Subject: Is suicide a sin? |
Bible Note: The issues of life and death lie in the sovereign hands of God alone. Job said to God, "Man's days are determined; you [O God] have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed" (Job 14:5). David said to God, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:16). Yes, yes, hunger, there is a sixth commandment that tells us, "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13), and this command is based on the sanctity of human life. This reflects back on the fact that man was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26). However, it is important to understand that the command, "You shall not murder," has no direct object. That is, it doesn't say, "You shall not murder someone else," or "You shall not murder your fellow man." It simply says, "You shall not murder." The prohibition thus includes not just the murder of one's fellow man but even the murder of oneself. While suicide is certainly not the "unforgivable sin," we must never forget that God prohibits murder of any kind. So does this mean that God will not forgive such a sin if a believer actually takes it upon themself to take their own life? By no means! Would this sin be any different from that of any sin that is committed either willfully or in ignorance in the twilight hours of one's life? Not at all, since showing hatred towards someone in your heart is equivalent to the sin of murder (Matthew 5:22). Please don't misinterpret what I'm trying to say here: It is a grevious and terrible thing to murder or take your own life, but I do not believe that this sin (suicide) is out of the scope of God's forgiveness, even though the 'offender' is dead and cannot repent of his sin. The lives of certain biblical saints are instructive on the issue of suicide. There were times when certain servants of God in biblical times were so severely tested and distressed that they wished for their own death (see 1 Kings 19:4). But these individuals did not take matters into their own hands and kill themselves, but God always rescued them. We can learn a lesson here. When we despair, we must turn to God and not commit suicide. God will see us through. The apostle Paul certainly went through though times. Indeed, in 2 Corinthians 1:8 Paul reflected on his past: "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life." Nevertheless, Paul did not succumb to taking his own life, but he depended on God, and God came through and gave him all the sustenance he needed to make it through his ordeal (1 Corinthians 1:9-10). Following Paul's example, we must depend on God when life throws us a punch. And just as God sustained Paul through his difficulties, so He will sustain us. Nolan |