What the Bible Says About Suicide

When it comes to the subject of suicide--or drinking or overeating or smoking, etc.--many Christians believe there is one all-purpose passage that covers all of these situations and others. It is I Corinthians 6:19-20, which reminds us that our body is "a temple of the Holy Spirit," and that we "were bought at a price." Therefore we are to honor God in the ways we use our body. Clearly you can justify almost anything with those two verses, including the prohibition against suicide. If the Holy Spirit lives in you, why would you want to desecrate your body with "filthy habits" and why would you want to end your life? Only by implication can you find anything concerning suicide in that passage.

There are two other passages in the Bible that have caused some confusion and controversy in Christian circles. These passages have also been applied to the subject of suicide and have led to some unfortunate conclusions.

The first passage is Matthew 12:29-32, a passage that discusses what is popularly called "the unforgivable sin." There is just enough ambiguity in the passage that some people have felt free to decide for themselves what that sin is. The context of the passage seems to lead to the conclusion that the unforgivable sin is attributing Jesus' actions to the influence and power of the devil rather than to Jesus and the power of God. Some Bible scholars believe that the unforgivable sin described in this passage could be committed only during the time when Jesus was physically present on earth. If that is true, the unforgivable sin cannot be committed today.

There are those who believe that the unforgivable sin is the refusal to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. In that sense, any sin could be unforgivable is forgiveness through Jesus is not sought.

The second passage is I John 5:16-17, a passage about sins that lead to death and sins that do not lead to death. Since we are all going to die someday, it should be obvious that the death in view in this passage is eternal punishment or hell after death, and that there are some sins that condemn one to that punishment or hell. There is no point praying about those sins. Unfortunately, the passage does tell the reader what those sins are.

These Passages and the Issue of Suicide. There are many Christians, however, who do not hesitate to tell us that suicide is the unforgivable sin, the sin that leads to eternal death. Why suicide? Because, we are told, that is the one sin that you can't ask forgiveness for after you've committed it, because you'll be dead. That may be true, but how about all those other sins every Christian commits? If we die having confessed all but one of them and asked forgiveness for all but one of them, does that not make that one sin-lying, lusting in one's heart, cheating on one's taxes, etc.-an unforgivable sin? Why do people choose suicide as the unforgivable sin? It may be because suicide seems so big and has such a big effect on others. That, however, gets us into the game of ranking sins rather than recognizing that God demands perfection and the only way we can achieve perfection is by accepting the death of Jesus as the payment for our sins.

The way I've resolved this issue is to ask myself, "How many sins had I committed when Jesus died on the cross?" The answer is that I had not committed any sins because I had not been born when Jesus died. The next question, "How many of my sins did Jesus die for?" The answer is that he died for all of them. So, if I accept Jesus as my savior, all of my sins are forgiven. Otherwise, I find myself in the position of having my sins prior to my conversion forgiven, but being responsible for maintaining my salvation on my own after my conversion. If that is the situation, then the good news of the Christian faith has become bad news.

Let's be careful not to fill in the silences of the Bible with our own speculations. Suicide may be a sin, but it is not the only one. Any sin can be an unforgivable sin if Jesus Christ is not our Lord and Savior.