Objection: Paul Told Timothy to Drink Wine Instead of Believing God for Healing
1 Timothy 5:23:
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
Here we have several apparent problems: Paul told Timothy to use natural means to treat his stomach, and apparently, Timothy was often sick. Also, Paul didn’t just “heal him,” as some people say he could have done if healing were for all. The objector usually adds that Paul did not tell Timothy to believe for his healing or to speak to his body, believe that he received his healing, or anything else that we might tell people to do today.
The water could indeed have been the cause of Timothy’s tummy trouble given Paul’s exhortation to not drink it. (Some translations say “Drink no longer only water” instead of “Drink no longer water,” but this is only someone’s interpretation because the word only does not appear in the original Greek text.) I don’t know whether this variety of wine was alcoholic or not; I’ll let others debate that. However, he was assuredly not telling Timothy to go around all day with a buzz to avoid stomach trouble while causing liver trouble.
Many places on the earth today are known to have bad water, and people often get sick when they travel there if they drink it. This is not a curse that comes on them for sinning. The water just happens to have certain microorganisms or minerals in it. Instead of telling people to drink up and believe God, better counsel would be: “Drink something other than water. If you drink this water, you’ll have frequent health problems!” Why get sick and believe God for healing when you can avoid the sickness in the first place? Why have recurring health problems like Timothy did if they’re avoidable through natural means?
I went to such a place myself. Others warned me about the water before I went there, but certain drinks were made using local water, and I ended up feeling quite shaken up inside after drinking them, even though I wasn’t drinking water by itself. So I figured I’d learned my lesson, and the next time I went there, I got other drinks that were NOT made with local water. But I still had issues because I had those drinks over ice, and you guessed it, it was ice made from the local water! I guess I figured that if it was frozen, it wouldn’t affect me, but I was wrong. I was okay after the experience, but I can attest that it is better to just avoid certain conditions rather than believe to be healed! I believe that is the point of Paul’s advice. I am very much in favor of divine healing, as Paul was, but if you were going to that country, I would definitely warn you away from the water (liquid or frozen!).
So what about Paul not exhorting Timothy to believe for his healing? Remember that this is the same Paul who wrote that our bodies were paid for (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), that the Lord is for the body (1 Corinthians 6:13), that we always triumph in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14), that we reign in this life (Romans 5:17), that every knee bows when the name of Jesus is spoken (Philippians 2:9-11), and that all things are under Christ’s feet and thus under ours (Ephesians 1:22-23). This same Paul described sickness at Corinth as a judgment for mistreating the Body of Christ and taking a holy ordinance lightly (1 Corinthians 11:27-32), not as the will of God. This is the same Paul who preached and had a man receive “faith to be healed” listening to his gospel (Acts 14:7-10). Paul must have preached healing for this man to have gotten faith from listening to him because faith comes by hearing God’s Word.
This is the same Paul through whom special miracles were done, so that cloths that had touched him were taken to the sick, and they recovered and were delivered from evil spirits (Acts 19:11-12). This same Paul healed all the sick people on a certain island in Acts 28:8-9. This same Paul raised a man from the dead (Acts 20:9-12). This same Paul chided so-called “apostles” who had no power and said that the kingdom of God is not only in word, but in power (1 Corinthians 4:19-20). Paul said that he had fully preached the gospel after saying that signs and wonders were done (Romans 15:18-19). He obviously considered Holy Spirit miracle power to be a normal part of the preaching of the gospel. It is sad that today sickness is so normal among church people that James might have to ask, “Is any among you NOT sick?”
So there is no way that you can say that Paul did not believe in healing. How could he not, when his body was abused frequently, and he always went on to the next place and preached some more! He was stoned and left for dead in Lystra (Acts 14:19-20), yet he got up and went back to that town the very next day after the believers gathered around him. Although this obviously caused a physical trial for him (Galatians 4:13), this trial was only “at the first,” and then Paul was back to normal again!
Of course, the objection is based on the alleged “fact” that Paul did not tell Timothy that he had any power to do anything about it. That is a somewhat dubious proposition, since Paul did tell Timothy that God had given him the Spirit of power (2 Timothy 1:7). He also made a promise (which mothers should believe today) that God will preserve the physical life of the godly mother in childbirth (1 Timothy 2:15). That is a health promise, and it’s in the same book as the verse about Timothy’s stomach!
Paul was a father in the faith to Timothy, so Timothy had to know Paul’s teachings on healing. Paul told Timothy to have nothing to do with fables and genealogies, but to minister “godly edifying which is in faith” (1 Timothy 1:4).
There is no reference to Timothy’s stomach ailments in Second Timothy! So for all we know, Timothy took Paul’s advice from First Timothy and he didn’t have any more trouble! Contrast that with people in the hospital, able to do little or nothing about world evangelism, thinking that this verse about Timothy’s stomach proves that they have to stay stuck in an expensive hospital bed week after week.
Whatever was wrong with Timothy, it could not have been very serious. Timothy was still able to preach and minister to his congregation. He was not bedridden. Paul would be appalled if he could see how far some people have run with this one verse about ailments that could not have been major.
Paul told Timothy that Scripture makes you perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17). How can you be perfect and furnished unto all good works if you are out of circulation because of illness? Keeping you healthy is part of what Scripture will do. Anyone even in the Old Testament could have known that from Proverbs 4:20-22.
It is surely a wrong assumption that Paul told Timothy to use wine instead of believing God for healing. Given the ministerial track record of the apostle Paul, it seems unlikely that Paul would never have counseled him to believe God for his healing. You can’t prove an argument from silence either way. However, given Timothy’s apparent trouble staying healthy, Paul gave him some natural advice. It is a good thing for Christians to do what they can in the natural to stay healthy. That is not unspiritual. Bodily exercise does profit a little (as Paul also told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, although here the point is that exercising yourself unto godliness is far more important). You don’t throw common sense out the window just because you’re saved.
You can just read the verse in question (1 Timothy 5:23) and realize that Timothy was not constantly sick. Paul did not tell him to drink wine because of his illness. He said to do it because of his frequent illnesses. If you just stayed sick, that would be an illness, not illnesses in the plural. To have illnesses, you must first have an illness and then be healthy and then get another illness. Timothy could not have been ill all the time. Paul said the opposite. He gave Timothy some advice about what to do about the fact that he seemed to keep getting sick again after recovering from his sicknesses. Perhaps there was a water problem there and Timothy needed to stop drinking the water because it was making him sick. Paul definitely did not tell Timothy, “Just accept that it isn’t God’s will for you to be healed of this supernaturally,” as many today would think.
Since Timothy had recurring illnesses, for all you know Timothy did use his faith when he got sick to get rid of the illnesses and Paul was just trying to help Timothy not get sick in the first place!
This verse is a good answer to all who wonder if taking medicine is okay. It surely is if Paul told Timothy to use natural means to help him get healed. Why not do all you can to be in the health that is the known will of God (3 John 2)?
This is not the only time that Scripture refers to eating habits and health. Proverbs 25:16 gives us some natural advice against making yourself sick by pigging out on sweets: “Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.” (Side note: Solomon did not say not to eat sweets at all; he just said to do so in moderation.) You need to respect natural laws concerning eating to stay healthy. As any doctor can tell you, you can make yourself sick (without any help from the devil) simply by eating poorly. On the other end, do not become like some “health food nut” Christians who are busier promoting the gospel of brown rice, unbleached flour and tofu than the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! This was not Jesus’ message and it is not our message. The only dietary advice Jesus ever gave was to eat His flesh and drink His blood! Paul even warned Timothy about people who commanded others to “abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:3-5). So don’t let anyone tell you that you have to be a vegetarian to be healthy. If you want to avoid meats, that’s your privilege, but don’t try to force your preferences onto other people.
You should see the biblical balance of neither eating unhealthily nor getting preoccupied with food.
So why didn’t Paul just “heal” Timothy? If healing was for Timothy, why did Paul give him natural advice instead of just laying hands on him and healing him? The answer to this question is obvious from First Timothy itself. Paul was writing from Macedonia to a man in Ephesus. Get out your map and you’ll see that Macedonia is not exactly around the corner from Ephesus! A personal visit to Timothy would have required a very long trip. Paul couldn’t lay hands on a man in Ephesus from Macedonia! If Paul were anywhere near Timothy, he could have just gone and visited him instead of writing him a long letter! That is the simple reason why Paul did not just “heal” him when he wrote First Timothy.
Anyone using this verse “against” healing should note that Paul’s advice to Timothy was explicitly so that Timothy would be healthy. Paul did not say that Timothy’s “often infirmities” were his cross to bear and that he should accept them. As always, Paul’s view on illness was that it was something to be avoided, not accepted. This should be your view as well.
Acts 27:33-34 shows us another case where Paul gave people natural advice for their health.
The objector usually adds something about how Paul didn’t tell Timothy to “stand in faith” for his stomach. Paul did tell Timothy to follow after faith (1 Timothy 6:11), to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12) and to “hold faith” (1 Timothy 1:19). He was exhorted to be an example in faith (1 Timothy 4:12). He stressed the importance of “unfeigned faith” (1 Timothy 1:5) and avoiding foolishness that was not the godly edifying which is in faith (1 Timothy 1:4).
Because the faith exhortations were not in the context of Timothy’s stomach, some people will consider them irrelevant to the subject. But actually, there is no real context to the verse about Timothy’s stomach. The surrounding verses are totally unrelated.
Because Timothy was in church leadership, he was obligated to pray over the sick himself (James 5:14-16) since he would be in the class of “elder” described by James. God did not have one standard for Timothy’s church and another for other churches, so Timothy had to believe in and practice the laying on of hands for healing himself.