God has three expectations of us in regard to our health. First, He expects us to learn the laws of health. Just as the natural world around us is governed by laws, there are laws central to and within our very being that we need to learn in order to be healthy.
“God has placed it in our power to obtain a knowledge of the laws of health. He has made it a duty to preserve our physical powers in the best possible condition, that we may render to Him acceptable service. Those who refuse to improve the light and knowledge that have been mercifully placed within their reach are rejecting one of the means which God has granted them to promote spiritual as well as physical life. They are placing themselves where they will be exposed to the delusions of Satan.” Counsels on Health, 454.
In Hosea 4:6 we are told that not only are God’s people destroyed for lack of knowledge, but “because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee.” God expects us to study the laws of our being and the laws of health.
Knowledge alone will not make us healthy. God also expects us to apply that knowledge in practice and obedience. “We have no right wantonly to violate a single principle of the laws of health.” Healthful Living, 18. “Our first duty, one which we owe to God, to ourselves, and to our fellowmen, is to obey the laws of God. These include the laws of health.” Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 12.
The Bible also makes it very clear that we are to glorify God through our bodies: “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20. (See also 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17.) God’s second expectation of us is that we practice or obey the laws of health.
Third, God expects us to teach the laws of health. “No teacher of truth should feel that his education is completed till he has studied the laws of health, and knows the bearing of right practices on the spiritual life. He should be qualified to speak to the people intelligently in regard to these things, and to set them an example that will give force to his words.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 16, 59. We must educate people in right principles of health if we expect them to have perfect physical, mental, social, and spiritual health.