’s grace and compassion brought healing to the sick and afflicted. This is the essence of medical work.

5. Love. “The love which Christ diffuses through the whole being is a vitalizing power. Every vital part—the brain, the heart, the nerves—it touches with healing. By it the highest energies of the being are roused to activity. It frees the soul from the guilt and sorrow, the anxiety and care, that crush the life forces. With it come serenity and composure. It implants in the soul, joy that nothing earthly can destroy—joy in the Holy Spirit—health-giving, life-giving joy.”30

Scientists now recognize that the brain hormone oxytocin (the “love” hormone) is produced mostly in the frontal lobe, where the greatest number of oxytocin receptors are found. This combination is associated with feelings of true love and fidelity. When we activate and strengthen these “pathways of true love” in the frontal lobe, destructive emotions such as hatred and greed are dispelled. This is God’s personal handwriting in human nature. ‘And his name shall be in their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4).

6. Faith and hope. “[Christ] sought to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as the children of God.”31

Studies reveal that during the moments when a person is filled with faith, the number of white blood cells and immunological substances in the circulation are increased. The opposite effect follows every circumstance in which we manifest doubt and a negative attitude.

7. Prayer. When we pray in faith, a higher Power responds to the cry of the individual, triggering in the body and brain a host of psychological and chemical changes needed for healing. The omnipotent God pervades the brain and body with supernatural energy and healing. In the act of prayer, the electrical neurons in the brain are being charged with a heavenly current.

8. Benevolence and self-sacrifice. Research has shown that givers live longer than those who receive services and gifts. Longevity is on the side of those who are self-sacrificing and who help others.

“In contrast, self-absorption fosters depression, while helping others frees us from preoccupation with self (our own problems) because it encourages us to share in the pain of our fellow beings. Devotion to benevolent work—helping the needy, the suffering and sick, according to research, is the most powerful way to attain a pleasant disposition, the most effective remedy for overcoming depression. Sadly, also the rarest!”32 This is basically the message of health that the Lord has sent us through the prophet Isaiah. (See Isaiah 58:7–11.)

The healing property of the gospel: “When the gospel is received in its purity and power, it is a cure for the maladies that originated in sin.”33 “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2). All that this world can offer is not able to cure a broken heart, to restore peace to the soul, to dispel anxiety and eliminate disease. Fame, genius, or talent are powerless to cheer up a broken heart or rebuild a ruined life.

The most successful doctors and health workers are not the ones that provide costly treatments or who claim to have a solution for every situation. It is not people who have diplomas from distinguished universities or those who work in prestigious hospitals. The most successful health care workers are those who know how to best introduce their patients to their Creator. Only He who has created our human mechanism can give us lasting healing.

Christ is humanity’s true Great Physician and apart from Him there is no healing! R