Sin or Biochemistry?

Medical doctors and others are always incorrect when they state or infer that we are not responsible for our life, that we are morally victimized. When we are told that we are not responsible for our depression, that is usually not correct. Man is always responsible for how he manages his life, including management of a depression, and is usually responsible for the depression itself. Sometimes, however, it appears that an individual is not responsible for the occurrence of a depressed-feeling state. Some situations are just messy enough to preclude our ability to sort out precisely the contribution of faulty (sinful) life patterns and faulty biochemistry. A thorough counselor always can uncover sin in a counselee’s life. It does not follow that the depression is a specific result of that or any particular sin, nor that dealing with the sin will remove the depression…

Moreover, just because depression usually is related to sin, can we be sure that all depressions are and eschew biochemistry in principle?

The relationship of body and spirit is integral so that tracing the source of feelings and motivational states sometimes can be impossible. It is relatively easy for a physician to trace a depression to a medication being given for another problem. Stop administering the medicine and the depression remits. Experiences like this strongly encourage physicians to believe that chemicals are causative of depression and that the chemicals could be as easily produced by a defective body as introduced into the body by a defective treatment. Likewise, it may be relatively easy for a counselor to trace a depression to a specific pattern of sin and see the depression remit as the sin is handled biblically. An impression may be encouraged that depression is thus produced always. Since depression is not a biblical word, we must be cautious in adducing Scripture to address it. There certainly are passages in Scripture which seem to reflect clearly what we today term depression, but we are retrofitting modern terminology. Wherever He has provided it, God’s terminology is the best to use to describe our problems...

If I feel miserable, have lost my ‘get up and go,’ have little interest in socialization, have no appetite, and feel like weeping when there is no provocation to do so, someone is likely to suggest that I am depressed. Such a state could arise from the body, from sinful habits, or from both. In any case, I am responsible for how I manage this state. If I give in to my feelings and fail to meet my responsibilities because I don’t feel like it, I am managing my depression sinfully. If a counselor uncovers a pattern of sin that seems to relate to my situation, I should put off the pattern and put on God’s pattern. If a physician has good reason to believe that I am flawed biochemically, there is no necessary sin in trying chemicals to correct the putative flaw, provided I do not neglect the former avenues. The Christian counselor’s forte is to point out my duty to fulfill responsibilities irrespective of my feeling state and to detect sins that could have led to my depression. Physicians do foul up the situation by exclusively teaching biochemical causes of feeling state, leaving Christian counselors with some deprogramming to do.


An excerpt from "A Caution Against Overstating the Case"