A Word from Bob
This series became my book, Consider Your Counsel: Addressing Ten Mistakes in Our Biblical Counseling. For free resources related to the book, and to purchase a copy on sale, go here.
You’re reading Part 6 of a 10-part blog series on 10 Common Mistakes Biblical Counselors Sometimes Make.
- For Part 1, see: Mistake #1: We Elevate Data Collection Above Soul Connection. (Part 1 also contains further background, explanation, and “motivation” for this series.)
- For Part 2, see: Mistake #2: We Share God’s Eternal Story Before We Listen Well and Wisely to Our Friend’s Earthly Story.
- For Part 3, see: Mistake #3: We Talk at Counselees Rather Than Exploring Scriptures with Counselees.
- For Part 4, see: Mistake #4: We Practice Half-Biblical Counseling If We Address Sin but Neglect Suffering.
- For Part 5, see: Mistake #5: We Fail to Follow the Trinity’s Model of Comforting Care.
Mistake #6: We Tend To View People One-Dimensionally
As I supervise counselors, I frequently notice that counselors have their “pet” perspective of people. We each tend to view people through a primary lens. In biblical counseling:
- Some of us see people primarily as thinkers and meaning-makers, and thus our counseling focuses on exposing wrong thinking and renewing the mind.
- Others of us might view people predominantly as doers and choosers, and our counseling seeks to help people to put off old behaviors and the motivations associated with them and put on new behaviors and motivations.
- Still others perhaps look at people through the lens of lovers and relators, so we try to spot sinful idols of the heart and seek to encourage a return to our first love for Christ and sacrificial love for others.
- Some, though perhaps not a majority of biblical counselors, may see people as feelers, and our major approach is to identify with people’s feelings, help them lament to God, and equip them to grow in emotional maturity.
While each of these perspectives has something to offer, in isolation, none of them are comprehensive. While few of us see people only through one lens, many of us magnify one lens out of proportion. Perhaps this one-dimensional focus is our way of trying to manage complexity.
I recall David Powlison sharing at one of the Biblical Counseling Coalition Leadership Summits that it saddened him that his article on idols of the heart had taken on a life of its own. He wrote it to enrich our biblical counseling thinking about people. Instead, many biblical counselors began only to see people through this one lens of heart idolatry.
Biblical Counseling Must Be Comprehensive in Understanding
In 2010, over three dozen biblical counseling leaders collaborated for nearly a year to develop the Confessional Statement of the Biblical Counseling Coalition. One of our twelve statements focused on the truth that the Bible’s understanding of people is rich and robust. It is complex and comprehensive. Here’s our wording:
We believe that biblical counseling should focus on the full range of human nature created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28). A comprehensive biblical understanding sees human beings as relational (spiritual and social), rational, volitional, emotional, and physical. Wise counseling takes the whole person seriously in his or her whole life context. It helps people to embrace all of life face-to-face with Christ so they become more like Christ in their relationships, thoughts, motivations, behaviors, and emotions.
We recognize the complexity of the relationship between the body and soul (Genesis 2:7). Because of this, we seek to remain sensitive to physical factors and organic issues that affect people’s lives. In our desire to help people comprehensively, we seek to apply God’s Word to people’s lives amid bodily strengths and weaknesses. We encourage a thorough assessment and sound treatment for any suspected physical problems.
We recognize the complexity of the connection between people and their social environment. Thus we seek to remain sensitive to the impact of suffering and of the great variety of significant social-cultural factors (1 Peter 3:8-22). In our desire to help people comprehensively, we seek to apply God’s Word to people’s lives amid both positive and negative social experiences. We encourage people to seek appropriate practical aid when their problems have a component that involves education, work life, finances, legal matters, criminality (either as a victim or a perpetrator), and other social matters.
Understanding People—Biblically
A post of this size could never adequately capture the Bible’s robust understanding of people. (For a lengthier discussion of a biblical understanding of people, see chapters 6 and 7 of Gospel-Centered Counseling). So, my more limited purpose now is two-fold: 1.) To briefly outline an scriptural understanding of people. 2.) To succinctly summarize some of the biblical counseling implications of a comprehensive understanding of people.
As bearers of God’s image, we are:
1. We Are Everlasting Beings: Acts 17:28; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Luke 4:1-13
God designed us for relationship with Him as our ultimate environment. We are coram Deo—face-to-face-with-God—beings. Whatever other painful or positive situations we experience, God is our ultimate context.
2. We Are Socially Embedded Beings: 1 Corinthians 12:24-27; Matthew 26:40
God designed us to be connected to and impacted by one another. It is hyper-spiritual and anti-scriptural to assume that closeness to God totally shields us from the pain or loneliness of life in a fallen world. It was not good for Adam to be socially alone even while in a perfect relationship with God in the perfect Garden.
3. We Are Embodied Physical Beings: Genesis 2:7; 2 Corinthians 4:7; Matthew 26:41
God designed us as a complex combination of body and soul. The state and condition of our outer person impacts our inner person and visa-versa. While understanding the vital importance of the soul, biblical counselors do not neglect our bodily realities.
4. We Are Emotional Beings: Psalm 139:13-14; Matthew 27:46
God designed us to experience life richly and to feel deeply. Emotions are God’s idea. The Word encourages us to face our feelings face-to-face with our Father.
5. We Are Volitional Beings: Joshua 24:15; Matthew 26:39
God designed us to choose courageously. We have a will and motivation core that purposefully pursues either a God-ward or a non-God direction in life.
6. We Are Rational Beings: Romans 8:31-39; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 6:9; Philippians 2:5-11
God designed us to think wisely, or, as the Reformers might say, God designed us to think God’s thoughts after Him. We have the capacity to perceive life either through Christ-centered lenses or through world-focused lenses.
7. We Are Relational Beings: Matthew 22:35-40; John 4:1-26
God designed us to love sacrificially. He designed us with a three-fold relationality: to ourselves, to others, and to Himself.
7a. We Are Self-Aware Relational Beings: Psalm 42:5; Romans 12:3; Luke 2:49; John 17:20-26
God designed us, not like animals to live on instinct, nor like computers to live on programing, but as image bearers with a sense of self-awareness. Ultimately, God designed us so that our identify is embedded in who and whose we are in Christ.
7b. We Are Social Relational Beings: Genesis 2:18; Matthew 22:39-40; John 10:11
God designed us for relationships with one another and for mutual sacrificial ministry to each other.
7c. We Are Spiritual Relational Beings: Matthew 22:35-38; Luke 23:46
We are worshipping beings. The holy of holies of our soul is our capacity to relate to the Trinity. God designed us to exalt Him, enjoy Him, and entrust our souls to Him.
Biblical Counseling Implications: The Christlike Maturity Inventory
So what? What differences does a comprehensive biblical understanding of people make to biblical counseling?
The ultimate goal of biblical counseling is Christlikeness. Understanding people biblically and comprehensively provides us with a real-life understanding of what it means to be like Christ. It provides us with a set of comprehensive biblical goals for biblical counseling.
1. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Everlasting Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees view their circumstances through the grid of their Father’s love rather than viewing their Father’s love by their circumstances? See Jesus in Luke 4:1-2.
2. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Embedded Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees candidly experience life in this broken world? See Jesus in Matthew 26:40.
3. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Embodied Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees depend second-by-second on the Spirit because they know they have the treasure of the image of God in jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7)? See Jesus in Matthew 26:41.
4. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Emotional Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees face their feelings face-to-face with their heavenly Father? See Jesus in Matthew 27:46.
5. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Volitional Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees surrender and entrust their will to their heavenly Father’s will? See Jesus in Matthew 26:39.
6. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Rational Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees interpret life through the grid of the Father’s holy love displayed on the cross of Christ? Like Christ, do our counselees have a mindset of living to glorify the Father by sacrificially loving others? See Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11.
7. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Self-Aware Relational Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees find their identity in their relationship to their Father? See Jesus in Luke 2:49 and John 17:20-26.
8. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Social Relational Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees make sacrificial loving ministry the goal of their relationships to others?
9. Our Christlike Maturity Inventory with Spiritual Relational Beings
Like Christ, do our counselees entrust their souls to their Father’s good heart? See Jesus in Luke 23:46.
Assessing Our Biblical Counseling
- As biblical counselors, do we have a “pet” perspective of people—viewing them through one primary lens instead of viewing them comprehensively?
- Do we believe that biblical counseling should focus on the full range of human nature created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28), comprehensively understanding counselees as relational (spiritual, social, and self-aware), rational, volitional, emotional, and physical?
- As biblical counselors, are we growing in Christlike maturity as evidenced by the 9 biblical categories in The Christlike Maturity Inventory?
- As biblical counselors, do we seek to help our counselees to grow in Christlike maturity as evidenced by the 9 biblical categories in The Christlike Maturity Inventory?
The Rest of the Story
I invite you to join us for Part 7:
Mistake #7: We Devalue Emotions Rather Than Seeing Emotions as God-Designed Windows to the Soul.
