An Introductory Word from Bob: Biblical Words Related to Biblical Counseling
You’re reading Post #4 in my series on Biblical Counseling Word Studies.
- Read Post #1 Here: Biblical Counseling Word Study #1: Parakaleo—Empathize, Encourage, Exhort, Empower.
- Read Post #2 Here: Biblical Counseling Word Study #2: Parakletos—The Holy Spirit, Our Gospel-Reminding Counselor.
- Read Post #3 Here: Biblical Counseling Word Study #3: “Parakaletic Counseling”—A Comprehensive, Compassionate Biblical Name for Biblical Counseling.
There are many words in the Old Testament and New Testament that relate to one-another ministry, biblical counseling, soul care, pastoral care, shepherding, spiritual friendship, and being a soul physician. In this series on Biblical Counseling Word Studies, I’m posting about:
How we can become further equipped to counsel one another biblically by understanding and applying biblical words related to soul care.
Gospel-Saturated Parakaletic Ministry
In training counselors, I often share that we listen to our counselee’s earthly story with one ear while always listening together to God’s eternal heavenly redemptive story with the other ear. While listening to the earthly story we communicate that it’s normal to hurt and to grieve in a fallen world. That’s gospel-saturated empathy and consolation—we do not deny the reality of suffering in a fallen world; we do face the truth of sin and brokenness.
While listening together to Christ’s gospel story, we communicate that it’s possible to hope—with eternal hope. We offer gospel-saturated parakaletic hope—eternal hope in Christ that impacts how we live today.
We don’t offer false hope that things will be better this side of heaven. We don’t point people to temporal human solutions. We don’t practice brief, short-term, solution-focused therapy.
We offer eternal, soul-focused parakaletic gospel hope. We point one another to Christ alone.
That captures well today’s focus:
All aspects of parakaletic ministry are sourced and saturated in the good news of Christ.
Whether used as sustaining empathy/consolation, or healing encouragement/comfort, or reconciling exhortation/challenge, or guiding empowerment/coaching, all usages of the parakaleo word group find their foundation in the gospel of Christ’s grace.
The Gospel Is God’s Word of Parakaletic Consolation and Comfort
Early in their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch on the Sabbath seated in the synagogue. The leaders of the synagogue asked them, “Brothers, if you have a word (logos) of exhortation (paraklesis—exhortation, encouragement, consolation) for the people, please speak” (Acts 13:15).
Paul then launches into a parakaletic gospel message as he traces the history of Israel from enslavement in Egypt, to the wilderness wanderings, to the time of the judges, to the kingship of Saul. After this long history of fallenness and brokenness, sin and suffering, Paul pivots sharply to parakaletic gospel hope: “…God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised” (Acts 13:23). Paul then proclaims their and our only parakaletic hope—the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah (Acts 13:24-41).
Paul follows a timeless tradition in tracing encouragement and consolation back to the Messiah. We find Simeon conveying the identical message in Luke 2:22-35. Righteous and devout, Simeon “was waiting for the consolation (paraklesis) of Israel” (Luke 2:25). Who literally embodies that long-awaited consolation? “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah” (Luke 2:26). That’s why Simeon exclaims:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).
Now after all those years, after centuries of waiting, all God’s promises were coming true as Simeon held the Messiah in his arms. That’s what Luke means when he calls Jesus “the consolation of Israel.” As the Christmas carol says, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
This timeless parakaletic gospel hope traces back even beyond Simeon. In Isaiah 40, after years of Israel’s national suffering for their sin, and after 39 chapters of confrontation for sin, everything changes.
“Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for” (Isaiah 40:1-2).
And what provides comfort? Sins paid for. Redemption. In Whom? Isaiah 40:3-11 answer with the good news of the coming Shepherd—the promised Messiah.
Keil and Delitzsch, in their commentary on Isaiah 40:1, explain that the Hebrew word for “comfort” literally means “to cause to breathe again.”
Picture that.
Feel that.
Crushed by despair. Unable to breath. Gasping for hope.
Resuscitation. Resurrection. Gospel hope. Parakaletic consolation and comfort!
Christ, the Messiah, the Gospel—cause us to breathe again, to live again, to be born again!
The Gospel Is God’s Word of Parakaletic Equipping
In our biblical counseling, many of our counselees come to us distraught over distressing relationships. Empty of hope. Empty of love.
We don’t seek to “fill up their emotional tanks.” We don’t teach them to focus on “loving themselves more.”
Wounded and wounding, hurt and hurting, suffering and sinning, empty and digging broken cisterns, we point people to Christ alone, as Paul did.
“Therefore, if you have any encouragement (paraklesis) from being united with Christ…” (Philippians 2:1).
And what comes next? Encouraged from our union with Christ, we are equipped to love others unselfishly (Philippians 2:2-4). Love like who? Like Christ. “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
And what comes next? The gospel! Christ’s eternal life, virgin birth, incarnation, death on the cross, resurrection, and exaltation (Philippians 2:6-11).
We don’t share trite words of false comfort. “There. There. It will all be better.”
We share triumphant words of gospel encouragement. “Look there. To the cross. To the empty tomb. To Christ. He is better than all. Drink from Christ the Spring of Living Water. Quenched by Him, saved by Him, filled by Him, equipped by Him—sacrificially love others like Him and through Him.”
The Gospel Is God’s Word of Parakaletic Empowerment
The purpose of eternal parakaletic gospel hope is to empower and equip us to live daily lives now to the glory of God and the good of others.
“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement (paraklesis) and good hope, encourage (parakaleo) your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word” (2 Thessalonians 3:16-17).
When a brother or sister in Christ comes to us exhausted, we listen to their temporal story with compassion and we offer them gospel-saturated, grace-based eternal encouragement found only in our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father.
Many of our counselees come to us exhausted. “Burnt out.” Spent. We don’t tell them to “believe it and achieve it.” We don’t communicate, “you have within yourself all the resources to make your relationships work.”
Being weak ourselves, we empathize with their weakness (even as our sympathetic High Priest does—Hebrews 4:14-16). But we don’t stop there. We compassionately point them to the eternal encouragement of God—given to us by His gospel grace—which encourages their hearts and strengthens them in every good deed and good word: grace to help in their time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
The Gospel Is God’s Word of Parakaletic Mutual One-Another Encouragement
God’s Word always ties our own encouragement, and our encouragement of others, first to the gospel encouragement we receive from Christ. We find one of the classic passages on mutual encouragement in Hebrews 10:24-25.
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging (parakaleo) one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
What precedes this? Gospel-saturated hope.
“And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:21-23).
I counsel and mentor a lot of pastors, Christian educators, missionaries, and biblical counselors. Many of them, like me, find themselves exhausted from ministry. While always empathizing and identifying with them, we also always end up discussing, “Where are you finding ongoing encouragement from Christ?” “Where are you giving and receiving regular encouragement with others in the body of Christ?”
As you’ve read these four posts on parakaletic ministry, I actually hope you’ve thought, “This is impossible! No one can minister like this!”
With man, it is impossible. With God—with gospel-saturated parakaletic encouragement, nothing is impossible. You and I can minister to others and we can equip others for parakaletic ministry if we are receiving parakaletic encouragement from God and giving and receiving parakaletic encouragement with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Gospel Is God’s Word of Parakaletic Exhortation
In the biblical counseling world, we often talk about “gospel indicatives” and “gospel imperatives.” A gospel indicative is an already existing truth about what Christ has done for us by grace and who we are in and to Christ by grace. Think of Ephesians 1-3 and all the beautiful and encouraging gospel indicatives that Paul shares.
A gospel imperative is a grace-based exhortation to live out what is already existing within us. Think of Ephesians 4-6 and all of Paul’s powerful exhortations to live a life worthy of the gospel.
God always exhorts us in the context of encouraging us with gospel truth. Consider Romans 12:1-2 as one elegant example.
“Therefore, I urge (parakaleo) you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
If we are not careful, as biblical counselors we can urge and exhort our counselees (gospel imperative) without building an enduring gospel-saturated foundation (gospel indicatives). We become impatient, wanting to rush the progressive sanctification process. But consider Paul here in Romans. He patiently and powerfully walked with the Roman believers through eleven chapters of gospel indicatives. Then he says those vital words, “therefore,” as he transitions to gospel imperatives.
On the basis of gospel-saturated verse after gospel-saturated verse, Paul exhorts them in view of God’s mercy—in view of the gospel—to live a sacrificial, Christ-glorifying life that is continually transformed by the renewal of their mind. Mind renewal is deep renewal. But the Bible goes even deeper, starts even richer—with gospel-saturated spiritual relational renewal, with gospel indicatives about who Christ is, what He has done for us, and who we are in and to Christ.
The Gospel Is God’s Word of Parakaletic…
I could go on and. I have barely scratched the surface of the 143 times that the New Testament uses the parakaleo word group. We could look at 100 more examples of gospel-saturated parakaletic ministry. But I believe you’ve received the message:
All aspects of parakaletic ministry are sourced and saturated in the good news of Christ.
We don’t offer empathetic parakaletic ministry apart from Christ our empathetic high priest.
We don’t offer comforting, consoling parakaletic ministry apart from the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.
We don’t offer encouraging parakaletic ministry apart from the encouragement believers already have in Christ.
I could keep going… Parakaletic ministry is gospel-saturated ministry.
Homework for Biblical Counselors: 6 Assessments of Our Parakaletic Biblical Counseling
- Let’s each assess our own counseling focus. To what extent are we at times guilty of offering brief, short-term, solution focused therapy with false human hope? How often are we, instead, offering soul-focused parakaletic gospel hope in Christ alone?
- What could you do to assure that the following is increasingly true of your biblical counseling? All aspects of parakaletic ministry are sourced and saturated in the good news of Christ.
- In your own life, how often do you experience parakaletic gospel consolation where you’ve been crushed by despair, unable to breath, gasping for hope, and had your hope resuscitated and resurrected by Christ’s gospel of grace?
- Again, let’s each assess our own counseling focus. To what extent do we share trite words of false comfort—promising that in this life things will be all better? Alternatively, to what extent are we sharing triumphant words of parakaletic gospel encouragement—to look to the cross, to the empty tomb, to Christ?
- As you seek to encourage others, where are you finding ongoing encouragement from Christ? Where are you giving and receiving regular encouragement with others in the body of Christ?
- Let’s each assess our biblical counseling foundation and focus using the following parakaletic gospel criteria: God always exhorts us in the context of encouraging us with gospel truth. If we are not careful, as biblical counselors we can urge and exhort our counselees (gospel imperative) without building an enduring gospel-saturated foundation (gospel indicatives).
