Disease is caused rather than mysteriously occurring. The primary cause from the human end is neglect to follow right principles. This neglect includes ignorance of right principles, ancestors' ignorance of those principles, laziness, and failure to believe what is true because of stiff-necked rebellion against law. Human nature convinces and justifies rationalizations that one can get away with breaking law. Laws always work for good or bad depending on how they are used. Human nature is a gambler and gamblers lose. Mankind fails in the responsibility to manage the environment including the self. This failure introduces disorder and disease through forms of sin and neglect. God will destroy those who destroy the earth whether through neglect or mismanagement. The earth is the environment and includes humans because they are part of it. Attitudes such as depression cynicism negativity incredulity irritability worry anxiety criticism resentment double-mindedness distress guilt excessive grief hopelessness and despair are precursors of disease. They are tremendously stressful and lead to breakdowns in the immune system. The plant-producing food depends on good soil to feed it. The soil is largely depleted. Red meats eaten today have only between one-half and two-thirds of the protein they had in the early 1900s. The same basic levels are true for fruits and vegetables. The result is an ever increasing incidence of malnourishment. This malnourishment means that humans are gradually becoming more susceptible to disease as immune systems become weaker. Seventy-five percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated. A lack of water is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue. A great deal of back and joint pain results from an insufficient amount of water. Many people's thirst mechanism is weak so that they eat rather than drink water. One Coke contains twelve teaspoons of sugar. It also contains large amounts of both citric and phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. A healthy human's pH is 7. This highly acid pH is extremely difficult for the body to neutralize. Diabetes is now the seventh highest killer of people in the United States. It arises alarmingly because of sugar and obesity. Hydrogenation is a major player in producing clogged arteries heart attacks and strokes. Bodies cannot fully digest the stuff. It floats around until it lodges in some small place and gradually produces a blockage. This includes products like peanut butter Crisco and margarine. Multitudes of processed foods contain it because it increases shelf life. White sugar has absolutely no nutritive value. It is empty calories and is dangerous because it is a pure corrosive acid that leaches the body of real nutrition. The per capita consumption in America is now 152 pounds per person per year. It is everywhere in small amounts in almost everything ingested.

Taking care of our physical bodies is a profound responsibility, as we belong to God and are integral parts of the body of Christ. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are not our own, having been bought with a price. Therefore, we must glorify God in our body and spirit, recognizing that neglecting physical health can threaten the continuation of our relationship with Him. Maintaining good health is an aspect of holiness and a stewardship responsibility within the parameters of unrighteous mammon, that which is least and belongs to another. God expects us to diligently care for what belongs to Him, as faithful stewardship in the physical realm mirrors faithfulness in the spiritual. Offering our healthy bodies to God is a spiritual service, a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to Him. Good health, while extremely valuable, is not an inherent right. Some are born with predispositions to illness due to the sins of ancestors, as warned in the commandments, where the iniquity of the fathers is visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Additionally, health afflictions may have spiritual causes, such as demonic influence or divine purpose, rather than direct personal or ancestral sin. Despite the cause, good can be done, and God can be glorified in any situation. We must approach health challenges with a positive outlook, seeking how to glorify God within our circumstances rather than assigning blame. Even in infirmity, as exemplified by Paul, we can find strength in weakness, trusting that God's grace is sufficient. Paul rejoiced in his infirmities, knowing they kept him humble and dependent on God, thereby strengthening him spiritually. Thus, maintaining health or enduring its challenges becomes a means to build and edify our relationship with Jesus Christ, ensuring we are faithful in both the least and the greatest responsibilities entrusted to us.

Health problems are no different in principle from any other problem of life: God's promise to heal does not relieve us of the responsibility to work toward a solution while trusting Him. Just as spiritual healing requires overcoming and growing, bodily healing requires doing whatever we can, and doing nothing is like suicide, a breach of the Sixth Commandment. Sin underlies nearly all sickness, though not every case, and good health is linked to obedience (Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 28). So the approach is threefold: first seek God's mercy and guidance; then work on the solution through wise counsel from Scripture and experienced people; and repent of and change whatever adds to the problem. Scripture does not assign spiritual rank to herbs over pharmaceuticals or to naturopaths over physicians. Balm, a fig poultice for Hezekiah, Jeremiah's question about a physician in Gilead, and Jesus' statement that the sick need a physician show that using medicine and physicians is not a lack of faith. The error is leaving God out, as Asa and Ahaziah did. Physicians are fallible and limited, so the buyer must beware, seek a multitude of counselors, and study ahead. Healing cannot be demanded; it comes in God's time and for His purpose, which is creating His character in us. God is creating problem-solvers, not problem-continuers.

Health problems, even serious ones, are given for good and serve as scaffolding for building character in those who love God. Unhealed illness is not a measure of greater sin, since all have sinned, and God shows no partiality, sending sun and rain on the just and the unjust. Though it is not God's intention for man to be sick (Isaiah 53:5; Psalm 103:2-3), and believers are told to call for the elders to anoint and pray (James 5:14), many are not healed. Some sicknesses trace to earlier habits such as smoking, drinking, poor diet, and lack of sleep, some to hereditary weakness, and some have no apparent cause, which may be the hardest burden. God has not abandoned the sick. Illness forces a real reliance on Him and calls for submission to His sovereign will, saying "Your will be done" and meaning it, trusting His promise never to leave or forsake. It also gives brethren the duty to pray, and the Holy Spirit makes up for their lack of understanding (Romans 8:26). Cards, calls, and emails from others show God's tangible love, lift the sufferer, and reward the giver, for it is more blessed to give than receive. Through sickness bonds form, love grows, and God sees who truly loves the brethren.

Widespread respiratory illness—marked by persistent congestion, coughing, and difficulty breathing—forms the starting point for a deeper spiritual reflection. Health organizations worldwide have reported significant increases in respiratory ailments since late 2022, attributed to COVID variants, RSV, influenza strains, rhinoviruses, and other pathogens. A distinctive feature of current illness is stubborn, "unproductive" congestion that resists normal treatment and can persist for months, as experienced firsthand through nearly four months of disrupted sleep, breathing difficulty, and general discomfort. Some doctors suggest that COVID's spike protein and related vaccinations may have weakened overall human immunity, contributing to this surge in illness. This personal struggle to breathe prompted reflection on breathing itself as a divine gift. Scripture repeatedly ties breath to life and to God's Spirit: God breathed the breath of life into Adam (Genesis 2:7), the heavens were made by the breath of His mouth (Psalm 33:6), Christ breathed on His disciples to give the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), and Scripture itself is described as God-breathed (II Timothy 3:16). These passages establish breath as both a physical necessity and a symbol of divine inspiration. Physical illness that clogs the lungs and restricts breathing becomes a picture of sin's effect on spiritual life—hindering the ability to be inspired by God and to walk with Him, just as Adam's sin separated him from God's presence. Just as physical exertion demands more oxygen, greater spiritual effort requires more of God's Spirit. Even "unproductive" coughing and sneezing, though seemingly ineffective, still spread contagion—paralleling how sin spreads and infects others despite making its bearers unproductive. The convergence of respiratory illnesses raises the question of whether God is drawing attention to a coming loss of His Spirit, as foreshadowed in Genesis 6, Job 34:14-15, and Amos 8:11, where God warns of removing His breath and sending a "famine... of hearing the words of the Lord." This urges careful self-examination during the Passover season, since without God's breath, no genuine spiritual life or fruitful repentance is possible. The intricate biological process of oxygen exchange and circulation illustrates the astonishing design behind physical breathing, inviting appreciation for God's even greater work in preparing His people to "breathe" spiritually for eternity. Scriptures from Job and the Psalms reinforce that breath and understanding both come from the Almighty, concluding with the call for all who have breath to praise the Lord.