Biblical Counseling—A different approach
I want to describe, explain, and to define Biblical counseling in a way that is God-centered, not man or problem-centered. Biblical counseling is, after all, Biblical. The Bible is God-centered first of all. Men come into the picture because God, who starts it all, puts man there. And not until the sixth day.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1), started it all. The phrase, heavens and earth, is a hendiadys. It means that God created everything. In the beginning God. Then, God acted and created everything. The chapter went on to describe what he created and the order he created it. God is always the focus, the center. God is. Then at the end of the week of hard work, God created people, placed them in the most glorious place in his creation, and said to them, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:28).
From there things went well, Adam and Eve spend their time taking it all in, being fruitful, subduing, and getting ready to fill. During the cool of the day, it seems that it is pretty normal for God to show up for a daily worship time, chatting with God and telling him all that they have learned and are doing. Given the way the rest of the Bible talks about our relationship with God, it seems that would have been appropriated to do a lot of singing, praising, and studying God. But at this point, everything was God-focused and God-centered.
They were being fruitful, subduing, and exercising dominion, and worshipping God at the center of it all at the same time. There was no sin. God was at the center and all was good. Still “very good” (Gen 1:31).
Then, the serpent showed up. There’s no explanation of where he came from, or who he was, or almost anything else about him, other than, he “was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord had made” (Gen3:1). And from there, everything becomes man-centered. “Has God indeed said,” you can’t be the master of your own ship? It wasn’t as direct as that, of course. Temptation hardly ever comes that direct. But, “did God really say, what you can and can’t eat? I mean, who does he think he is?”
From there, the woman took it upon herself to make a decision that was contrary to what she knew God wanted for her. Then the man joined her, and because he was the head and thus responsible for her actions, he plunged the world into a man-centered mess.
The whole rest of the Bible is story after story of man sinning, God chastising, man repenting, God blessing, and doing it over and over again. With the final chastising and blessing coming in the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
I heard a funny story, can’t remember where, but it involved a fellow who had a cat and a dog. He pet the dog, fed him, gave him a good home, threw the ball for him, and took good care of him. When the dog reflected on all the things his owner did for him, he pondered it all and came to the conclusion that his owner must be God.
The owner did all the same kinds of things for his cat, except for the ball thing (but he did have a string the cat liked to play with). When the cat thought about all this, he came to the conclusion that he must be god.
I think there was a lot of the same kind of thinking going on when Eve was tempted to rebel against God. He had blessed her beyond anything she could have ever imagined (though to be fair, she had nothing to compare it to) and in the end, she thought she knew more than God. “I must be god.”
This pattern continues to this day. In fact, it can be no other way. As people born “in Adam,” we are created sinful, which means, when we were born, we were all just cute little bundles of sin. Contrary to some people’s thinking we were not born neutral. The only reason we weren’t sinning as soon as we popped out into the world was because we didn’t have the opportunity nor the necessary physical ability. But boy, as soon as we were tempted and could, we took our little brother’s toy, just because we could. And then we hit him with it. “I must be god.”
This situation doesn’t change unless there is a miracle in our life. Unless, we hear the good news about what God has done for us in Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we believe it to the point where we take up our cross and follow Jesus, we will continue thinking we are god. This will be our understanding until we come face to face with Him and realize just how wrong we were. But then it will be too late.
To be precise, the miracle is huge and includes our changing our mind from thinking we are god, to believing Jesus is God. From being transformed from the family of Adam to being adopted into the family of Jesus. From dying to our own wills to submitting ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus the King and living that way for the rest of our lives. The major thing is that once we thought we were god and now we know and believe that God is God and we are not.
The primary way this shows itself in our lives is that even though the world is filled with evil and ugly things, we respond to them like Adam and Eve did when they lived in the Garden. We sing, we pray, we study God, we talk to him, we view everything in our lives through the lens that he is God and it is his world. We are totally different people. Totally different people. Different to the bone.
Another thing this means is that we are God-centered, not man-centered. This is the normal way Christians view ourselves and the world. Everything, as I said, is viewed through the lens of God; who he is, and what he has done.
This is also how we need to view Biblical counseling. I know it took a long time to get here, but the trip was important. One, among many passages I could use for what we’re doing when we practice Biblical counseling is found in Paul’s letter to the Colossian saints. He said,
“Him [Jesus] we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily” (Col 1:28–29).
Some of the words in this passage are worth discussing. The word Paul used for preach can also be translated as make known, proclaim, and announce. So, Paul’s point here is that he told everyone about Jesus, his goal was to make every man perfect in Christ. The word translated as warn, can also be translated as admonish, instruct, or counsel. It translates the Greek word that Jay Adams used when he called Biblical counseling, Nouthetic counseling. So, Paul is not only preaching Jesus, he’s also admonishing or counseling every man, and teaching every man about Jesus with the goal of making every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Finally, the word translated perfect here can also be translated as complete, attaining the end or purpose, or mature. It’s the word we get teleological from. It means, things pertaining to what things were created for, their final purpose. In other words, Paul was preaching, warning, and teaching every man so that every man he came in contact with would be or would become, mature and like Christ. Like Adam was before the fall and like God is doing in us (Gal 4:19; Eph 4:13).
He was God-centered and everyone, every situation, every event, and in every story was focused and directed to helping every man become like Jesus in every way.
Here is an example of him doing it in his own life. Paul wrote one of the nicest letters in the New Testament to the Philippians. It is the only letter he wrote where he wasn’t writing to correct something going really badly in the lives of the recipients. But he was writing the letter from jail. He started the letter off nice enough, greetings, examples of what he thought of the Philippians and how he prayed for them. Then, out of the blue, he casually mentioned that he was in jail. “Oh, by the way, I’m in prison.”
The way he brought it up is even more interesting. Instead of talking about how horrible it was, he said, “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (Phil 1:12). He didn’t say, “I’m chained to the wall on one hand and to a guard with the other. I’ve been beaten and am all bloody. I’m in here with a bunch of smelly prisoners and the food is really bad.” No, instead he was thrown into prison and said, “Hey look, a new ministry.” Instead of preaching to the folks outside the prison, he discovered a whole new bunch of folks who had never heard about Jesus. As a consequence, every guard in the whole palace police department had heard. Everyone knew about Jesus and that Paul was in prison because of his love of God. That’s a God-centered response to what was otherwise a horrible situation. It didn’t make Paul’s time in prison any less of a trial, but how he responded to it was God-centered. If you want to see Paul doing this in a couple of other places, read Romans 5:1-5 and 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
The example of how he applied this God-centered focus to others is also found in the letter to the Philippians. Paul wrote the letter to the church at Philippi which was going through persecution for their faith. He was giving them comfort and helping them to view life with God as the focus. We can see this throughout the letter but it shows clearly in one verse when he said,
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things (Phil 4:8).
Essentially, Paul was saying, “Yes, you are in a terrible situation. But instead of being man-centered and responding like non-Christians: whining, complaining, getting angry, etc., respond like people who are God-centered, who know Jesus. Take your eyes off the trouble and concentrate on what God has for you and for those around you. Think about, focus on, meditate on the true, noble, just, etc. Be people of God, people who are maturing in Christ, people who are becoming like Christ.
All this to say that Biblical counseling is God-focused from first to last. Biblical counselors do not get caught up in the worldly details, the “I’m god and I’m not getting what I want” troubles. They hear the trouble, but they don’t get sidetracked by the anger and frustration that people bring to them. Instead, they first imitate Paul as he imitated Christ (1 Cor 11:1) and they imitate Christ. They quickly translate every problem they see into opportunities for “a new ministry.” And then they help their friends and fellow believers to make that attitude their own, all the time, forever and ever. “Striving to present every man mature in Christ Jesus.”