Sermon Tone Analysis

Depression: Causal Complexity

When we recognize depression as suffering (our main point last week), we see that Scripture embraces complexity, shuns simplistic answers and points to five relevant causal elements relevant to all suffering (including depression).

Let’s consider each as it may apply to depression.

The sins of others

Our social context consists of people who will, in varying degrees, sin against us.

This is going to profoundly hurt us, because God created for loving relationships.

So when relationships do the inverse of what they were created for, it hurts profoundly.

In other words, when relationships get negative and painful, we get negative and hurt.

About half the Psalms are the cries of the oppressed, and beneath the depression of some people you may find victims of others' sin.

Take a look, for example at , .

Victims can struggle with depression.

But perhaps in less obvious cases, the sins and failures of others still need to be considered—for example, the depression a teenager is battling may be related to the divorce of her parents.

In this example, it may be hard to identify who sinned, but clearly the impact of sin-affected relationships is having a toll on this teenager.

In seeking to understand and respond to depression, we must be aware of the impact our social context makes.

That’s the first relevant causal factor.

If an enemy were insulting me,

I could endure it;

if a foe were rising against me,

I could hide.

But it is you, a man like myself,

my companion, my close friend,

 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship

at the house of God,

as we walked about

among the worshipers.

Victims can struggle with depression.

But perhaps in less obvious cases, the sins and failures of others still need to be considered—for example, the depression a teenager is battling may be related to the divorce of her parents.

In this example, it may be hard to identify who sinned, but clearly the impact of sin-affected relationships is having a toll on this teenager.

In seeking to understand and respond to depression, we must be aware of the impact our social context makes.

That’s the first relevant causal factor.

Our bodies are a cause of suffering

The curse of sin has negatively affected everything, including our physical bodies.

So we don’t quite function as we should.

Ed Welch, a psychologist who has a PhD in Counseling Psychology with a neuro-psychology speciality, says that “diseases, deterioration from old-age, post-partum struggles, and possible chemical imbalances are just a few of the physical causes relevant to depression.” [1] The Christian perspective recognises the important role of the body, this biological component of depression.

Charles Spurgeon, the revered Baptist preacher who struggled with depression, says: “Man is a double being: he is composed of body and soul, and each of the portions of man may receive injury and hurt.”

[2] If you take a look at v 16-18, you see that physically we are deteriorating.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

There is an inward renewal, but there is a real external decay.

Consequently, pastoral caregivers and biblical counsellors must take into account the body’s contribution to depression, and therefore consider a team approach when it comes to helping those with depression.

We will consider this in more detail when we think about the recovery from depression.

But it’s worth saying now that a Christian approach is holisitic, and the idea that someone could recover from depression through moral extertion or pure willpower is a nonsense.

There is an inward renewal, but there is a real external decay.

Consequently, pastoral caregivers and biblical counsellors must take into account the body’s contribution to depression, and therefore consider a team approach when it comes to helping those with depression.

We will consider this in more detail when we think about the recovery from depression.

But it’s worth saying now that a Christian approach is holisitic, and the idea that someone could recover from depression through moral extertion or pure willpower is a nonsense.

There is an inward renewal, but there is a real external decay.

Consequently, pastoral caregivers and biblical counsellors must take into account the body’s contribution to depression, and therefore consider a team approach when it comes to helping those with depression.

We will consider this in more detail when we think about the recovery from depression.

But it’s worth saying now that a Christian approach is holisitic, and the idea that someone could recover from depression through moral extertion or pure willpower is a nonsense.

Let's briefly pause here.

What we've considered so far could be described as the “nurture and nature” causes of suffering.

These two elements alone cause enormous complexity in the case of depression.

Yale University professor Charles Barber has said that there is an “infinitely complex dialogue between genes and the environment...an intricate, infinite, dialectical dance between experience and biology.”

[3] This ought to caution us to recognize the inherent complexity in depression.

However, from the Christian perspective, there are other ‘partners’ in the dialectical dance that are even less accessible but even more decisive!

Let’s consider them.

We are a cause of suffering

Before conversion our hearts are incomprehensibly wayward (cf. ) and even after conversion, our hearts can behave inconsistently with our new identity (cf. 1 Corinthians).

We should not be surprised to find inordinate fears, anger and selfish desires lurking beneath some experiences of depression—because it's from the heart that the cognitive, affective and volitional aspects of our lives flow.

Thoughts, emotions and actions come from our hearts; it's the home-base for what we think, feel and do ().

Our heart is the causal core of who we are and how we think, feel and choose.

However, psychiatric issues (like depression) require both wisdom and tentativeness in differentiating the role of the body and the role of the heart.

When in depression, consider:

Anger

Fear:

Fear:

Anxiety weighs down the heart,

but a kind word cheers it up.

Anxiety weighs down the heart,

but a kind word cheers it up.

Guilt (Legalism):

When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.

“I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

“What is that to us?” they replied.

“That’s your responsibility.”

So Judas threw the money into the temple and left.

Then he went away and hanged himself.

Dashed Hopes

When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them.

“Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.

I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.

Why call me Naomi?

The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

Satan is a cause of suffering

How exactly he acts as an agent in an individual's culpable selfish desires and how he exacerbates inordinate fears is unknown.

How he affects psychological and physiological functioning is something of a mystery.

How his agency plays out in misshaping sociocultural values is inaccessible.

But we know that he is at work in all these, and we cannot dismiss his influential role.

The Sovereign Providence of God

Finally, it is worth remembering that God is at work in the midst of all the above: God our Father is always with us, and always at work.

Our Heavenly Father is in control over everything; He is in control of our social context, in control of our bodies, He is even (mysteriously) in control of our hearts, and, yes, even at work over and through the strategies of Satan.

Even though suffering has multiple causes, God's sovereign hand is always over them all.

Even though we know His good character, we cannot fathom his sovereign purposes; and we need to recognise that He sometimes ordains what he hates in order to accomplish what he loves.

We need to balance the truths of and .

When a trumpet sounds in a city,

do not the people tremble?

When disaster comes to a city,

has not the Lord caused it?

.

Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,