Get links to my best stuff in your inbox

 

Home » Bible Study Lessons

Munchausen’s Syndrome

Have you ever heard of the Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Munchhausen? He was a German army cavalry officer who was born in Bodenwerder (Germany) and lived from 1720-1797, but so far as we know, he never accomplished any great or notable feat worthy of historical fame. So why is the good Baron famous? Not for what he did, but for what he didn’t do. You see, Baron Munchhausen was a storyteller; after he returned home from war he told his town the most fantastic stories that any had ever been imagined such as riding cannonballs and flying to the moon. His name was commandeered in 1785 and placed upon a collection of tall tales loosely based on his stories written by a man named Rudolf Eric Raspe and published in London. Many assumed the tales to be perpetrated by the Baron and his reputation for telling “the whopper” just became more grandiose. Today, the most famous use of his name occurs in the field of medicine. Munchausen’s Syndrome is the name given to individuals who lie about and fake medical symptoms merely to gain medical attention. It’s today classified as a mental disorder.

Do we want to stay sick? I was sick this past week with some kind of a virus. I don’t know if it was the flu or something else, but there was one thing I knew; I didn’t really WANT to be sick! However, people who have Munchausen’s Syndrome not only want to be sick but, and as odd as it sounds, they like being sick. These people aren’t sick (physically), but they want to be sick in order to get attention from someone else. The truth of the matter is that it is NOT good to be sick and society recognizes that people who WANT to be sick and who will lie and fake illnesses in order to be perceived as being sick have a mental problem.

Spiritually speaking, there are many people today who want to be sick. They want to be sick so that they can get attention from God. They think that if they stay sick, that God will keep on healing them. This is why Paul asked the question that he asked in Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The answer is in verse 2: “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” The very idea of embracing the very thing that separated us from God to begin with simply because we believe that it will merit more of God’s grace is repugnant. Yet there are many, some knowingly and some unknowingly, who cling to this belief. They may sin during the week and then say, “Oh, I go to confession on Sunday” or they may say that they will repent Sunday morning only to turn around the next week and commit the same sins again. Some operate under the delusion of once saved always saved thinking that they can sin because they can’t do anything to lose their salvation. Such false doctrines are contrary to the plain teaching of scripture.

Consider Hebrews 10:26-27; it says, “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” Those who sin willfully no longer have the benefit of the blood of Christ and can expect God’s wrath and judgment. John also writes in 1 John 3:8a “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning” (ESV). It is those who deliberately and willfully continue to practice sin that is of the devil.

God doesn’t want us to be sick with sin. God doesn’t want us to persist in the sickness of sin. God wants us to be cured of the sickness of sin. We can be cured of sin sickness if we trust in God’s word and stop practicing sin. God expects us to repent of our sins; that means we have to change our lives and stop practicing sin. That doesn’t mean that we will be perfect, but we don’t have to be perfect to stop making sin a regular deliberate and purposeful habit. Good medical doctors who learn that someone has Munchausen’s Syndrome will refuse to give them treatment. So also God will not treat those who persist in sin under the delusion that He will forgive them regardless of how they behave and act.