Quick Overview: What Do I Need to Know About Essential Oils?

"Ok, just tell me the basics," You might be saying to yourself. "Tell me what I need to know about essential oils in one post."

   This is your post. If you want to know more, there is more, but this is the birds-eye-view: 

   Essential oils are natural plant extracts used for health and nutrition. So why all the fuss?

   

   Some people have funny ideas about them, but Christians recognize that they are gifts from God to be used with moderation and prudence, like any other created good.

   Don't essential oils belong to the New Age movement?

   In the beginning God made plants for food and oil 'to strengthen man and put a gleam upon his face' (Psalm 104). 

   Man has always relied on these herbs in order to maintain a healthy body. Oil – both fatty oils (olive, coconut, flaxseed, etc.) and aromatic oils (frankincense, myrrh, cedarwood, etc.) - have been used for healing since ancient times.

Honor the physician for his usefulness, for the Most High made him; and the art of healing is of the Lord. And the compounder of unguents will make the mixture.

[Sirach 38:1, 2, 5]

   Are there confused ideas circulating about the nature of essential oils? Yes; but orthodox Christians clearly differentiate between the nature of God, humans, and plants. For example, here is a major distinction: essential oils are not divine essences, but we do encounter God in them insofar as he designed them for our bodily well-being and they reveal his handiwork. Glory to God!

   Why should I use oils?

   Oils help support a healthy body in many ways. Oils have been used for thousand years for medicine, beauty, embalming, and emotional health. Preserving and rediscovering these natural remedies is the ongoing work of doctors and research scientists today.

God hath permitted the production of oil for the mitigation of men's pains... Ointment is to be employed as a medicine and help in order to bring up strength when enfeebled, and against sinus congestion, colds, fatigue and depression, as the comic poet says:

The nostrils are anointed; it being

a most essential thing for health to fill the brain with good odors.

                [Clement of Alexandria, c.200 A.D.]

   Is sickness evil?

   Disease, suffering, and death are things we inherit from Adam and the sins of the entire human race. To pinpoint fault is impossible, but the good news is Christ came to set us free from sin and death; he came to forgive us, heal us, and restore us to life!

"So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." [Mark 6:13]

Jesus Christ has come to heal the whole man, soul and body; He is the physician the sick have need of. His love for the sick has not ceased through the centuries to draw the very special attention of Christians toward all those who suffer in body and soul. It is the source of tireless efforts to comfort them. 

   Are health and abundance valuable?

   Health and abundance keep the soul free and unimpeded, and capable of making good use of what is at hand. “For,” says the apostle [Paul; 1 Cor. 7:32, 35], “I want you to be free from anxieties...to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.” [Clement of Alexandria]

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Clement of Alexandria on Healthy Living

Clement of Alexandria

Clement was the head of the Christian school in Alexandria at the height of learning and science in Greco-Roman Egypt. Clement was classically trained by the finest Greek instructors of the second century A.D. 

Clement's pursuit of philosophy led him to Christianity. In an age of persecution, he boldly exhorted his fellow believers to embrace the beautiful truths of the Christian faith. 

Clement wrote about healthy, merry living as a Christian in a non-Christian society, drawing on all the wisdom of his day, because he understood virtuous living to be prerequisite for understanding the mysteries of Christian religion. 

Clement has whole chapters dedicated to healthy living in his work, Paedagogus (The Instructor). These quotes are an interesting insight into the ancient understanding of nutrition:

Eat to live – “Some men live to eat, which is irrational; but the Instructor [Jesus] enjoins us to eat that we may live. For neither is food our business, nor is pleasure our aim; but both are on account of our life here, which the Word is training up to immortality.”

On emasculated breads – “They emasculate plain food, namely bread, by straining off the nourishing part of the grain, so that the necessary part of food becomes matter of reproach to luxury.”

On too many sweets – “There is no limit to epicurism among men. For it has driven them to sweetmeats, and honey-cakes, and sugar-plums; inventing a multitude of desserts, hunting after all manner of dishes. A man like this seems to me to be all jaw, and nothing else.”

On eating, cont. – “The diet which exceeds sufficiency injures a man, deteriorates his spirit, and renders his body prone to disease… We are to partake of what is set before us, as becomes a Christian…”

On ointments – “Ointment is to be employed as a ... help in order to bring up strength when enfeebled, and against sinus congestion, fatigue, and depression, as the comic poet says: 'The nostrils are anointed; it being / a most essential thing for health to fill the brain with good odors.'”

On the usefulness of unguents – “‘Honor the physician for his usefulness,’ says the Scripture, ‘for the Most High made him; and the art of healing is of the Lord.’ Then he adds, ‘And the compounder of unguents will make the mixture,’ since unguents have been given manifestly for use, not for voluptuousness.” 

On the feet – “The rubbing of the feet with oil of warming or cooling unguents is practiced on account of its good effects.”

Value of health and abundance – “Health and abundance of necessaries keep the soul free and unimpeded, and capable of making good use of what is at hand. “For,” says the apostle [Paul; 1 Cor. 7:32, 35], “I want you to be free from anxieties...to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.”

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