Rene Descartes is
famous for his argument that the mind and the body are distinct and
that each can exist without the other. Philosophers continue to
debate whether this is correct, but it seems to me that all
Christians must accept this distinction. The Bible clearly teaches
that our spirits and our bodies were made for each other and yet they
are still distinct. The Apostle Paul knew that when he died, his
spirit would go be with the Lord, whilst his body would rot in the
ground, but that his spirit and body would be reunited at Christ’s
second coming. (2 Cor 5:1-6; 1 Cor 15:50-53).
For Paul to be
able to use the language of being “at home” with the Lord and
“away” from the body (2 Cor 5:1-6) and for John to be able to
refer to the souls in heaven crying out (Rev 6:9-10), it must be the
case that a person’s mind is part of his spirit rather than his
body. When a person’s spirit and body are separated at death, the
spirit is not mindless, but is able to think and communicate and
enjoy being at home in the presence of Christ.
To affirm that
the mind and body are distinct is not to say that the mind and the
body have no effect on each other. We all know from experience that
our minds affect our bodies and vice versa: we can decide in our
minds to move our bodies, and tiredness in our bodies affects the
thinking of our minds.
These
distinctions are important when considering the causes and treatments
for mental illness. Mental illness is illness of the mind, and as the
mind is part of the spirit rather than than the body, mental illness
is spiritual illness.
To some the
phrase “spiritual illness” gives the impression of moral
shortcoming and that we are in some way to blame for the illness, but
that is a misconception. Saying that “mental illness” is
spiritual illness is simply observing that our minds belong to our
spirits rather than our bodies.
To others, saying
that mental illness is spiritual illness sounds like mental illness
is being made out to be less serious than physical illness, but that
is also a misconception. The person who survives a heart attack may
well be plunged into suicidal depression from a broken heart.
Given that our
minds and our bodies affect each other whilst they are connected to
each other, affirming that mental illness is spiritual illness rather
than bodily illness is not to say that all the causes of all mental
illnesses arise in the spirit/mind rather than the body. A problem in
our bodies may well be the cause of a mental/spiritual problem.
However, the affirmation of the distinction between the spirit and
the body, does help us to remember that the cause of a particular
mental illness may well be in the mind rather than in the body, or
that there may be both bodily and metal/spiritual causes.
The application
of this in treating a particular mental illness is that a person
suffering from mental illness may need medical help only, spiritual
help only or a combination of medical help and spiritual help,
depending on whether the cause(s) of the illness lies in the mind,
the body or both. When it comes to treating Christians with mental
illnesses, in some cases the treatment may best be delivered by a
secular counsellor whom God has gifted in particular ways to
understand how the mind works and to help people better understand
their own minds, in other cases the treatment may best be delivered
by a pastor to whom God has given a particular gift of being able to
show people how the message of the Gospel applies to the particular
issue that the Christian is facing, and in many cases, the Christian
will be helped through a combination of advice from the pastor and
the secular counsellor.
Some Christians
may object to saying that spiritual and mental illness are
synonymous. They argue that non-Christians can be in good mental
health, but they cannot be in good spiritual health because the Bible
is clear that everyone who is outside of Christ is spiritually dead,
and so mental and spiritual health must be different. However, this
is to misunderstand what the Bible means by spiritual death. Death in
the Bible has to do with separation. Physical death occurs when a
person's spirit is separated from their body. Spiritual death occurs
when the a person's spirit is separated from God. If we are
spiritually dead (as all people are before being born again – Eph
2:1), this means that our spirit is separated from and hostile to
God, but it does not mean that our spirit is inactive. The fact that
a person who is spiritually dead still has an active spirit is clear
from 1 Cor 2:11:
“For who knows
a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in
him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit
of God.”
Paul does not
limit what he says here to be true only for Christians. The spirit of
every person, Christian or non-Christian, knows that person's
thoughts. Therefore, it must be the case that spiritual death does
not mean spiritual inactivity, but rather spiritual hostility to God.
I expect that many people may find it hard to grasp that spiritual death means spiritual hostility to God rather than spiritual inactivity due to the way that some people seek to prove that God has to work specifically in a person's heart before they can become a Christian. They present their argument as follows: Ephesians 2:1 says that non-Christians are spiritually dead; dead people don't do anything; therefore the spirits of non-Christians can't do anything and so God must make our spirits alive and then we will choose Christ. This argument is incorrect because it assumes that if physical death means the inactivity of the body, then spiritual death must mean inactivity of the spirit, whereas the Bible teaches that physical death is about the separation of the body from the spirit and spiritual death is about the separation of the spirit from God. The argument is also unnecessary because it is clear from 2 Cor 4:3-6 that God has to work in a person's heart before a person will accept the Gospel.
I expect that many people may find it hard to grasp that spiritual death means spiritual hostility to God rather than spiritual inactivity due to the way that some people seek to prove that God has to work specifically in a person's heart before they can become a Christian. They present their argument as follows: Ephesians 2:1 says that non-Christians are spiritually dead; dead people don't do anything; therefore the spirits of non-Christians can't do anything and so God must make our spirits alive and then we will choose Christ. This argument is incorrect because it assumes that if physical death means the inactivity of the body, then spiritual death must mean inactivity of the spirit, whereas the Bible teaches that physical death is about the separation of the body from the spirit and spiritual death is about the separation of the spirit from God. The argument is also unnecessary because it is clear from 2 Cor 4:3-6 that God has to work in a person's heart before a person will accept the Gospel.
Some Christians
may also deny that Christians can receive any spiritual help from
non-Christians. However, this also follows from the failure to
understand that spiritual death does not mean spiritual inactivity.
The spirits/minds of non-Christians are active, and in God's common
grace, some people understand the human spirit/mind very well and
they are able to help both Christians and non-Christians with many
mental/spiritual issues. A clear example of this is the development
of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT, which is all about helping
people to identify how undesirable behaviour arises from false
beliefs and helping them to replace the false beliefs with true
beliefs. However, from the observation that mental illness and
spiritual illness are synonymous, it does follow that, although it
may often be appropriate for churches to refer Christians to secular
counsellors and to take seriously the gifts God has given to secular
counsellors, it is never appropriate for churches to defer totally to
the advice of secular counsellors because many of the issues that are
covered by secular counsellors are issues that are addressed directly
by the Gospel and the advice that is given by secular counsellors may
well be in direct opposition to the Gospel.
