This title probably surprises you because it sounds so ridiculous. You would probably not rebuke a Christmas present. (If you would, please refer to the section on mental illnesses.) But this is a valid question if you believe many Christians' bad teaching that sickness can be a gift from God to help develop your character. According to this line of teaching, sickness can be like a Christmas present to you from God.

If so, Jesus rebuked this "Christmas present" in Luke 4:38-39! In other words, he did the same thing with the fever that he did with demons! Jesus rebuked demons. Look up the word used here for rebuke in your concordance and you will find that it is the same word used for rebuke everywhere else in the gospels, where it is used primarily of rebuking demons. Jesus' attitude toward sickness was the same as his attitude toward Satan and his demons.


As Christians, we must take our Lord's harsh attitude toward sickness and treat it the same way that we would treat Satan himself. We should be no more tolerant of sickness in our bodies than we would be of Satan telling us to sin. Regardless of what some popular "Christian" books may say, sickness is never your friend. Who wants a Christmas present that steals, kills and destroys?

Jesus showed how to deal with things that steal, kill and destroy. When a storm was going to kill him and his disciples, he rebuked the storm. He took authority over it and commanded it to stop. Since Jesus came to do the will of God and destroy the works of the devil, the storm could not have been the work of God. Jesus did not come to destroy the works of God! He never rebuked the works of God; he only rebuked the works of Satan. Therefore, it is clear that the fever was the work of Satan, not God. Jesus would never have rebuked it if it were from God. Jesus did not rebuke presents from his heavenly Father. James said that every good gift comes from above, not that every good gift and quite a few bad ones come from above (James 1:17).