Absolutely, unequivocally,

No!

There is nothing in scripture that even suggest it is.

Nada.

But there are hundreds of verses that address our moods, suggesting to me that God wanted to cover the conditions he knew would suffer from. The books of Proverbs and Psalms contain many verses about our moods.  

However, the subject of depression is still a taboo subject for ill-informed Christians and clergymen and women. It is rare to hear a sermon about depression and what to do about it and yet it’s a condition probably most people in a given congregation haven’t dealt with or known someone that has. Usually, those sermons cause guilt rather than offer hope.

And what about Jesus? While the particulars of Jesus’s anguish are not linked to depression as we would define it, what he experienced in that garden was the most severe anxiety and depressed mood I can imagine. It was depression at its most overwhelming.

Depression is no more a sin than any other illness. It is suggested by most medical health professionals that at some level there is human culpability in every illness.

So you can let the guilt go. And you can let the opinions of others about an illness they probably know nothing about, fade into oblivion.

However, and this is a big however, depression can certainly lead to sin.

When we are feeling miserable, alone, scared, worried, “dark”, we can easily make some wrong choices in an effort to eradicate our pain.

We can drink alcohol to excess. We can succumb to addicting medications. We can flirt. We can steal. We can eat ourselves sick or starve ourselves sick. There are so many behaviors people engage in to ease their pain.

We do not make good decisions when we are depressed.

Period.

And that IS where sin comes in.

It’s not that people want to do anything wrong, they just want the pain to go away.  Haven’t you ever been in so much pain, you just wanted it go away? If you have, then you understand the feeling.  

Many depressed people have stated that the  pain of depression is far worse than physical pain.

We walk closer to sin’s trap when we’re depressed than when we’re not. Being aware of it might help us be more cautious.So let’s put it to rest. Depression is not sin but unlike other illnesses, it can make us feel so bad, we will do anything to feel better which can lead to sin.

God bless and have good day.

The post, “The big question: Is depression sin?”, appeared first on thegiftofdepression.com.