Like other types of health issues, mental health issues can limit someone’s ability to participate in activities. Church activities are no different. A church is a spiritual community of those who share a common faith and who have fellowship in that faith. But it is also an organization engaged in many activities that are wholly dependent on active and willing volunteers. Churches also have active social lives and are a ready-made community of friendly people for all members.

One of the saddest realities in Christianity is that many people mistake all of that activity for the core purpose of a church. This is done by many non-believers who view churches as anachronistic semi-charities that used to serve a core function in society, or who consider religion the opium of the masses. But it also happens within Christianity when people measure the value of a church member by the services that the person can offer the church. This is wrong, it is flat-out wrong. Go read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 “The body is bound together through each member’s connection to the Head, which is Christ.” They are not bound by what the connections that they have with each other, or what value they think each person offers.

1 Corinthians 12:23 “And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor…” Those who seem less honourable are given more honour. Why is that? I have often wondered about that, and I’m not sure I fully understand why. I can obey without understanding (lydighet uten forståelse!), but I still wonder about it. Here are two possible explanations.

1. We equally honour all members because they were all chosen by the Head. It is natural to honour the more prominent members, and we are commanded to honour the leaders and the elders who have been placed over us. There are also many ministries that easily receive honour. I’m sure parents are very thankful for the young people who run activities for their kids. It is very natural to honour the kitchen crew after a good meal. So if there are members of the body who do not have a noticeable role, then we need to go out of our way to ensure that they receive the honour that they must receive so that the Head is honoured.
2. We honour the whole body when we honour each individual member. If we only honour 99.997% of the members, then the body misses out on .003% of the required honour. This is one of those situations where only 100% works.

So what shall we do when our fellow co-member are treated poorly, overlooked, or neglected because they cannot contribute as much as others? Part of helping someone who has a health problem is to identify what has caused it. From what I can tell, there are three sources of unbiblical ideas that prevent the members of the body (i.e. our fellow church-goers) from receiving the honour they deserve.

Internalized doubt: a person feels less valuable because they cannot contribute as much as they want to. I think this is a common experience for most people at some point in their life, but it is a particular struggle for people with chronic or lifelong health problems. They can feel like they will never be what they had once aspired to, and that their health issues have undercut their heavenly calling.

That can be a dangerous place to be. It is very easy to sink into a generalized despair and a feeling of worthlessness. If you look around and see how others are able to do things you can’t then bitterness is always nearby, and once someone let bitterness in their entire spiritual life can be destroyed, and it is very hard to come out of bitterness. I can say from experience that it is far easier to keep bitterness out than it is to get rid of it once you let it take root.

This mentality can very quickly lead to these people slowly disappearing. How do we help those people? Simple. Honour them as a member of the body. Recognize their heavenly calling, and that they said yes to Father’s drawing to the Son. Recognize their faithfulness. Make sure that they remember that God loves them and only wants the best for them. Show them unconditional love. Draw them into what church activities they can be along in instead of finding ways to exclude them. We don’t often go around specifically saying “Brother X, we honour you as a part of the body..” but letting someone know that you want them at activities is honouring them. And never, ever, tell them (or say it behind their back when you think they can’t hear) that they are lazy, or unfaithful, a burden to others, or that they chose to have their health problems.

Matthew 18:6 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

This is a warning directly from our Saviour, the Son of God. If you flippantly say something negative about a person who is going through struggles and they hear it, you add to their burden instead of honouring them for bearing their burden in faithfulness. You can say it with good intent, or just in the moment without thinking, but you put them at risk of stumbling. Think about it. Seriously. When you speak to people, do you give them strength to bear their burden, or do you add to the burden?

Social Attitudes: Most Christians are also active members of the society in which they live, and they are exposed to the trends that exist in modern societies. It is natural for believers to use their faith to understand what they see in society. That is fine. But when the relationship is reversed and believers use their society’s zeitgeist to understand their faith they are in danger of completely missing out on what the Bible actually says, and they can miss many opportunities to bless and strengthen each other.

So what does this have to do with mental illness? Western society is saturated with stupid ideas about mental illness, and it is very easy for Christians to become contaminated. When this happens, it is normal for them to use Bible verses incorrectly or out of context to support their harmful ideas about mental health. Their standard defence is “but it’s Biblical! Do you deny the Bible?” But these negative ideas about mental illness can prevent people from honouring the weak among them.

Here are two common examples of ideas that can damage relationship in a church.

“You’re making other peoples’ lives difficult with your mental health issues. You should stop.”

I agree with the first sentence. Mental health issues can make other people’s lives hard. That is actually something that a lot of people with health issues struggle with, they can feel like others would be better off without them. That sort of thought pattern can quickly get suicidal if not caught early. Church buildings aren’t free, the money for the land and building and utilities and repairs needs to come from somewhere. If one person can’t financially contribute because of health issues, then someone else has to pick up the slack. Same thing with cleaning and other volunteer activities, what one person doesn’t do has to be done by someone else. But this attitude basically degrades a church to a social club where there is a minimum requirement to participate. Is that Biblical? A church community should be characterized by unconditional love and support. There is a reason why Christian marriage vows include the line “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health…”, that is the highest expression of Christian love.

Yet some people struggle with feeling unproductive, and telling them that they are a burden without mentioning the unconditional love and support they have is only a half-Gospel, and it can really hurt people.

“I was born this way, I can’t help it.”

I technically agree with this idea, but it can be used to destroy someone’s hope for improvement. I was born with a dysfunctional brain that messes with my energy, mood, and my perception of the world. I can’t help that. But if I allow that to hinder my faith, I can very easily slip away from God’s love and from fellowship with those who love him because I tell myself I am unworthy to be among them.

God made humanity in his image (Genesis 1:26). Please don’t take that too literally. I don’t know if God has a beard, and I don’t know if he is tall, short, skinny, obese, Jewish, black, or white. From what I understand, this means we received God’s ability to understand and influence this world, his ability to discern between right and wrong, and the free will that he first possessed. Mental health issues are psychological issues created by our physical bodies malfunctioning, they are not an integral part of the nature we received from God. So when Christians use creation to dismiss mental health issues, to insist that they cannot receive help, or to claim that a mentally ill person is unable to be loved by God, they misrepresent God’s plan for us.

In Ephesians 2:10 we read that we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Just like God first worked to create our world because of his love for us, we can work to help others because we have received the love of God. That is why we were created, and that is not in any way limited by mental health issues. God has created works (good deeds, or whatever you want to call them) that each person can do. He doesn’t expect people to do something totally unsuited for them.

To me, the Biblical approach to mental illness is to understand that is in an illness. There is plenty of Bible verses about weakness and illness. Mental illness is not some curse or a sign of failure or disbelief. So be nice to be people who are struggling. It really can be that simple.

The Bible says next to nothing about mental illness, yet many Christians have tons of so-called “Biblical” ideas about mental health and psychiatric disorders. I have received a ton of support and care from Christians I know to help me deal with my mental health issues, but I have also been on the receiving end of a fair amount of misinformed and often harmful bull from Christians. That type of behaviour is not specific to Christianity, there are tons of harmful and simplistic ideas floating around our society about mental health. But when Christians use Biblical-sounding language and misquote Bible verses, they double the pain by disparaging someone for a health condition that is out of their control AND they question that person’s faith and heavenly calling.

The effect of that is that someone can see their faith and their mental health struggles as mutually exclusive, where they think that they cannot be a real Christian as long as they continue to have mental health struggles. People can go for years not seeking help from medical professionals, or go for years hiding and suppressing their mental distress, in a desperate attempt to hold onto their faith and calling. Or they can struggle on and on trying to suppress their mental health issues in the belief that Christians “don’t give in” to those thoughts. Or maybe they think that God hates them and is punishing them because they seem so different from the nominally normal people they go to church with. You get the point.

In my sixteen years of being bipolar (diagnosed at 14) I have never felt that God hates me or that I am less of a Christian because of my mental disorder. My health struggles have limited my participation in church activities, but that has not limited my faith. And yet, despite the fact that I grew up in a safe environment and in a church that has a healthy attitude to mental health, I have seen many people in genuine distress and fear because they cannot reconcile their faith with their mental health issues. That hurts to see, and it is often hard to help them when they have accepted and internalized so-called “Biblical” ideas that have not Biblical basis.

So I figured I would share my understanding of what the Bible says about mental health issues. The question “what does the Bible say about mental illness?” is a bit of a trick question because the Bible says almost nothing about that topic. But we can take ideas that people claim are Biblical and refute them simply by quoting Scripture. Here we go, in no particular order or rank. I may later do more in-depth discussions of some of these ideas, but this should give a good idea of why I reject so-called “Biblical” bull about mental illness.

“God doesn’t love mentally ill people.”

What is the condition for God to love us? From what I can see, there are no conditions. Look at the Parable of the Sower. He knowingly sowed seed onto bad ground, which symbolizes God’s love to all people, regardless of their receptivity. God created every person with a purpose and with love. There is no such thing as an accidental person, or someone who lost the genetic lottery and is thus excluded from God’s love.

Romans 8:39 “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 Does that mean that a diagnosis of mental illness can separate us from God? God created the biological systems in our body that malfunction and produce mental illness, so mental illness is a part of creation. It is not some weird thing from a different universe or something that modern, secular humans made up.

Romans 5:5 “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

I received the Holy Spirit through faith when I was 22 years old. I remember it very clearly, that summer was a turning point in my life, and since that time I have experienced the many aspects of the Spirit. So go ahead and tell me that God doesn’t love me, I have proof he does. Or did he pour out his love in my heart even though he doesn’t love me?

This blog post would be too long if I addressed every verse in Psalms about God’s love. So your homework assignment is to go to Psalms and find one verse that includes conditions for being loved by God.

“Mental illness is a punishment from God.”

This is a sensitive subject, because there are instances in the Bible that God inflicts people with sickness because of their disobedience. Miriam, the sister of Moses, was stricken with leprosy for questioning why God chose Moses. King Uzziah also got leprosy for disobeying God. In John 5:14 Jesus tells a man who was healed to stop sinning less something worse happen to him. So I will not say that an illness cannot be a punishment from God.

Does that mean that every illness is a punishment from God? Langt derifra. In many cases of healing we don’t get the backstory of the person who was healed, but in John we hear from Jesus that not all people who are in need of healing have their sickness because of sin.

John 9:1-3. As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

That is a verse that I have many times held onto. God has chosen a wide range of people, so that he can through many different situations chosen to display his might. I’m not special in that regard, every true disciple is an example of God’s power in their own situation. But it would be blatant disbelief for me to blame God and reject his love because of my specific condition.

Mental Illness, Medication, and the Holy Spirit.

 I have heard several similar statements about how people who receive a diagnosis for a mental illness cannot have the Holy Spirit, that medication prevents you from having the Spirit, or that you have to reject the Holy Spirit in order to see a doctor. So let’s look at what the Holy Spirit actually is.

What is the condition for receiving the Holy Spirit? The first Christians to receive the Holy Spirit were the 120 in the Upper Room. They were instructed by Jesus to wait there until he sent the Spirit. So they obeyed, and through that obedience and through faith that Jesus would send the Spirit they received it.

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

I see two conditions here. The first is repentance, which includes an upright desire to cease from committing the sins for which you have repented. The second is accepting Jesus Christ, which to me implies also taking up your cross and following him. When that happens, you enter into the fellowship of his suffering (Phillippians 3:10) and you will, sooner or later, see what you must suffer for his name’s sake (Acts 9:16). People who accept that calling and that life will receive the Holy Spirit. Both of these can happen in medicated people and in people who have mental health issues. Accepting you have mental health issues is not a sign of disbelief.

What is the Holy Spirit? He is many things. He is a comfort, a guide, a spirit of power, and a spirit of truth. Read 2 Corinthians 1:3, John 14:26, 2 Timothy 1:7, and John 15:26. The Spirit of God is incredibly flexible and adaptable, and will be whatever we need in every situation. Receiving medical treatment does not limit the Spirit.

For those of you who have never thought about whether or not medication limits the Holy Spirit, you are welcome to wonder how relevant this is. But I have talked to multiple Christians who have had weird ideas about medication. So if you read this and it means nothing to you or it sounds odd that is fine, you are not the target audience.

 “Mentally ill people cannot be a disciple of Jesus.”

John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The only qualification to become a disciple is to believe in Jesus. Mental health issues do not prevent someone from believing in Jesus, nor are they a sign of disbelief.

Mathew 16:24 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

If we believe in Jesus, we will also take up our cross and follow him.

“Mentally ill people are a burden to the church and they make other people’s lives more difficult.”

I think I’ll write a post specifically about this, so go read that full post.

 “You should pray away your mental illness and have faith instead of going to a doctor.”

Mark 2:17 “When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Let’s address both parts of this verse. Jesus said that those who are sick need a physician. I take this as a statement of support for the medical profession. It is a simple statement of an earthly need. The fact that he then says he came to call sinners does not imply that people who are sick are sinners, he is now making a spiritual allegory.

One of the most common stories in the Bible is the healing story. A prophet, apostle, or Jesus are walking along when someone comes and asks to be healed, or family member comes with the request. They then get healed. They may have been God-fearing people before they were healed, and being healed does not automatically make them a better person spiritually speaking. Being healed could strengthen their faith, but it is not guaranteed. They could have also been great sinners before being healed, and continued to live in sin after being healed. We don’t know.

The same can be said for mental illness. Yes, it can limit what someone does, but they are not a sinner just for having a mental disorder. Many, if not all, would like to be healed, but being healed would not suddenly transform them spiritually speaking.

If people want to seeking healing then I am fine with that, but for myself I instead received faith to obey Jesus and see a physician. My psychiatrist and therapist have never tried to pressure me into leaving my church or abandoning my faith. Instead, they have encouraged me to continue to be active in my church to hold onto that human interaction and social support.

“Mental Illness is a Sin.”

Go read Galatians 5, Exodus 20, or Leviticus and see if mental illness is listed as a sin. See if any illness is a sin. See if having physical or mental limitations is a sin.

There are plenty of other ideas about mental illness that I have heard, but I’m not going to address them all. These are a few that I have struggled with, or that close friends and family members have struggled with. I have seen amazing things happen in peoples’ lives when they were freed from these stupid ideas, but they often suffered under them for years, so I genuinely hope and pray that people can give up their so-called “Biblical” ideas about mental illness as quickly as possible and come to a real connection with God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit. That is the real Biblical goal for people who have mental health issues. Notice how they have the same goal as everyone else? Yeah.