False Comfort
Anyone who follows my ministry knows that I deplore one-dimensional biblical counseling.
Frank Lake said it so well over a generation ago.
“Pastoral care is defective unless it can deal thoroughly both with the evils we have suffered and with the sins we have committed.”
Others have noted that we need to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Truly biblical counseling is both parakaletic (offering God’s comfort for suffering) and nouthetic (offering God’s care-fronting for sin).
Counseling that only confronts sin is only half-biblical counseling. The one-dimensional error, of course, can trend either way.
Peace, Peace
In Jeremiah’s day, the arrow pointed toward false comfort. Jeremiah chastised false prophets and false priests who practiced deceit.
“They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14).
Someone recently said to me (names have been changed), “Doug has been such a source of comfort for Mike.” The problem was, Doug was “comforting” Mike in Mike’s clear violation of God’s Word.
As Jeremiah went on to say,
“Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush” (Jeremiah 6:15).
Soul Rest
What Mike needed wasn’t false comfort, but true caring—truth in love (Ephesians 4:15; Philippians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:8). Again, Jeremiah instructs us.
“This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16).
Fascinating. You want to bring comfort—soul rest—to someone who is sinning, then speak the truth in love. Care-front.
False comfort leads to false peace which leads to false rest which leads to internal distress. “Comfort,” both in the English and in the Greek means “co-fortitude.”
As another person joins me in a journey of truth and love, I am fortified to live a life of truth and love. And only a life of love as defined by God’s Word—His truth—provides rest for the soul, true peace, shalom.
God’s Holy Love
God’s love is holy love. He will not wink at our sin. Further, He will not allow our sin to satisfy.
“I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ Buy you said, ‘We will not listen.” Therefore…I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law…. I will put obstacles before this people…” (Jeremiah 6:17, 18a, 19b, 21b).
In grace, God destroys our false works. In grace, God topples the idols of our hearts. In grace, the false lovers of our soul fail to satisfy our soul.
In love, God calls sin, “Sin!” In love, Christ confronted our sin with His death—that’s how seriously God takes sin. Internally serious wounds require an eternally serious cure.
Peace with God and the peace of God comes only as we surrender to the God of peace. And He is a God of Holy Love. He alone offers us true comfort.
Join the Conversation
Why do we so easily fall off the proverbial pendulum either toward unloving confrontation or false comfort?
