Depression or Pride: Suicide

A prime-minister takes his life. A teenager determines to end it all. Is too low a view of self the culprit? As Christians we are often taught to love ourselves. We wrongly interpret the words of Jesus, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39). We pervert these words. We don't need to learn to love ourselves before we can love others. We already love ourselves too much. We readily put ourselves first. We do almost everything with old number one in mind. Jesus tells us to love others as much as we already love, cherish, and care for ourselves.

Then why do people threaten suicide? They are making self-centered demands for attention. They make the threat to gain the demanded attention. We correct little children for such behavior. What about suicide? From this perspective, isn't it an act of selfishness? We reject the control other people or situations exercise over our lives. In suicide, we think we take ultimate control over our lives.
Before you reject these thoughts, test them by the Bible. "For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for it we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord" (Romans 14:7-8). If we commit suicide to please ourselves, that suicide is an act of selfishness and pride.

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