Suicide and the Christian

It’s one of the taboo subjects in Christianity; something that’s discussed in lowered voices and pins-and-needles tones, especially when it’s made personal through knowing someone or a family who’s experienced it. What does one make of a Christian who has committed suicide?

Make no mistake, we’re usually ready to say the expected things at the expected times at the expected places. But we’re pretty quick to turn and head in the opposite direction once done as fast as we can as if doing so will distance us from those we were speaking with and the subject in general.

But we shouldn’t. Here’s why.

Our culture has come a long way from the Jack Kevorkian days when the majority of people recoiled at the thought of someone choosing death over life. Today, it’s far more accepted with just one example being Canada’s legalized medical assistance in dying, or MAID, that became law in 2016.  

To get beyond the garish nature of such government action, politicians and activists typically utilize arguments that contain lots of mercy and compassion rhetoric for those who are hurting, usually from terrible medical conditions. But the thing is, many suicides don’t occur because of that.

The despair doom loop that captures far more than we care to admit is more existential and was raised by philosopher Albert Camus in his work “An Absurd Reasoning” (contained in The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays) where he wrote: “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest … comes afterwards.”  

Camus was a “reserved atheist” and so naturally felt the weight of meaninglessness that comes without God — something also articulated by Leo Tolstoy in his Confession: “My question — that which at the age of 50 brought me to the edge of suicide — was the simplest of questions, lying in the soul of every man ... a question without the answer to which one cannot live. It was ‘What will come of what I am doing today or tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything?’ It can also be expressed thus: Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?”

Piling on the experiential angst is a British study showing the country has the highest number of teenagers in the world who believe their life is meaningless and thus consider suicide. Their conclusion prompted cultural commentator Paul Joseph Watson to say: “When your heroes are just an endless avalanche of recycled comic book remake characters; when your role models are a perpetual parade of twerking imbeciles; when your icons are a monotonous march of inauthentic NPC media drones with everything to risk but nothing to say … who wouldn’t want to kill themselves?”

And finally, sprinkle in the despair that comes from seeing and experiencing up close the cruel hand that the world deals out regularly. For example, the Jewish scholar Philip Holley, while investigating Nazi war crimes, became so angry and depressed that he almost committed suicide. But when he read about a small village that showed courage and the love of God by rescuing 5,000 Jewish children during the Holocaust, Holley described his internal breakthrough as “heart cracking goodness” and it saved him.

Not everyone is so lucky. Recent data shows suicide to be the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. with there being one death from it every 10 or so minutes, and 35x (!) more suicide attempts.  

Those are some grim statistics for sure and they become more repugnant when you see Christians in those numbers, such as pastor Gene Jacobs who recently ended his life, and pastor Jarrid Wilson, the founder of a suicide outreach group, who took his own life in 2019, leaving behind his wife and young children.

Suicide and the Bible

Looking at Scripture, we have more than a few mentions of people wanting to “opt out.” For example, Solomon reached the point where he “hated life” (Ecc. 2:17); Elijah was so depressed and afraid that he wished for death (1 Kings 19:4); Jonah got so angry at God that he wanted to die (Jonah 4:8; likely hyperbole). Paul became so overwhelmed that he admitted, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life” (2 Cor. 1:8).

Two of the more prominent suicides in the Bible are Saul (1 Sam. 31:4) and of course, Judas (Matt. 27:5), both unbelievers. Judas, in particular, we are told was indwelt by Satan, the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). There are no suicides of believers in Scripture unless you count Samson, which runs outside the lines of this context.  

When it comes to a believer taking their own life, there are a whole host of questions that come up. Can a “true” Christian commit suicide? Will a believer who does be sent into eternal separation from God? Is it the unpardonable sin (Matt. 12:31-32)?

Some say suicide is something a Christian won’t manifest and does result in life without God. For example, they’ll argue suicide is murder and John writes: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). Paul also says: “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are” (1 Cor. 3:17).

Although such things can give a person pause, I don’t think the conclusion derived from them is correct, and I believe there’s a more accurate and biblical way to navigate the subject.

First, the proper stance towards our lives is one with God at the helm and us agreeing with the psalmist who wrote, “My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15).

Next, Scripture is clear that life is hard — sometimes unbearably so — but yet we are told: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

That said, can a Christian still fall where suicide is concerned? John Piper thinks so and says: “Can a Christian be so depressed and temporarily blinded to the hope of the Gospel that he takes his life in a temporary moment of despair? I think the answer to that is yes.”

But what happens then?

John MacArthur sums up what I believe is the right position when he states: “Suicide is a grave sin equivalent to murder (Exodus 20:13; 21:23), but it can be forgiven like any other sin. And Scripture says clearly that those redeemed by God have been forgiven for all their sins — past, present, and future (Colossians 2:13-14). Paul says in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

During his eulogy for Jarrid Wilson, Greg Laurie explained how this works when he said: “When you stand before God, you won’t be judged by the last thing that you did before you died. You’ll be judged by the last thing Jesus did before he died. He died for your sin.”

This leads us to understand that suicide is not the unpardonable sin; hear what Sinclair Ferguson says on this point: “… suicide is not the unpardonable sin because we know what the unpardonable sin actually is. Jesus tells us in Mark 3 in the passage beginning at verse 22 that the unpardonable sin is the rejection of Jesus Christ and responding to Him or treating Him essentially as though He were demonic. That is very clearly stated. So, suicide is not the unpardonable sin.”

In the end, we must remember that, instead of what Camus and Tolstoy thought, we do have meaning and hope — Scripture repeatedly tells us we have both (Acts 24:15; Rom. 5:2-5, 8:24; 2 Cor. 1:10, etc.) along with purpose in life (Luke 9:23-25; Rom. 8:28; Col. 1:29).

That being true, our stance towards suicide should always be: “So choose life in order that you may live” (Deut. 30:19).

If you are considering suicide, please seek help now. Call 1-800-273-8255, the national suicide hotline, or 911, or get yourself to a hospital. Other options include:

National Hopeline Network: 1-800-422-HOPE (4673).
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988.