Church Is Not a Mental Asylum

What is this page about?

The man who writes this site heard a sermon. A sermon is a talk given in church.

He wrote down some of the preacher’s words. The preacher said: “The church is a hospital for a short time. People get right and go. Church is not a mental asylum. No, it’s not a permanent place.”

“Permanent” means lasting for ever. So the preacher meant this: come in, get well, and go out again quickly.

Just before that, the preacher said something else. If a person or a thing came between him and Christ, he would “eliminate it”. To eliminate something is to get rid of it. He also said that it is not true that “you have to help everybody”.

This page does not name the preacher. It tests his sentences. It does not judge the man.

There are two views of what a church is. This page gives them short names.

Both views want people to get well. They do not agree about the person who is not well yet.

Eight points

1. The doctor gives no leaving date. Jesus said that sick people need a doctor. He said it to explain why he was eating with sinners.
2. Many of the people he healed had been ill for years. One man had been ill for 38 years. The Bible gives the numbers. It never blames the sick person.
3. Nobody is finished. Every Christian still sins. Every Christian still needs to be forgiven.
4. Paul names three kinds of people who struggle. He says to warn only one kind. He says to be patient with all of them.
5. The preacher is partly right. People should grow. And one man cannot help everybody. But the Bible’s answer is more helpers.
6. A church can send a person away for one kind of reason. He does wrong, he is told, and he will not listen. Nobody is sent away for being slow to get well.
7. A person who needs help is not in the way. Jesus said that when we help a sick brother, we help him.
8. “Asylum” means a safe place. Jesus’ own family once said he was mad. Christians built the first hospitals.

The doctor at the dinner table

People often say that the church is a hospital. The idea comes from something Jesus said. It helps to see where he said it.

Jesus asked a man called Levi to follow him. Levi was a tax collector. He took money from people for the Roman rulers. Tax collectors often cheated, and people hated them.

Levi made a big dinner. Many tax collectors came, and Jesus ate with them. The religious teachers did not like this.

“Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Mark 2:16–17 · World English Bible

In simple words: They asked, “Why does he eat with bad people?” Jesus said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor. Sick people do. I did not come to call good people. I came to call sinners to turn back to God.”

Look at what Jesus is doing. He is telling them why he is at this table. A doctor goes where sick people are. He does not say how long a doctor stays.

Now look at the “healthy” people in his words. They are not really healthy. They only think they are. So Jesus does not put people into two groups, the sick and the healthy. Some people know that they are sick. Some do not know.

Martin Luther was a church teacher 500 years ago. He said that Christians “are sick in fact but healthy in hope”. He said the worst thing for them is “the presumption that they are healthy”. In simple words: the worst thing is to think that you are already well.

Thirty-eight years

The preacher said “quickly”. So let us ask a question. Does the Bible count the time that people were ill? Yes, it does.

A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool”

John 5:5–7 · World English Bible

In simple words: A man had been ill for 38 years. Jesus knew this. He asked, “Do you want to be well?” The man said, “Sir, I have nobody to help me into the pool.”

For 38 years, nobody had stayed to help this man.

Here are more people whom Jesus healed.

The Bible tells us how long each time. It never says, “You should be well by now.”

One day a leader was angry. Jesus had healed the woman on the day of rest. Jesus answered him with her number.

Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?

Luke 13:16 · World English Bible

In simple words: This woman has been tied up for 18 long years. Should she not be set free today?

For Jesus, 18 years was a reason to hurry. It was not a reason to send her away.

Some people were not healed

Paul was a great leader of the first Christians. He had a problem that did not go away. He called it a thorn.

Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me. He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:8–9 · World English Bible

In simple words: Three times I asked the Lord to take it away. He said to me, “My kindness is enough for you. My power works best when you are weak.”

The thorn stayed. The preacher said people get healed and then leave. But Paul was never healed of this. He never left.

How many times?

It is the same with sin. Peter asked Jesus a question.

“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.”

Matthew 18:21–22 · World English Bible

In simple words: Peter asked, “How many times must I forgive my brother? Seven times?” Jesus said, “Not seven times. Seventy times seven.”

Peter wanted a number where he could stop. Jesus gave him a number too big to count.

Then Jesus told a story. A king forgave his servant a very large debt. The servant had begged him: “Lord, have patience with me”. Later another man begged that servant in the same words. The servant said no. In this story only one person is punished. It is the man who would not be patient.

Nobody is finished

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8 · World English Bible

In simple words: If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves.

John wrote this to Christians. He says “we”.

Jesus taught his followers a prayer. In it we ask for bread every day. In the next line we ask to be forgiven.

Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.

Matthew 6:11–12 · World English Bible

In simple words: Give us our food for today. Forgive us for the wrong we do, as we forgive other people.

So a Christian asks to be forgiven as often as he asks for food.

Three kinds of people

Some Christians are strong. Some are weak. May the strong ones stop helping the weak ones after a time? Paul speaks to the strong.

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Romans 15:1 · World English Bible

In simple words: We who are strong must carry the weak when they fail. We must not just please ourselves.

The word “ought” here means “owe”. Strong people owe this to weak people. Being strong is the reason for the duty.

Paul’s fullest teaching is in one verse.

We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly; encourage the faint-hearted; support the weak; be patient toward all.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 · World English Bible

In simple words: Warn those who will not do their part. Cheer up those who have lost heart. Hold up the weak. Be patient with everyone.

Paul names three kinds of people. He gives a different help for each one.

Then Paul gives one rule for all three. Be patient with everyone.

Only the first kind gets a warning. Think of a woman who has lost heart. Someone tells her, “Your time is up.” That is a warning. But Paul says to cheer her up.

Paul says more. He says the church needs its weak people.

No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

1 Corinthians 12:22 · World English Bible

In simple words: The parts of the body that seem weaker are the parts we cannot do without.

None of these commands has a date on it. Paul does not say, “Carry the weak for one year.”

Where the preacher is right

The preacher had some Bible verses on his side. We must listen to them.

People should grow

For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you

Hebrews 5:12 · World English Bible

In simple words: By now you should be teachers. But you still need someone to teach you.

This verse does count time. The writer is not pleased with his readers. But read a little more. He does not send them away. He says this:

But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you

Hebrews 6:9 · World English Bible

In simple words: Dear friends, we are sure of better things for you.

Then he goes on teaching them. So time matters. We can expect more from a person after many years. But time does not end the help.

One man cannot help everybody

This is the preacher’s best point, and he is right. Moses led a very large number of people. He said this to God.

I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

Numbers 11:14 · World English Bible

In simple words: I cannot carry all these people by myself. It is too heavy for me.

God was not angry with Moses. He gave him seventy men to help him.

The same thing happened in the first church. Some poor widows were not getting food. The leaders could not do everything. So they said this.

Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

Acts 6:3 · World English Bible

In simple words: Choose seven good and wise men. We will give them this work.

Look at what they did. The work was too much for the helpers. So they chose more helpers. They did not send the widows away.

Paul also knew that some people are lazy. But even of a lazy man he says: “Don’t count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (2 Thessalonians 3:15).

Who is sent away, and why

The Bible does have a door out of the church. It tells us who goes through it.

Jesus gave the steps.

“If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother. But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.”

Matthew 18:15–17 · World English Bible

In simple words: If your brother does wrong to you, go and tell him alone. If he listens, you have won your brother back. If he does not listen, take one or two others. If he still will not listen, tell the church. If he will not listen to the church, treat him as an outsider.

Look at four things.

• It begins with a wrong thing that he has done.
• He gets three chances to listen.
• He is sent away for one reason. He will not listen.
• From the first step, the aim is to win him back.

Paul once told a church to send a man away. The man was living in open sin, and the church was proud of it. But later Paul wrote about a man whom the church had punished. Now that man was sorry.

This punishment which was inflicted by the many is sufficient for such a one; so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.

2 Corinthians 2:6–7 · World English Bible

In simple words: This man has been punished enough. Now forgive him and comfort him. If you do not, his sadness may be too much for him.

So there is a time limit here. But it is a limit on the punishment. It is not a limit on the kindness.

A leader who sent people away

One more man must be named. John wrote about a church leader called Diotrephes.

Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, doesn’t accept what we say. … neither does he himself receive the brothers, and those who would, he forbids and throws out of the assembly.

3 John 9–10 · World English Bible

In simple words: Diotrephes loves to be first. He does not listen to us. He does not welcome the brothers. He stops other people from welcoming them. He throws them out of the church.

The Bible names very few people as bad examples in a church. This man is one of them. His fault was this: he decided who could stay.

“Eliminate it”

The preacher said he would get rid of anything that came between him and Christ. Jesus did say something like this.

If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you.

Matthew 5:29 · World English Bible

In simple words: If your right eye makes you sin, take it out and throw it away.

Jesus is speaking about a man’s own eye. He means: fight hard against your own sin.

Can the “eye” also be another person? Two great teachers of the early church said yes. Their names were Chrysostom and Augustine. But they meant a friend who leads you into sin. Chrysostom spoke of a person who “hurts your soul”. Augustine spoke of “a greatly beloved friend” who leads you the wrong way.

A person who needs your help is different. He is not leading you into sin. He is giving you work to do.

The Bible shows the difference in three ways.

First, Jesus said these words about the eye two times. The second time, he said this just after them:

See that you don’t despise one of these little ones

Matthew 18:10 · World English Bible

In simple words: Be careful. Do not look down on one of these little ones.

Second, Paul uses the same picture. He is speaking about people in the church.

The eye can’t tell the hand, “I have no need for you”

1 Corinthians 12:21 · World English Bible

In simple words: The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.”

Third, Jesus tells us where to find him.

He says: “I was sick, and you visited me” (Matthew 25:36). Then he explains.

because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

Matthew 25:40 · World English Bible

In simple words: When you did it for one of my brothers, even the least important one, you did it for me.

So a sick brother cannot stand between you and Christ. Jesus says that what you do for the sick brother, you do for him.

The Good Samaritan had limits

Jesus told a story about a man who helped a stranger. Robbers had hurt the stranger and left him on the road.

He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the host, and said to him, ‘Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.’

Luke 10:34–35 · World English Bible

In simple words: He put the man on his own animal and took him to an inn. He cared for him. The next day he had to leave. He gave money to the innkeeper. He said, “Take care of him. If it costs more, I will pay you when I come back.”

The helper could not stay. He had a journey to finish. So he had limits. But see what he did. He took the man to a place that would keep him. He paid. He promised to pay more.

He did not leave the man on the road. And nobody at the inn said, “You have been here long enough.”

What the churches have said

The oldest Christian picture of the church is that inn. Augustine said that Jesus is the helper in the story. We are the hurt man. The church is the inn. He said: “let us be carried into the inn to be healed”.

How long may the hurt man stay? Until the helper comes back. Nobody at the inn sets the day.

The church decided this long ago

More than 1,700 years ago, Christians were in great danger. Rulers tried to make them give up their faith. Many gave up. Later, they wanted to come back to the church.

One group said no. They said these people could never come back. This group called themselves “the Pure”. Pure means clean.

The church decided against the Pure. In the year 325 there was a great meeting of church leaders at a town called Nicaea. It said the Pure must promise to share the Lord’s Supper with people who had fallen and come back.

Words from five kinds of church

• Lutheran: “In Christians this repentance continues until death”.
• Anglican (the Church of England): every day the people say, “there is no health in us”.
• Catholic: the church is “at once holy and always in need of purification”.
• Reformed: “our weakness does not permit us to leave the school until we have spent our whole lives as scholars”.
• Baptist: “You must needs go along with us; we will wait for you”.

The Baptist words come from an old story book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. In it, a weak man wants to stay behind. He does not want to slow his friends down. Their leader will not leave him. He says, “We will wait for you.”

An old English preacher, Richard Sibbes, said in 1630 that the church is “a common hospital, wherein all are in some measure sick”. In simple words: the church is a hospital for everyone, and every person in it is sick in some way.

A German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote this in 1938: “The elimination of the weak is the death of the fellowship”. In simple words: when a church gets rid of its weak people, the church dies.

The church has not always been kind. Some of its punishments were very hard. But the question was asked many times: is the church only for people who have got right? Each time, the church said no.

“Not a mental asylum”

People will remember these words more than the rest of the sermon.

Maybe the preacher only meant a church where nobody changes. This page does not know.

But the words he used are the name of a place. People with illnesses of the mind used to live there. Some people in the church have such an illness. Some have a son or daughter who has one. They heard those words.

So “church is not an asylum” means “church is not a safe place”. That is what the words say.

Who was called mad?

When his friends heard it, they went out to seize him; for they said, “He is insane.”

Mark 3:21 · World English Bible

In simple words: His own people heard about it. They went to take hold of him. They said, “He is mad.”

This verse is about Jesus. His own family came to take him away. Later, a Roman ruler said to Paul that he was mad too.

So the Lord of the church was once called mad. A church should remember that.

What Christians built

Christians did not always treat such people well. Sometimes they put them in chains. Sometimes they blamed them. This must be said.

But Christians also built the first hospitals. In a town called Geel, in Belgium, families have taken people with illnesses of the mind into their own homes. They began about 700 years ago, and they still do it.

The idea of a safe place for these people came into Europe through the church.

A long illness

Many illnesses of the mind last for years. They are like Paul’s thorn. The preacher’s rule says, “Get healed and then come out.” A person with a long illness cannot do that. The rule tells him that he is the wrong kind of patient.

Such people will not argue. They will just stop coming.

Check it yourself

1. Read Mark 2:13-17. Where was Jesus when he spoke about the doctor? Who was angry?
2. Read John 5:1-9 and Luke 13:10-17. Write down each number of years. Does anyone blame the sick person?
3. Read Romans 15:1-7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:14. What must strong people do for weak people? Is there a time limit?
4. Read Matthew 18, the whole chapter. What comes just before the part about sending a brother away? What comes just after it?
5. Think of one person in your church who has struggled for a long time. Who knows that person’s name? What can you do on Sunday to show that they still belong?