Biblical counseling today is moving onto the right path. Perhaps a little history lesson (stay with me, history can be fasincation, honest; and I did say little”) would be helpful.
One Anothering Spiritual Friendship
Long before our current debates about what makes biblical counseling “biblical,” New Testament writers spoke about “one anothering.” Every believer was to love one another, encourage one another, confront one another, disciple one another, etc.
Biblical counseling is nothing more, nothing lss, than biblical one anothering.
In the long stream of Church history, for centuries this one anothering became known as spiritual friendship. Not only did pastors and theologians provide spiritual friendship for lay people, but lay people provided it for pastors and theologians.
Various streams of spiritual friendship converged and merged into four mighty tributaries along two prominent rivers (to continued our river analogy):
*Soul Care: Comforting the Suffering
*Sustaining: Empathizing–“It’s Normal to Hurt”
*Healing: Encouraging–“It’s Possible to Hope”
*Spiritual Direction: Challenging the Sinning
*Reconciling: Exhorting–“It’s Horrible to Sin/Wonderful to Be Forgiven”
*Guiding: Empowering–“It’s Supernatural to Mature”
Other Flowing Rivers
Throughout Church history, Christians faced and interacted with non-Christian ways of people helping. At times, Christians rejected all such “worldly” ways of helping. At other times, they chose to use the language of the day, while keeping the biblical concepts. At still other times, they decided to merge certain principles from the world with principles from the Word. (This is an all-too-broad summary, but I did say a “little” history lesson.)
Beginning with modern secular psychology, many Christians leaders replaced historic one anothering with secular theory. (This is another very broad generalization. However, unlike the preceding 1850 years, history does demonstrate a major surrender of historic bibical counseling themes from 1850 to 1950, especially among American and European White Protestants.)
The Modern/Post-Modern Thread
Here’s where the story gets really fascinating.
In the 1960s and 70s, several biblical counseling movements launched attempts to reclaim the mantle of people helping. Unfortunately, like many such movements that are a reaction against something, they tended to be unbalanced.
One such movement tended to focus predominantly on reconciling and guiding through confronting sin. It was biblical in that exhorting people to escape sin is biblical. However, what it gained on the truth side of one anothering, it lost on the love side.
Another such movement tended to focus on sustaining and healing through comforting the suffering. It was biblical in that encouraging suffering people is biblical. However, what it gained on the love side of one anothering, it lost on the truth side.
Counsel Wars
For the next half century, these two competing models did just that–they competed. Often, they did so with less civility than the on-looking secular world. To this day, these counsel wars continue . . . sadly.
Go to the Internet, read Blogs, type in certain names, and you will find each side claiming that the other side is filled with “psychoheretics.”
One side accuses the other side of the psychoheresy of the failure to love the suffering. They call them “relational heretics.” They say that their opponents fail the test of orthopraxy (biblical love).
Another side accuses the other side of the psychoheresy of the failure to confront the sinning. They call them “theological heretics.” They say that their opponents fail the test of orthodoxy (biblical truth).
Converging Streams
Fortunately, the two side, at times, are merging and bringing the best of both worlds while losing the worse of the world.
Why is this happening now?
Mainly because history is in vogue once again among Christians. Protestant Christians in particular, who for nearly 500-years avoided history and traditon for fear (terror) that it might smack of “Romish Ritual and Human Tradition,” are now recognizing that the Holy Spirit has a history.
Returning to the Bible and Church history, Protestants are unearthing the embedded stream of spiritual friendship with its twin tributaries of soul care and spiritual direction.
Once again, one anothering that values truth and love, that focuses on suffering and sinning, and that appreciates sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding is rising to the surface and winning the day.
How incredible!
In other words, biblical one anothering spiritual friendship is flowing again like a mighty river.
So What?
What does this have to do with you? I did, after all, call this Blog a history lesson. A few questions to ponder can help us to apply today’s history lesson.
1. As you evaluate current models of people helping, ask, “Does this model exhibit all four streams (sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding)?”
2. As you think about the church where you are a member, ask, “Does it exhibit all four streams? If not, what could I do to help?”
3. As you reflect upon your own way of offering spiritual friendship, ask, “Do I exhibit all four streams?”
4. As you interact about current models of people helping, ask, “Am I interacting in a spirit of speaking the truth in love?”
Let’s finally “get it right” by practicing orthopraxy and orthodoxy in our one anothering spiritual friendships by speaking the truth in love through biblical and historical soul care and spiritual direction.
