Goals of Biblical Counseling

The goals of biblical counseling are best tied to the commands in Scripture. The greatest command, according to Jesus, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Mt. 22:37; see also Deut. 6:5). The second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39; see also Lev. 19:18). These are the two goals of biblical counseling: love God, love your neighbor.

We live in a world where sin has an incredible stronghold. Jesus’ death and resurrection has overcome and won the war, but Christians and non-Christians are left in a mop-up situation where “the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). And he does take bites out of us from time to time. Sometimes we forget we are in a war and sin takes pot-shots at us, causing us to turn aside from God’s way. Sometimes he digs a deep hole and as we walk along looking at the clouds, we fall into the hole and can’t get out. Sometimes, as we walk down the street, muggers come out of nowhere and beat us up and take all our stuff. Often we are the muggers, we dig the holes, we have the long sharp teeth, we are our own enemy. Sin lives inside of us. We are the problem. The people who come for counseling are living in the world where sin is winning their individual battles and they come for help.

Biblical counseling strives to take these two concepts, the glory and commands of God and the sinful world with sinful people, and put them together in a redemptive way (redemptive means to bring man and God into a right relationship). Like Andrew, we take people in pain and suffering, and we bring them to Christ for healing. Our first goal is to help people see God as he really is and see themselves for who they are and to help to them to a restore their relationship with God. The second goal is to help people understand how God made the world, and help them live well in that world.