Scripture reading: Galatians 5:16–24

Spiritual Bipolar Disorder

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:8)

 

Few stories better depict the torment of a divided soul than Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A good and respectable physician, Dr. Jekyll early in life discovers a dark side to his nature. Hoping to gain control over the inner evil, he creates a mixture of chemicals in his lab that he hopes will resolve the inner conflict. Instead, the potion releases dark forces deep within that transform him into the hideous and murderous Mr. Hyde. Although he once again becomes the respectable Dr. Jekyll when the effects of the drink wear off, over time the inner evil becomes stronger than Jekyll can control. Living a double life ultimately leads Dr. Jekyll to insanity, depression and self-destruction.

Stevenson’s troubling story has made such a deep impression on our culture that the term “Jekyll and Hyde” has its own dictionary entry describing “a two-sided personality, one side of which is good and the other evil.” But long before Robert Louis Stevenson described the “strange case” of a divided personality, the Bible spoke pointedly to this tragic condition. The Apostle Paul, for example, writes of a period in his life when inner duplicity almost drove him insane.

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate . . . For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing . . . For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:15–24)

 

Modern psychology might attempt to label Paul’s condition as some sort of mood disorder or split personality, but the Bible prefers to stick with the basic moral categories of right and wrong, good and evil. The apostle James likewise describes a “double-minded man” as being unstable in all his ways. The word literally means “having two souls.” Such a person is a walking civil war. One can never be sure which side of his personality will prevail: the good side or the evil side.

Perhaps David is the most tragic illustration in the Bible of a double-minded man. On the one hand, he had a heart like God’s. He genuinely loved God and served him in ways that made his life exemplary, a model to follow even today. Yet on the other hand, he once committed adultery and then murdered the husband, one of his own “mighty men,” so the deed would not be discovered! David’s inner anguish is palpable as he prays in desperation to God, Give me an undivided heart (Psalm 86:11). Can God do this? Can even God cure the inner duplicity that threatens every human soul? Or will “Mr. Hyde” always lurk within?

 

The good news of the Gospel is that the blood of Calvary and the Spirit of Pentecost can heal the inner division and make our hearts single, whole, and filled with holy love. The Lord can heal your divided heart and he will . . . if you ask him and then trust him to do what he promised.

 

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 11:19–20)

 

 

 

 

Purity of heart is to will one thing.—Søren Kierkegaard

 

 

point to ponder • God promises healing and restoration to those who put their trust in him.

 

prayer focus • That the thought of asking God for help would never sound trite, stale, or tired.