Suicide and the Bible
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| Telamonian Aias is preparing to commit suicide. Reproducing illustration of an antique Greek black-figure amphora (colour litho), depiction by Exekias (530-525 BC) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
SUICIDE BREAKS THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD
The sanctity of human life is paramount in the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex. 20:13). Murder is condemned, and elsewhere in the law every act that endangers human life is condemned, whether the act arise from carelessness (Deut. 22:8), wantonness (Lev. 19:14), hatred, anger, or revenge (Lev. 19:17–18). Human life is sacred, for man was made in the image of God (Gen. 9:6). But the commandment has no direct object. It does not say, “Thou shalt not kill someone,” or, “Thou shalt not kill thy fellowman.”
It is simply, “Thou shalt not kill.” Thus it has to be concluded that “the prohibition includes not only the killing of a fellow-man, but the destruction of one’s own life, or suicide.” This conclusion should not be surprising, for if God does consider human life to be so sacred, one cannot say that means all human life except his own, which he then has a right to end at his choice of time and circumstances. Suicide ignores God’s attitude toward life and violates the sixth commandment (Rom. 13:9).
SUICIDE DOES NOT END IT ALL
Often those who commit suicide leave notes indicating, among other things, why they chose that course of action. Frequently, the reason involves the desire to end it all. For various reasons life became empty or its circumstances too difficult to bear, and they think death will bring release from all problems.
Our Lord made clear that a person continues conscious existence after the death of the body. Indeed, it is only the body that dies, and the immaterial part of the person not only continues to exist but apparently can remember (Luke 16:25). Suicide, then, cannot even kill the memories of the things that may have driven the individual to suicide.
Passages that speak of judgment to come also show that death does not end it all. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). The scene at the great white throne where the unsaved of all ages will be judged is awesome. The dead are raised to stand before the throne, and they are to be judged according to the works done in their mortal bodies (Rev. 20:12–13). Not only does death not end it all, but the activities of life (including suicide) will be reviewed after death. This ought to be a deterrent to anyone contemplating suicide.
CAN A BELIEVER COMMIT SUICIDE?
Of course he can, for obviously believers do. But, some may say, are you sure they are genuine believers? Some Christians are quite sure that a true believer cannot commit suicide, but there is no scriptural evidence for such a claim. Others who maintain that a believer may lose his salvation believe that if a Christian takes his own life, he loses his salvation and is destined to the lake of fire. That true believers cannot commit suicide seems open to serious question, since many apparently do. Though experience is not always a safe guide, it would be difficult to judge certain well-known and widely used men of God as unbelievers because they did commit suicide. Is there any biblical example of a believer who committed suicide?
Actually there is none in the New Testament (Judas was not a believer), but in the Old Testament there is the suicide of King Saul who fell on his own sword. Whether or not Saul was a believer is debated. Some take Samuel’s statement that soon Saul and his sons would be with him to mean that Saul would be in paradise, or heaven, with Samuel (1 Sam. 28:19). Others understand it to mean merely that Saul would soon die and go to Sheol, which included the place of the wicked dead. The statement is ambiguous, and we cannot prove conclusively that Saul was a believer who committed suicide.
Nevertheless we do know that believers do not lose their salvation because of certain kinds of sin. Admittedly suicide is a sin (for it is murder of self), but adultery and murder are equally gross sins. Yet we know that King David, who committed both of those sins, did not lose his salvation because of it (Rom. 4:7–8). The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, including suicide.
THE EFFECTS OF SUICIDE
We have already noted that suicide doesn’t end it all for the individual. For others who are left behind, the effect is always one of sorrow and often of increased complications. If a family is left, it is deprived of the presence and help of the one who takes his own life. A believer who ends his life also ends forever his opportunities to witness and serve the Lord on earth. Suicide is one of the greatest acts of selfishness, for in it the individual caters to his desires and own will and ignores the effects on others.
People on the brink of suicide often suffer from an overpowering sense of being alone. The accompanying depression shrinks the horizons of the individual until his entire perspective is filled only with himself. This leads to self-pity and to the self-deception that justifies in his mind the final act of suicide. Self-centeredness is a root of suicide.
It is argued that if one is bedfast or so neurotic as to be useless, then there is no selfishness involved in taking his own life. Yet by what standard do we measure usefulness? When I first began to teach, one of the people who prayed for me the most frequently and fervently was a lady who could only get out of bed if her husband lifted her into a wheelchair. The years of her confinement were filled with the most useful kind of service on behalf of people all over this world. Sometimes God uses even an individual’s total incapacity in the lives of the family that is obliged to care for him. Also, neuroses and psychoses are not always permanent. Cures are discovered, and God heals. But suicide gives no opportunity for a cure or for a demonstration of the power of God.
Since a believer does not lose his salvation when he commits suicide, is he not with Christ, which is far better (Phil. 1:23)? To be in heaven would seem to be more desirable than to be on earth in an intolerable situation. Before embracing that conclusion, however, let’s look at its logical ramification.
If that logic is true, all believers ought to commit suicide, for being in heaven would be better. It is true that to depart and be with Christ is far better if the departure is according to God’s perfect timing. If the departure is out of the will of God, then the result is not far better. When death occurs, by whatever means, the believer’s life of service here is finished, and it is that service which will be examined at the judgment seat of Christ.
The outcome of the judgment does not involve the eternal destiny of the believer, for that is not in question. The matter in question is reward, or loss of it. And that phrase “he shall suffer loss” (1 Cor. 3:15) is one of the significant effects of the suicide of a believer. The word loss means to forfeit, or in the passive as here, to suffer forfeit of what one possessed or might have possessed. John warns of the same possibility of losing a full reward (2 John 8). Since suicide breaks the command of God, the one who commits it must suffer loss at the judgment seat of Christ. The compassion we have for anyone caught in any sin must not obscure what the Bible teaches about the consequences of that sin.
THE DEFENSES AGAINST SUICIDE
No Christian need commit suicide, but the flesh is weak, Satan is powerful, and circumstances are often adverse. What are his defenses against this sin?
On the negative side, he should remember that the specific command of God forbids it; that it inevitably brings sorrow to those who are left; that it gives vent to selfish concerns rather than the will of God; that it will be reviewed, along with his other deeds, at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10); and that it is in the final analysis an act of rebellion against God. These are sobering facts, which, properly considered, should be powerful deterrents to anyone contemplating suicide.
On the positive side, the Christian remembers that he is heir to all the promises of God. If he feels driven to the point of suicide because he has got out of the will of God, then he should use God’s remedies for restoring fellowship. Confession of sins to God is first, then he must right wronged relationships. This will sometimes involve much time and patience. But renewed fellowship with the Father will remove the desire to escape the consequences of sin through suicide.
If he is driven through adverse circumstances that are not the result of sin, he must try to understand that he is in the particular situation in the will of God. Even though the Lord may use Satan to bring about the combination of circumstances, to endure triumphantly is the will of God. Job is, of course, the best example of such. Sometimes God will deliver, and sometimes He will not, but in either case He promises a way to escape “that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). Bearing does not necessarily mean relief. Notice that the miraculous deliverances recorded in Hebrews 11:32–35 are followed immediately by the record of many who were not delivered (vv. 36–37). The promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13 guarantees that God will limit the intensity and kind of test to what He knows we can individually bear.
And His knowledge is without limit, so the promise is not based on what we think we can bear but on what He knows we can. No believer has the right to say that God expected too much of him in light of this promise. Even when the apostle Paul despaired of life itself, God was carefully controlling the measure of his tests (2 Cor. 1:8–10; 6:4–10). God’s servants have sometimes been so severely tested that they wish for death (1 Kings 19:4; John 4:8), but they don’t take the matter into their own hands, and God rescues them.
But are there not instances when people, overwhelmed by pressures or depressions, take their own lives in a state of temporary insanity? Undoubtedly there are, but it is difficult to know to what extent such people are responsible for their actions when they are not themselves. There are degrees of irrationality, and while the climactic act of suicide may apparently be uncontrollable, the steps that lead to it are usually not. It is clear that an unsaved person who commits suicide ends all further opportunity to be saved, whether that suicide is done in a sane or insane condition. Though all the sins of a believer are forgiven, the believer who commits suicide, whether sane or not, loses further opportunities of service in this life. We must leave the judging of such cases to God who knows perfectly all the circumstances involved.
Ryrie, C. C. (1991). Biblical answers to tough questions (pp. 73–78). Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
