- Healthful Living, p. 23
“The health reform is the right hand of the third angel’s message, and it is just as important as the message itself.” - Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2, p. 370
“We are not to forget that the laws which govern our physical life were ordained by God, and we must obey them if we would live. - Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 48
“Our Creator designed that the laws of health should be obeyed. The principles of health reform are as much a part of the gospel as the Ten Commandments.” - Temperance, p. 45
“We cannot be temperate in our practices and disregard the laws of health. It is a contradiction to profess to serve God and yet violate His laws that govern our physical being. - Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, p. 510
“If we would properly represent Christ, we must have clean habits, and we must take care of the body which is His temple.”
In a time when light has been given in abundance, it is no small thing to willfully remain in darkness. There is a class of professed Christians who walk with confidence in their moral uprightness, yet scoff at the simple, foundational laws that govern the body. They claim to uphold God’s commandments while affirming the importance of physical law with their lips, yet undermining it in their actions. They speak of health, truth, and self-control, but do not walk in it. They say, “It is important to be honest,” yet twist truth to justify themselves. They say, “It is important not to yell,” yet rebuke with raised voices. They say, “Health is vital,” yet downgrade or dismiss the very habits that sustain it. This is not ignorance, but refined hypocrisy—a form of godliness without the power. And they forget that to despise one law in practice is to trample the other in truth — because the two are not separable, disobedience of one cancels the profession of the other. They forget that to devalue one is to trample the other underfoot—for to treat one law as optional is to undermine the authority of both.
- Romans 1:21 — “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
They call themselves wise, yet they deny the very elements by which life is sustained. They refuse sunlight. They detest pure water. They prefer suffocation in stale rooms over the invigorating air of God’s free creation. The texture of manmade cakes and burned flesh of animals is more welcome than the fruits of the garden which God made very good. And they do all this in the name of “feeling unwell.” If a person said they felt ill while breathing oxygen, we would question their sanity. Yet such statements are made by educated adults—by professionals, by parents, by members of the church—without shame. 1
- Corinthians 3:19 — “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”
What these individuals miss is not merely logic, but reverence. Reverence for the God who made man not only in soul, but in body. The health laws are not suggestions. They are divine commandments, woven into creation itself. Ellen White wrote:
- Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 17 — “The laws of nature are the laws of God, for nature is the servant of her Creator.”
“The laws of nature are the laws of God, for nature is the servant of her Creator. In the harmony of the natural world, we are constantly reminded of the order and the law of God. The laws governing the animal kingdom and all that is created are so fixed that if they are violated, there are consequences that bring suffering and even death. It is just as important to obey the laws of God in nature as it is to obey the moral law. We are all subject to these laws, and it is essential that we yield to them for the preservation of our health.” - The Ministry of Healing, p. 235 — “A failure to care for the living machinery is an insult to the Creator.”
“The body is the most wonderful piece of machinery ever made, and it is to be cared for and kept in the best condition. The failure to care for the living machinery is an insult to the Creator. The human body was designed for efficiency, and we are to work with God’s plan to preserve our health. By improper habits, such as overeating, indulgence, and neglect of proper exercise, we dishonor God’s handiwork. God has given us clear instruction on how to care for our bodies, and neglecting that care affects both the body and the mind.” - Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 3, p. 161 — “It is as truly a sin to violate the laws of our being as to break one of the Ten Commandments.”
“It is as truly a sin to violate the laws of our being as to break one of the Ten Commandments. The body is the temple of God, and we must not allow anything to defile it. Every abuse of our health through sinful habits is an offense against the Creator. God has given us clear instructions in His Word to take care of our health, and to disregard these instructions is sin. Just as violating the moral law is sin, so is violating the physical laws that God has established.”
To claim obedience to the moral law while violating the physical law is to live in contradiction. The moral law tells you not to kill. The physical law tells you how not to kill: by breathing fresh air, drinking clean water, resting, exercising, eating that which grows from the ground. When you destroy the body by rejecting these laws, you deny the spirit of the commandment: Thou shalt not kill.
Some will say, “But I am not killing anyone.” Yet Jesus said:
- Matthew 5:21–22 — “Ye have heard that it was said… Thou shalt not kill… but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.”
Likewise, whosoever abuses their body through willful neglect is murdering slowly, and worse—setting an example for others to follow. The parent who rejects sunlight teaches their child to do the same. The professional who mocks the body’s needs lays a snare for their clients.
- Galatians 5:9 — “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
The rebellion against truth often comes clothed in softness. “I don’t feel well when I eat fruits.” “I get headaches in the sun.” “I can’t drink water—it upsets my stomach.” These statements sound harmless, but they are rooted in a deeper disease: the heart that sets up feeling above faith, emotion above obedience, self above the Word of God.
Ellen White is precise:
- Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p. 443 — “The indulgence of perverted appetite is the reason why moral power is so weak.”
“The indulgence of perverted appetite is the reason why moral power is so weak in many people. Those who yield to perverse appetites weaken the will and impair the moral character. It is a law of nature that when the appetite is indulged to excess, it has a detrimental effect on the mind and character. We are to teach people that their habits of eating, drinking, and dressing are not trivial matters but have a direct influence on their spiritual and moral well-being. The indulgence of appetite is a form of self-indulgence that leads to a weakening of the spiritual power and the ability to resist temptation.”
Faith is not the acceptance of what is easy. It is the clinging to what is true when everything in your flesh rebels against it. Obedience means trusting that the law is good, even when your body says otherwise. To follow Christ means to carry a cross, not a couch.
- Romans 8:13 — “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
To believe in the moral law while rejecting the physical law is like trusting that gravity is real, but insisting that jumping off a cliff won’t hurt you because your intentions are pure. This is not faith—it is presumption. And presumption is sin.
- The Desire of Ages, p. 126 — “Presumption is Satan’s counterfeit of faith.”
“Presumption is Satan’s counterfeit of faith. True faith in God never leads to presumption. Faith is based on trust in the promises of God and leads to obedience to His will. But presumption is an attitude that claims God’s promises without regard for obedience. Presumption places confidence in one’s own will and desires, while true faith relies on God’s will and power. The difference between true faith and presumption is that true faith works through love and obedience, while presumption disregards God’s commandments.”
It is no small sin to misuse the body, for the body is the temple of God:
- 1 Corinthians 3:16–17 — “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God…? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.”
You cannot worship God with defiled instruments. You cannot honor God while dishonoring His creation. The air, the light, the water, the food—these are not optional. They are the channels of His sustaining grace.
When we treat the physical laws of God as optional, we do more than damage the body—we disorient the soul. What begins as physical neglect soon becomes spiritual confusion, because the channels that feed the body also stabilize the mind. When the body is neglected and the instincts are followed, the mind loosens its hold on truth. So what begins as an excuse to avoid sunlight or pure water becomes a life of bending truth, for if one ignores the created laws that sustain life, he will eventually ignore the spoken laws that define it.
To reject God’s physical law is to undermine obedience to His moral law—for the two stand together.
Ministry of Healing, p. 116
“God is the author of both the moral and the physical law; He gave both to us for our happiness and well-being.”
The moral law defines what must be done; the physical law reveals how it must be done.
Education, p. 17
“The laws of health and the laws of morals are inseparably
To claim obedience to one while dismissing the other is self-contradiction. A person who claims, “I do not lie,” while using words with vague or shifting meanings is lying in practice. For if words are not fixed, then truth cannot be spoken, nor recognized, nor defended. A man may say, “I do not kill,” while he destroys his own body with toxic substances, or leads others to do the same. But this is a form of slow murder—done in ignorance or in rebellion, yet murder still.
Ministry of Healing, p. 143
“The body is the only medium through which the mind and soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. The body must be cared for as the temple of the living God.”
Likewise, to believe that gravity can kill a falling body, but refuse to act in harmony with that knowledge, is to deny the very moral impulse to preserve life. If you reject the physical means by which God sustains life, then you are also rejecting the moral duty to protect it. To give your child toxic pills in an attempt to cure a disease that emerged from violating God’s health laws is not healing—it is further rebellion, disguised as care. To claim goodness while rejecting the means of goodness is hypocrisy. To claim reverence for health while scorning the laws that preserve it is deception. And even those who acknowledge the means, but replace them with false ones, are no better off—for to use false means is to reject the true. There is one way where health flourishes, and it is God’s way: the way of pure food from the earth, fresh air, clean water, sunlight, movement, and rest. These are not just helpful. They are law.
And speech is part of the physical law, for definitions are visible, tangible, audible, smellable, tastable. formable, conceivable, understandable. When we speak without fixed definitions, we a babeling: we create confusion—like the tower of Babel, where language lost its meaning and unity collapsed. When we say the word “table” but are open for it to mean anything, then we are not delivering a meaning or value or anything practical or tangible. But when you say to a person “bring me the chair” and when that person obeys the fixed definitinos those words have, the tangible result of that obedience to that tangible definition of the request of the words will be “a chair in front of the one who requests it by his words”.
There is always a “what” that must be done—but there is also a “how” that governs its doing. The moral law tells us what is good; the physical law tells us how to do what is good. So when a person claims they have not lied, while twisting the meanings of words to suit their interests, they lie with every sentence. That is because truth does not live in feeling, or float in emotion—it stands firm in clear, fixed speech. And here lies the test: if a man is a liar, the use of fixed definitions will expose him. And that exposure will either change him or drive him to twist the truth further. When words are stable, our lives must conform to their clarity—or else our hypocrisy is laid bare. But when words are made flexible, then the sinner is never forced to face his sin. He can shift his meanings instead of surrendering his will.
If words are not treated as fixed and absolute, truth itself becomes undefined. To claim that you are not lying while redefining words by emotion or preference is not honesty—it is deception. When the meanings of words shift with impulse, truth becomes subjective, and sin becomes relative. But when definitions remain fixed, desires must bend to the truth. If they do not, a person will begin to twist language—to protect himself from the exposure of hypocrisy. He bends words instead of bending the will, reshaping vocabulary not for clarity, but for escape. A man cannot say, “I believe in honesty,” while refusing to treat words as fixed in meaning. When definitions shift with emotion or preference, truth becomes negotiable, and sin becomes a matter of opinion. The one who will not hold language to a standard will soon mold it to his desires—because fixed words would force him to face his hypocrisy, while flexible words shield him from the mirror. And when truth bends, righteousness collapses. Where there are no fixed definitions, there can be no law. And where there is no law, there can be no sin—only chaos, masked in piety.
But not all who err do so in malice. Some disobey simply because they do not know what is good. Some disobey the health or the physical law not out of rebellion, but because they do not know what health is or what the physical law requires in practice. But when truth comes, their loyalty is tested. Will they change their habits to match the truth—or twist the truth to match their habits? The one who lives by the Spirit does not cling to the habits of ignorance — who is surrendered to God will not justify old patterns. They adjust, they reform, they bend their ways to the truth—not the truth to their ways. They will say, “Now that I see, I must change.” For they do not live to preserve comfort, but to adapt to truth. And in doing so, they show that truth, not emotion, is their master. For they live not by ease, but by obedience to the Word — because to obey the truth gives the best results for them to enjoy not just for the time being, but throughout whole eternity. They invest—sacrifice—so that they reap later the fruit of their labor, just as a woman faithfully endures labor pains in hope and anticipation, knowing that she is delivering a child which will soon have all her temporary pains and sufferings swallowed by the eternal joy it brings.
And for those who were once ignorant—who simply did not know what God required—they may find it difficult at first to forsake the old ways. Their habits were long shaped by instinct and emotion, not by truth. But when the light of God’s will shines upon their path, the call is clear — they are faced with a decision: to submit, or to resist. The surrendered heart does not argue. It yields. It cries out, “Lord, You have shown me—now strengthen me to obey.” Once truth is revealed, love compels obedience. They are obliged by the Spirit they live by to reform and obey, not because they are strong, but because they have surrendered to God, trusting Him to know best and to give strength to succeed. They do not excuse disobedience, but walk forward in dependence, saying, “Lord, You have shown me—now strengthen me to obey.”
Their surrender breaks the power of emotion. They disbelieve their instincts, and walk by the Word, not by impulse. When their instincts say, “Water makes me feel sick,” or “Exposure to sunlight makes me ill,” or “I don’t like the way the texture of persimmon feels in my mouth.” they do not submit to the voice of the flesh. They answer with truth: “Get thee behind me, Satan! You do not care for the things of God, but of men. Water, sunlight, fresh air, movement, and the fruits of the ground—these are good for me. My Creator assigned them for my wellbeing. Your lies have no part in me. For I walk by faith—not the sight of my blind eyes, but the faith that sees through the eye of God.” They obey not because it is easy, but because it is right—and because He who commands also enables. To follow God is not to strive alone, but to walk with the Spirit who gives power to obey.
- Psalm 40:8 — “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”
But those who resist will always find arguments—until they are left without excuse. Their resistance is not born of reason, but rebellion.
- John 3:19–20 — “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light… For every one that doeth evil hateth the light.”
There is no partial obedience. God demands the whole life. To break one link is to break the chain. He who claims to keep the Sabbath but refuses the sun, He who prays for healing while rejecting God’s remedies, He who cries for peace while feeding strife to his nerves and blood—such a person is not misinformed. He is deceived.
But the deceived can be awakened. That is the mercy of God. The call is not only to health, but to holiness. The reform of the diet is not vanity—it is sanctification. The daily walk in fresh air is not legalism—it is worship.
- Romans 12:1 — “I beseech you therefore… by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”
Let those who claim to know Christ follow Him fully—in the spirit, in the soul, and in the flesh. Let the mouth confess truth, and the body obey both the moral and physical laws of God. There is no partial obedience.
God demands the whole life — spirit, body, and will aligned — every thought, every appetite, every choice aligned with His moral and physical order.
(every thought refined, every emotion submitted, every appetite sanctified, every impulse restrained, every desire weighed, every habit surrendered, every choice made in reverence)
For the day is coming when excuses will perish and only obedience will remain. And blessed are they who have walked in the light they were given.
- John 15:14 — “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”
Let the church no longer be divided between spirit and body, but whole—sanctified, sealed, and shining. And let none say they were not warned.
The Church of Christ is not composed of divided members—some obeying in part, others in full—but of one united body, wholly surrendered to both the moral and physical laws of God. Those who only imagine themselves Christians while resisting the fullness of His commandments—whether in spirit or in body—stand outside the true Body of Christ, which follows the Shepherd in everything.
Such professed believers, if they remain in this state despite of the personal calls addressed to to them to repent and turn from their sin, will share the fate not of the faithful, but of those who rejected Christ outright—because to withhold obedience is not simply to break a random command—it is to dishonor the Person who requires it, because His Law reveals His glory. His eternal worth. It is to reject the character and identity of God and of Christ, because their identity cannot be found in the mere letters J-E-S-U-S C-H-R-I-S-T, but in the trustworthiness of the Father’s law—both internal and external— which reveal His loving character. His identity is revealed not in syllables, but in steadfastness, not in profession, but in performance. Jesus obeyed both, which is what proves that in Him, He carries the name and identity of God, His Father.
Those who walk in partial obedience reveal a split allegiance. They may sing praises and speak truth with their mouths, yet in practice they betray what they claim to believe—they may pride themselves for professing reverence with the lips, but in deed they betray the truth.
- Isaiah 29:13 — “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.”
- Matthew 15:8 — “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
To resist the law of God is to resist the God of the law.
And in rejecting TOTAL obedience, they reject not only one command, but the whole law — both the physical and the moral law — they reject not only the command, but the Commander. And if you reject God, will you stand next to Him on that day? And if you want to stay next to Him, will you reject ANY of His commands?
- Romans 8:5–8 — “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
⁶ For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
⁸ So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” - Galatians 6:7–8 — “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
⁸ For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” - Ephesians 5:6-7 — “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
⁷ Be not ye therefore partakers with them.”
[Creation Context] God did not begin His law at Sinai—He began it in Eden. There He gave man a body, breath, food, and rest. These were physical laws meant to sustain the life that He declared very good. To despise them now is not merely a health issue—it is rebellion against the order of creation.
- Genesis 2:7 — “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground…”
[Incarnation Fulfillment] In the life of Christ we see perfect obedience to both the moral and physical laws. He walked daily, rested properly, ate from the earth, kept the Sabbath, breathed the open air, and lived temperately. If the Son of God did not ignore the physical law, neither can His followers.
- Luke 2:52 — “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
[Practical Examples] The neglect of physical law often hides behind modern customs: overwork, endless screen time, ignoring sleep, relying on artificial stimulants, eating what kills, fearing sunlight. These are not small compromises. They are slow departures from God’s design.
[Spiritual Law as Skeleton] The moral law is the skeleton of the soul—it gives shape and standard. The physical law is the flesh and muscle—it gives function and power. One without the other is a corpse or a ghost. Only together is there life.
[Prophetic Warning] Ellen White warns that the health message is the right arm of the gospel. To reject it is to weaken the whole body of truth. This rejection will prepare many to fall in the final crisis.
- Counsels on Health, p. 31 — “The gospel of health has able advocates, but their work has been made very hard because so many ministers, presidents of conferences, and others in positions of influence have failed to give the question of health reform its proper attention… Let the health reform be presented as the right hand of the gospel.”
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