Galatians 4-6

“Relabeling” is often the psychological solution. Dr. Carl Menninger, M.D., a psychiatrist and founder of the Menninger Institute, wrote a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin, in which he traced the demise of sin, by showing that sin becomes crime, crime becomes sickness, and sickness becomes choice (1973, pp. 45-47). Paul describes works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21: “illicit sex, perversion, promiscuity, idolatry, drug use, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, angry outbursts, selfish ambition, conflict, factions, envy, drunkenness, wild partying, and similar things” (Galatians 5:19-21, God’s Word Translation).

We can call drunkenness addiction, but it still leads to hungry, abused children, broken dreams, wasted fortunes, and on and on. We can call fornication swinging if we are from a previous generation or hooking up if we are up to date, but the behavior is the same: fornication. We need not explore every sin of the flesh to get the point that relabeling sin as something else does not change the personal and social consequences. Relabeling sin as sickness is like having cosmetic surgery in order to stay looking young.

One may look younger but be the same old hag or crotchety old codger inside. Walk through the psychology section of almost any bookstore and you will see stacks of how-to-overcome books. Some are good, but many are simply pop psychology, and some sink to the level of “snake oil.” Sometimes self-help books written from a “Christian” perspective, are little more than reconstituted pop psychology—or snake oil. We should recognize that there are real mental illnesses that can and should be treated by professionals. However, much that is labeled “mental illness” is sinful behavior, for which the individual should be held accountable.

“Cuff-um-and-stuff-um” is the criminal justice solution, which seeks to change behavior by restricting it by external forces such as law and punishment. We certainly need laws—laws that are enforced. However, according to a 2018 report by the Bureau of Justice, of the 401,288 prisoners released from state prisons across 30 states in 2005, 83% were arrested again during the nine-year period following their release. Forty-four percent were arrested in the first year after release. If external restraint of behavior changed the heart, righteousness would have been by the Law of Moses (Galatians 3:21).

The third solution is the sociological solution: reform society. Society certainly needs to be reformed, but to reform society, we must begin with reforming individuals; otherwise, we are treating the symptoms instead of the “disease.” For the right price, an “expert” can be bought who will excuse the criminal act as a disease, for which someone else is responsible. Perhaps you recall the Affluenza Defense a few years ago in which the “expert” put the blame on the rich parents who certainly did a poor job of rearing the young man. It worked. He never spent a day in jail for killing four pedestrians, but later served two years for parole violation: “Ethan Couch, who as a 16-year-old driver drunkenly struck and killed four pedestrians but dodged prison after suggesting at trial that his irresponsibility was a result of his entitled upbringing, walked free Monday after serving almost two years in a Texas jail on a probation violation” (By ASSOCIATED PRESS APR 02, 2018, FORT WORTH, TEXAS).

Of course, one does not have to have a rich, indulgent daddy to be excused from personal responsibility for sin. There are plenty of “experts” who are willing to testify that young men and women in the “hood” cannot be held personally responsible for their behavior. Poverty and prejudice are identified as the etiology and more government money is the solution. While not denying that these have an impact, to excuse anyone of robbing, raping, and murdering (often others in the same environment), is to insult all of those who have refused to excuse themselves because of their environment, but who work and sacrifice to improve their lot in life.

Getting well is an inside-out job. The old self must be destroyed by crucifixion, not repaired (Galatians 2:20). The new self must be transformed, not reformed, and that transformation cannot take place apart from the Spirit of God:

“In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 3:26-4:7).

CONNECTIONS

1. The behavioral sciences have their place, but is there a danger in mixing them with Scripture? [The following is from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis: “The real trouble about the set your patient is living in is that it is merely Christian. They all have individual interests, of course, but the bond remains mere Christianity. What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call “Christianity And”. You know—Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform.”]