In my last post, I made the claim that the Bible gives us the strongest foundation for Mental Health. And I suggested that the Bible gives us a direction for thinking about positive and negative emotions. The Bible even goes beyond the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) by suggesting a normative human experience.

Allow me to direct your attention to a few scriptures in supporting this point.

In Genesis 3 and Psalm 32 the Bible affirms the emotions of guilt as instrumental in indicating something amiss.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:7–8

This is a classic description of guilt symptoms. This was not a mental illness that needed to be cured. God didn't prescribe therapy sessions for Adam and Eve. God didn't want Adam and Eve to mask this feeling of guilt with medication. God wanted his first created humans to feel in their conscience the spiritual death that had occurred through their disobedience. This guilt was instrumental in driving Adam and Eve back to God for a remedy.

We also see throughout scripture that our emotions are instrumental in relating to God. God is pleased when his people express emotions of joy, gratitude, and excitement.

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.” - Psalm 95:1–3

In fact, God gives his Holy Spirit to the Believer and produces the fruit of emotions.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22–23

Finally, it is evidently safe to talk to God out of our emotional state. Look at Psalm 25.

“Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. 17 Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish. 18 Look on my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins.” Psalm 25:16–18

But the Bible doesn't just include and affirm emotions in the Spiritual experience. The Bible gives us a detailed account of the perfect man. The Bible holds up Jesus as the image we are all to be shaped into.

This is really critical when we consider mental health. For all the research and development that has been done in the field of psychology, there remains the difficulty of defining what is "normal". One of the primary reasons the DSM has grown to be multiple volumes over the years is because the boundaries of normal are difficult to define.

But the Bible comes along and says Jesus is the true North when we want to interpret, diagnose and prescribe a "normal" mental health.

I think that is controversial. Some may push back and say Jesus was male and didn't have a female human experience, therefore he cannot be the perfect picture of mental health for women. Others may pushback and say Jesus was without sin and therefore immune from some of the primary causes of mental health. And those counterpoints need to be wrestled with beyond a simple blog post.

Let me close this article by suggesting three implications that we can hold onto if Jesus is the perfect image of mental health.

Jesus' lived in obedience to God the Father and was filled with the Holy Spirit. His mental health was not an autonomous state that he produced through independence.
Jesus faced trauma from incredibly difficult social situations and yet continued to serve others. His focus on serving others and subjecting himself to the sinful tendencies of others shows us that mental health doesn't mean isolation from other people's junk.
If Jesus was the most mentally healthy human being ever to live it is insightful to see him mourn and suffer. Again, it shows us that avoiding negative human emotions is not the primary objective. And on the flip side, we don't see Jesus pursuing his own happiness. He is pursuing the happiness of Heaven. Doesn't John 17 speak to this with incredible clarity?

Again, I'm trying to make the point that the Bible gives us the strongest framework for pursing mental health. And the Bible gives us a very strong picture of what it means to be “normal”.

Some of you hear that and it rubs you the wrong way. Especially those of you who have engaged the topic of mental health and been around the church for any length of time. We just need to acknowledge that there are some Christians suffering from church PTSD. Maybe you have had a bad church experience as you have wrestled with the topic of Mental Health.

In my next article, I want to suggest there are three significant errors Christians made in this arena of Mental Health.