(Having examined the Old Testament concept of “shalom” as including the goal of peace in mental health, we look to the New Testament for its further elaboration of this goal for mental health.)

             A New Testament counterpart to this connection between blessing and peace is found in John 14:27 where Jesus speaks to the disciples.  In this verse, Jesus tells them that “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  The New Testament counterpart for “shalom” is found here in the word “eirene” translated also as “peace”.  As we know that Jesus loved His disciples and laid His life down for them, as well as reading that He next told them to not allow their hearts to be troubled, we can assume that this “peace” was a good thing, a blessing. 

             Paul reiterates this aspect of “peace” being an expected and desired blessing in Galatians 5:22-23 as well as Romans 5:1. In Galatians the fruits of the Spirit are listed and include “eirene” translated as “peace”. Obviously, in this context “peace” is a fruit born alongside the other blessings of a life lived in the Spirit.  In Romans 5:1, we are told by Paul that as a result of being justified by faith we now have peace with God through Jesus.  We are back to the beginning idea that the foundation of peace in life begins with having peace with God.

             Seeing that the “peace” described in these and other verses is clearly a good thing to desire, we are told not only that it begins with God, but also that it is through faith in Jesus by which we are justified.  While the simplicity of faith in Christ solely brings us into God’s kingdom and family, we should seek to understand what this simple faith means for how we live.  Both Jesus and Paul teach in Scripture that we should live responsively to this change in our status.  Jesus said “if you love me, you will keep my commands” (John 14:15 ESV).  Paul regularly urged his readers towards the ends of his various epistles to live like ones who have been made new.  This paints a fuller picture of the life of one seeking “peace” with God, but something deeper is still to be uncovered.

Throughout the Old Testament, God interacted with the children of Israel through covenants.  The most explicit ones include the Noahic, the Abrahamic, and the Mosaic.  Careful reading of the Bible also reveals covenants mentioned with Adam and with David in less explicit terms.  The people of God, the Jews, continued to fall short in keeping these covenants such that God promised a New Covenant to come in the words of Jeremiah chapter 31:31-34.  Several promises were made here including the forgiveness of sins and that God would fulfill the covenant Himself.  Jesus and other New Testament authors, especially the author of Hebrews connects Jesus’ work with this New Covenant foretold by Jeremiah.  The New Testament people of God would enter this New Covenant through the priestly work of Jesus. 

             Therefore, beyond the simple but true fact of coming to God through faith in Christ, we see that believers are now under this New Covenant.  The response of faith, as a gift of God, begins this Covenant relationship temporally yet it was established by God’s election in eternity past.  The response of one under this covenant should include obedience to the design of God for life as revealed in nature and as revealed in the Word.  To be given such a gift of life and after accepting it to then refuse His commands is not only unconscionable but guaranteed to bring about far different results than the “shalom” or “eirene” described earlier. 

             We must therefore view ourselves in covenant through Christ with the necessity of responding in gratitude for such an undeserved blessing.  To respond appropriately to God within this covenant framework, we must pursue it according to the His designed means of obtaining the “shalom” and “eirene” that comes with God’s blessing.  This includes learning how He has designed the natural world in terms its physical laws and how we has instructed us in the spiritual realm of relationship with Him and with others.  By beginning at the beginning of how we relate to God in Covenant through Jesus and following it through to the fruits of such a life lived in accordance with God’s design, we can offer hope for mental health.  By beginning with this as our goal for mental health, we can then hope for real changes which affect not only individuals within the society, but can also change society as a whole.

             I emphasize that this is an all or nothing process. Trying to take the first step of faith in Christ without the next step of seeking to follow God’s design for life in covenant will still leave us with the dis-ease of mental illness.  Even Christians who try to pursue mental health through the ways of the world will find themselves distressed and without the wholeness of “shalom” promised in the Word.  A Christian trying to live by the world’s rules will still find himself with a tangled knot of a shoelace wondering why God does not just untie it for him.  While the finished work of untangling must come from God, it must come through the work of our hands submitting to His design for life. 

             With this covenantal and Biblical understanding to the foundations of mental health firmly established before us as our primary goals, we will face the effects of the Fall differently.  The effects of Adam and Eve’s original sin will still present us with sin and its effects, temptations, trials of life, struggles, and ultimately death, yet the state of our hearts and minds will possess a heavenly sourced peace which transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7).  As individuals, we will have a tower that defends us against fear as well as guarding us against the emotional pain of physical or relational losses.  As a society, we will find many blessings.  We will find mutual support and edification in the body of Christ rather than isolation.  The weaker brother will find support rather than disdain (Romans 15:1).  We will find forgiveness rather than rejection and also be conveyors of God’s forgiveness to others (Matthew 6:14-15). 

             Given the purpose of this longer than originally intended article is to point towards real solutions and away from superficial worldly solutions, we cannot stop at this point however.  Having pressed our search for the foundational reason for the mental health crisis and having found this lack of proper goals for mental health, we are now left with a variety of options. We could consider this to be an impossible goal and retreat back to more superficial levels, less challenging.  At best this would still fail.  We could continue trying to solve this spiritual problem with worldly solutions.  At best this would still fail.  We could give up hope and resign ourselves to living with tangled shoelaces.  At best, this doubts the very promises of God we have read about above and throughout His Word.  From here we move beyond the descriptive where we sought understanding of what is and what we have been told in the Bible should be. There we have been given clear instructions that mental health requires spiritual health and spiritual health requires peace with God lived out according to His design under covenant.  Therefore, we move next to considering how we should begin to live out untangling the mental health crisis’ shoelaces.

(With the last two installments in this series having elaborated a Biblical grounded view of how we should view the goals of mental health, in the next blog posting we finally reach the fourth of the original questions which offers an approach to solving the mental health crisis.)