Laying on of hands for healing        Photo: © Claudine Chausse  Lightstock.com

Body, Soul & Spirit: A Holistic Approach 1 CORINTHIANS 12:7-11

Paul's list of spiritual gifts includes gifts of healings (Greek charismata iamaton).

The Bible takes a holistic approach to healing of the whole person - body, soul and spirit.

This is evident in the Old Testament writings, where physical healing is associated with the agency of doctors gifted by God to heal the sick (for example the Apocryphal ECCLESIASTICUS 38) as well as the use of medicines in cases of life-threatening illness (2 KINGS 20:1-10) and a prophetic word spoken out by the prophet Isaiah.

Jesus' Holistic Ministry: Body, Soul & Spirit

In the New Testament the holistic approach is very much in evidence in the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.

Jesus makes a clear distinction between physical, soulish and spiritual causes of disease, in spite of the claims by some writers that he failed to recognise the psychiatric origin of illnesses by treating them as demonic. But he also recognises the connection between the need for forgiveness as a prerequisite for healing, both in his teaching on prayer ( MATTHEW 6:7-14 and LUKE 11:1-4 ) and in his healing of the paralytic (MATTHEW 9:1-8).