October Article

Lessons From A Medicine Bottle

by Dee Bowman
c/o 2011 Southside Church of Christ

     Nearly all medicines have a label on them which reads, “use only as directed”. Any rational person has no difficulty understanding and heeding this warning. He understands that the warning is for his own good and that failure to heed it could result in dire consequences.

Isn’t it strange people can see the need for warnings on medicine bottles, but can’t seem to understand the same need when applied to spiritual matters? The message of Jesus Christ contains the prescription for man’s eternal destiny; it gives the remedy for sin. But only when it is used properly can it accomplish its intended purpose–the salvation of men’s souls. And this Bible we have been given, much like the medicine bottle I just described, warns that it should be used only as directed. Listen to the warnings:

Don’t use more than is directed. It’s a good thing people don’t use their medications like they do their Bibles. Can you imagine a man coming from the pharmacy with a prescription for his particular disease and then going straight to the medicine cabinet where he gets several other medications and adding them to the prescription? What kind of person would add to his medicine like that?  Foolish?  Yes indeed, but folks do it every day in religion. They are not particularly pleased with the prescription given, so they think nothing at all about adding to it any and everything they desire. Look around you at all the different doctrines and teachings that have been added to God’s word. Such an assumption is regrettable and will eventuate in sin being heaped on sin. God’s word is all we need (II Tim. 3:16-17). God gave a cure for sin (Rom. 1:16), and when it is used as directed, it will take care of man’s sin. But add to it, and just like the polluted medicine, it will not do what it is intended to do (II John 9).

Don’t use less than directed. How foolish for a person to obtain a prescription that will do what he needs then decide to take only half what the doctor prescribed. How is he qualified to do that? When we’ve been assured that what we’re being given by the Doctor will take care of our ills if it is used as he has directed, we are not disposed to take it only part of the time or just take half when we want to. We can certainly see that when it refers to our physical health, but how many people seem to have the idea that the Bible, which is the prescription that eventuates in our eternal spiritual well-being, needs not label to “take as directed.” For instance, it’s hard to understand that people think they can leave off baptism from the plan of salvation when it is clear that the Scriptures affirm its essentiality (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; I Corinthians 12:13; Roman 6:1-10; Colossians 2:14). There’s a divinely inspired prescription for our eternal salvation, and we dare not fool with it. To fool with it is foolish!

Don’t use other than is directed. Would you bring home a doctor’s prescription and decide on your own to use something other than he has just prescribed?  Surely not!  But how many times do we see people substitute their own concoctions for the plan prescribed by God (II Tim.3:16-17). Look around you at the creeds of men that have been introduced as substitutes for God’s plan (Gal.1:6-9). Look at the many religious groups today who have turned churches into entertainment centers, or places where people are being told that they’re all right, just as long as they “have Jesus in their heart.” Rather than condemning sin and warning the sinner, they offer a “feel good” religion, but it’s not the one not prescribed by God (John 4:23-24). Let me ask you something. Can you imagine getting a prescription for some serious illness, then bringing it to me to add some stuff or so that I can take some things from it I don’t like? I am not qualified to fool with your prescription–you know that. And I am not qualified to make the word of God say whatever I want it to say. I don’t have the right to do that! Nobody has the right to prescribe any remedy other than the one prescribed by God, and if we expect to gain the benefits it affords, we will have to use it as it was directed (Rom. 1:28).

We need to take a lesson from the medicine bottle. We need to use what has been prescribed to heal the sickness of sin and then make sure we understand that it is to be used "only as directed.”