Suicide is a great source of shame for many people. I personally have struggled with it a lot, spending much of my teenage years in a psych ward. My childhood was a very hard time for me, and I know my parents and friends were very stressed out by my behavior. People often say that suicide is the most selfish thing one can do. I can’t help but feel like this is bullshit. We didn’t ask to be born, and provided they are healthy, our family and friends should be resilient enough to live without us. That being said, I’m not totally callous. I understand that suicide is a scary thing, and I certainly don’t want to cause unnecessary pain. I think suicide is only for those who are most desperate. It’s a solution for those with problems that are unfixable. But sometimes, problems that seem unfixable actually are. I couldn’t see light at the end of the tunnel when I was a teenaged boy, and in a way there wasn’t. I suffered for years and years until I had the good fortune of being taken to a gentler environment.
That being said, I think that God is good, and that he wouldn’t want me to leave this Earth before its time to do so. As such, I decided to do some research on what the bible says about suicide in honor of the journey I’ve travelled.
I didn’t want to make this article cookie-cutter and just take random verses from the bible and regurgitate them, but I also am nowhere near being a biblical scholar, I needed to do some research. No specific section of the bible came to mind, so I just Googled: “bible verses about suicide”. A few of them came up. The first one I saw was 1 Corinthians 3:16–17. It goes as follows:
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
Now this is a good and true verse, and it makes sense to me. However, I find it oxymoronic, and I am not sure it will succeed in getting the devil out of the heat of a suicidal person. Most suicidal people would read the above paragraph and say: “Well I’m trying to destroy myself anyway, so f*ck it.” This is actually a logical conclusion, but the devil is always smart and tricky, so it’s our job to find a way to argue against such a rebuttal. I kept searching to see what I could find.
And…I really got nothing. That’s right, beyond this little verse in Corinthians, I wasn’t able to find anything that could be interpreted to be about suicide. While this may be disappointing to many, I think it is freeing and helpful if you take control of your life. You see, the bible isn’t here to shame you for feeling down on yourself. It isn’t here to tell you to get up and slave away in misery for the sake of others. Once you accept that you are independent and have value, you will realize that to hurt yourself is the worst thing to do. What you need to do, is realize that religion isn’t here to shame you for struggling, but to support you in your fight for a good life. Unfortunately, this article isn’t about living a good life, it’s about the bible and suicide. But there’s other stuff on this website and on my YouTube Channel that discuss self improvement, metal health issues, and success. Follow me and check out my other content for help on that stuff. I personally haven’t had much success following online guides or with the suicide hotline, so I would send you to those. But they’re out there if you need them. Be well and take care of yourself reader, and all the best.
