Should Christians use doctors?

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Question 11096

This question arises more often than it should need to, and the fact that it does reflects the influence of certain streams of Christian teaching that have set faith and medicine in opposition to one another. Some believers genuinely wonder whether consulting a doctor represents a failure of trust in God. The biblical answer is clear and should be stated without hesitation: yes, Christians should use doctors, and doing so is entirely consistent with genuine faith in God’s power and provision.

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Scripture and Medicine

The Bible never condemns the use of medicine or the consultation of physicians as such. Luke, the author of the Gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts, was himself a physician (Colossians 4:14). Paul describes him as “the beloved physician,” with no hint that Luke’s medical practice was in tension with his faith or his ministry. Paul’s instruction to Timothy to “use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (1 Timothy 5:23) is a straightforward piece of medical advice given by an apostle to a fellow minister. Paul did not tell Timothy to pray harder. He told him to take a practical remedy.

The one passage in Scripture that records divine displeasure with consulting physicians is 2 Chronicles 16:12, where King Asa “did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians.” The problem was not that Asa went to doctors. The problem was that he went to doctors instead of seeking God. The text describes a man who had turned away from trusting the LORD entirely, and his exclusive reliance on human help was a symptom of that broader spiritual condition. The passage condemns replacing God with human solutions, not supplementing prayer with medical care.

God Works Through Means

The principle that God works through means runs throughout Scripture. God feeds His people, but He does so through rain, soil, seeds, and the labour of farmers. God protects His people, but He does so through governments, laws, and practical wisdom. God heals His people, and He often does so through the knowledge, skill, and care of medical professionals. To refuse medical treatment on the grounds that God alone heals is to misunderstand how God characteristically operates. It would be equally logical to refuse food on the grounds that God alone sustains life.

Medical knowledge itself is a gift of common grace. The capacity to understand the human body, to diagnose disease, to develop treatments that alleviate suffering and extend life — these reflect the image of God in humanity, the capacity for rational enquiry and compassionate care that God has given to all people regardless of their spiritual condition. Christians who use medical care are not demonstrating weak faith. They are receiving a provision that God has made available through human knowledge and skill.

The Error of Rejecting Medicine on Spiritual Grounds

Certain movements within Christianity — particularly extreme faith-healing traditions and some branches of the Word of Faith movement — have taught that using medicine demonstrates a lack of faith. This teaching has had tragic consequences, including preventable deaths among adults and children whose communities refused medical intervention on theological grounds. The teaching is not merely mistaken; it is dangerous. It adds spiritual guilt to physical suffering and can lead to outcomes that are entirely avoidable.

Jesus Himself acknowledged the role of physicians without criticism. His statement that “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Mark 2:17) uses the physician as a positive image — the very illustration depends on the assumption that sick people naturally and rightly seek medical help. If consulting a doctor were spiritually wrong, the illustration would not work.

So, now what?

Christians should pray for healing and seek medical care, and these two things are not in competition. A believer who prays earnestly over an illness and also makes an appointment with their GP is not hedging their bets. They are exercising both faith and wisdom. God is the ultimate healer, whether He heals directly, through medical intervention, or through the natural processes He has built into the body. The believer’s posture is one of trust in God’s goodness and willingness to receive that goodness through whatever means He provides.

“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?” Jeremiah 8:22