Beloved,
I shared last week the way God graciously delivered me from an overactive thyroid, an underactive liver, and an unrelenting cloud of depression. This season of pursuing restored physical and psychological health has led me to read widely on these subjects and to think deeply about the biblical teaching on our flesh-and-blood physicality. In the upcoming weeks, I plan to share some of the key lessons I’ve been learning, beginning today with the fact that we are psychosomatic unities.
John Murray was the first person I encountered to use that language, calling man a “psychosomatic being.” The Greek word for soul is psyche, and the Greek word for body is soma. We are not purely material, nor are we purely spiritual. We are body-soul entities, and those two dimensions are so intertwined that they cannot be neatly separated. That is why G. W. Bromiley writes, “Man has a physical side and a spiritual side….Both belong together in a psychosomatic unity.” We are embodied souls and ensouled bodies.
If we treat our souls as though they are unrelated to or unaffected by the body, we are headed for spiritual trouble. To give a rather extreme example, imagine I pull an all-nighter and then eat McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the following day. How much would that sleep and nutrition deprivation affect my ability to be patient with my kids? The obvious answer to anyone who has tried it is, “A lot!” Patience is a work of the soul, and it is a fruit of the Spirit. But it is not unrelated to what I do with my body.
Sometimes well-meaning Christians treat depression as if it were a purely spiritual phenomenon. To be clear, there are some cases of depression that are primarily spiritual in cause. But I doubt that depression is ever purely spiritual. There always seem to be physical factors at work in our bodies and circumstantial factors at work in our lives. My soul was clouded with a thick, gray fog of melancholy for months. But it appears to have arisen in response to a couple of tragic circumstances in the lives of those I love. I expected it to pass with time as the grief became less raw, but the darkness only deepened. I was stuck in the pit, and it made it very challenging to rejoice in the Lord, serve the Lord, and reflect the Lord. That was what led me to get a blood test, which revealed significant thyroid and liver problems—both of which can cause depression. Getting that gland and organ functioning properly resulted in the elimination of my depression altogether. I do not doubt that the prayers of God’s people played a significant role, but it is evident that God answered those prayers largely, if not entirely, through physical means.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, himself a trained medical doctor, wrote, “Does someone hold the view that as long as you are a Christian it does not matter what the condition of your body is? Well, you will soon be disillusioned if you believe that. Physical conditions play their part in all this….There are certain physical ailments which tend to promote depression.” Richard Baxter, writing of depression (which he called melancholy) in the 17th century, concurred, “With very many there is a great part of the cause in distemper, weakness, and diseasedness of the body; and by it the soul is greatly disabled to any comfortable sense.”
While the Scriptures would have us place a priority on our souls, we cannot do that well without showing healthy care for our bodies. That is why sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do when your soul is struggling is get a good night’s sleep, eat a nutrient-rich meal, do some cardio or weight training, or even get a blood test.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick