A Word from Bob
For a shortened version of today’s post, that focuses exclusively on how to counsel someone struggling with fear, read, Biblical Counseling Conversations for Fear.
Why a Biblical Understanding of Emotions Is Particularly Relevant in Today’s Biblical Counseling Climate
Ed Welch has a new booklet releasing soon with New Growth Press, Fear Is Not Sin: It Is a Call to Action. The title of the book has caused significant reaction in some quarters of the modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement.
One nouthetic biblical counselor has responded with numerous tweets on X challenging the premise of Dr. Welch’s book, including opining that:
“The majority of fear is a lack of faith… and therefore sin.”
Another biblical counselor picked up on this theme of the primacy of the sinfulness of emotions, and transitioned from fear to anger. He said:
“Paul seems to assume that most of our anger is sinful.”
“We know inherently that most of our anger needs to go.”
In a different conversation, this one on an ACBC podcast, another biblical counseling leader, speaking of Christians in the context of Ephesians 4:26, concludes that most worry and most anger “is very sinful.”
“The Bible tells us, ‘Be angry and sin not.’ People differ on this. Some people say you can be angry and not sin. But most of the anger that we have as individuals is very sinful. Worry is probably the same, right?”
It seems that emotions are a very emotional topic in our biblical counseling world!
We need a biblical theology of the beauty of emotions.
Biblical Counseling, Emotions, and “Theological Anthropology”
One of the foundations of biblical counseling is that we are theologically-saturated. This includes applying theological anthropology to our counseling.
What is “theological anthropology”? Don’t get hung-up on this technical term. Let’s start small and grow from there.
- Theological anthropology is a biblical understanding of people.
- Theological anthropology is a biblical understanding of people, problems, and solutions.
- Theological anthropology is a biblical understanding of people, sin, salvation, and sanctification.
That’s easy, right? Now, let’s develop this a tad more.
- Theological anthropology develops a biblical Creation, Fall, Redemption (CFR) understanding of people (anthropology), problems (hamartiology), and solutions/soul-u-tions (soteriology).
- Theological anthropology develops a CFR view of people as relational, rational, volitional, emotional beings, and physical beings (embodied-souls).
- Theological anthropology explains the Bible’s teaching on God’s original design for human nature, the impact of the fall/sin on human nature, and the effect of redemption on human nature.
For an in-depth theological anthropology for biblical counseling see:
Creation Theological Anthropology: People/Anthropology/God’s Design
God created us “very good,” designing us as embodied-souls who are:
- Relational Beings (Spiritual, Social, Self-aware): Created with the good capacities of longings, desires, and affections.
- Rational Beings: Created with the good capacities of thinking in ideas and images, propositions and pictures, perceptions and interpretations.
- Volitional Beings: Created with the good capacities of motivation, choosing, purposing, and acting.
- Emotional Beings: Created with the good capacities of experiencing and responding to our inner and outer world with feelings, emotions, and moods.
- Physical Beings: Created with a good but finite body designed for complex interaction between our body/brain and soul/mind.
All of these components or capacities work together in constant complex, interrelated interactions. All of these capacities, as designed by God, are beautiful. (For more on our being embodied-souls, see: Counseling the Whole Person: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls.) Originally, our affections, our thoughts, our choices, and our emotions were all aligned with God, surrendered to God, and reflective of God—the imago Dei.
Psalm 139 and Our Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Emotions
In Psalm 139—the classic passage describing God’s utmost care in creating us—emotionality is the one aspect of our inner personality specifically referenced.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
“Inmost being” is “kidneys” or “reins” in the KJV. Psalm 73:21 uses the same word to mean grieved and embittered. While in Proverbs 23:16, the kidneys are the place of rejoicing and gladness.
Hebrew language expert Hans W. Wolff explains that the Semitic language uses terms for kidneys, reins, stomach, bowels, and womb to describe the feeling states. As we literally experience and feel an emotion in our physical being, so we feel an emotion in our inner being. That’s why we say things like, “I have butterflies in my stomach.”
God created your inmost being, your kidneys, your emotions.
Your emotions are fearfully and wonderfully made—by God.
In fact, your emotions are the one element that God highlights as having been fearfully and wonderfully made!
Of course, all of our capacities (relational, rational, volitional, emotional, physical) are fearfully and wonderfully made. Yet, it is instructive that God’s Word chose to emphasize the one aspect of our inner being—emotionality—that we sometimes falsely nominate as the most “fallen.” Speaking of fallen…
Fall Theological Anthropology: Problem/Hamartiology/Sin
Our fall into sin impacted every aspect of our being—relational, rational, volitional, emotional, physical. Notice that—every aspect.
It is simply not true biblically and theologically that somehow our emotions are more fallen, more prone to error, or more infected with evil than our longings, beliefs, choices, or actions. Nor is it biblically and theologically true to select one or two emotions, such as fear or anger, and deem them more totally depraved or more inclined toward evil than other emotions.
We are not simply emotionally depraved apart from Christ. Apart from Christ we are totally depraved—sin invaded everything about us.
However, the recent conversations in our biblical counselor world about fear and emotions are not focused on the fall, or on the unbeliever. These conversations about fear, as started by Dr. Welch, are focused on fear and the believer. So let’s introduce the redemption of our emotionality…
Redemption Theological Anthropology: Solutions/Soul-u-tions/Soteriology/Salvation
Salvation in Christ provides the quadruple cure for sin:
- Justification: “Not Guilty! Forgiven!”
- Reconciliation: “Welcome Home, Son, Daughter!”
- Redemption: “Victor!” “More Than Conqueror!”
- Regeneration: “Saint!” “New Creation in Christ!”
Because of our salvation in Christ, we are new creations in Christ. Every aspect of our inner nature has been regenerated/renewed in Christ. We are new creations relationally, rationally, volitionally, and emotionally.
We have a new heart in Christ. The heart, biblically, includes all of our inner person—relational, rational, volitional and emotional.
We are not less saved emotionally. We are not less regenerated emotionally than we are relationally, rationally, volitionally.
Fear is not less impacted by regeneration than any other emotion.
Anger is not less impacted by regeneration than any other emotion.
If someone wants to say, concerning a Christian, “The majority of fear is a lack of faith… and therefore sin,” or, most of our anger “is very sinful,” then by that human logic, they should also say,
“The majority of a believer’s relationships involve a lack of faith and therefore are very sinful.”
“The majority of a believer’s beliefs indicate a lack of faith and therefore are very sinful.”
“The majority of a believer’s motivations, choices, and actions indicate a lack of faith and therefore are very sinful.”
The Scriptures address, challenge, command, exhort, and encourage believers relationally, rationally, volitionally, and emotionally. However, that does not mean that the Scriptures teach that the majority of the regenerated person’s relationships, thoughts, choices, and emotions are untethered from their faith and therefore sin.
The New Testament enlightens new covenant believers with new hearts to understand who they are in Christ. On the basis of our regeneration in Christ and our identity in Christ, the New Testament then encourages new covenant believers with new hearts to live out our newness in love for God and others, putting on in relationships the new person we already are in reality.
To enter into counseling with a believer—a regenerated person with a new heart in Christ—and assume that most of their fear or most of their anger is sin, is not theological; not biblical.
Progressive Sanctification and Theological Anthropology
Of course, none of us as believers are yet glorified. We will not be perfected in Christ until our final salvation in heaven (consummation).
What salvation/regeneration does is implant a new heart within us that reorients all of our capacities (relational, rational, volitional, and emotional) back to Christlikeness—back to our original “very good” design.
That new heart is a new-born spiritual babe in Christ. We need to keep growing up in Christ—progressive sanctification. This includes every aspect of our inner nature—relational, rational, volitional, and emotional.
Though we are now reoriented toward God, sin can still impact, entice, and tempt believers (regenerated, renewed saints) relationally, rationally, volitionally, and emotionally. Our emotions are not morally neutral. This is why Ed Welch, in Fear Is Not Sin, includes a lengthy concluding chapter on ways in which our emotions can be entangled with sin—and how we can address any sinful responses to our emotions.
Welch’s point, as I understand it, is that emotions in general, and fear in particular, as originally designed by God (creation), are not in and of themselves sinful. Nor are emotions in general, or fear in particular, in the believer (redemption), in and of themselves sinful.
Counseling Saints
As theologically-saturated biblical counselors, when we sit down with a saint (saved, regenerated believer), our first thoughts should not be:
- “Where are the majority of their relationships demonstrating a lack of faith? Where can I sin-spot all of their relational sins?”
- “Where are the majority of their thoughts and beliefs demonstrating a lack of faith? Where can I sin-spot all of their rational sins?”
- “Where are the majority of their choices and actions demonstrating a lack of faith? Where can I sin-spot all of their volitional sins?”
- “Where are the majority of their emotions demonstrating a lack of faith? Where can I sin-spot all of their emotional sins?”
- “Where are the majority of their fears demonstrating a lack of faith? Where can I sin-spot all of their fear-related sins?”
This type of counselor mindset treats Christians like non-Christians. This type of unbiblical, untheological mindset treats regenerated saints as if they are unregenerated sinners.
Brad Hambrick and the Biblical Counseling Coalition recently posted a very helpful article that addresses the dangers of “sin-focused questions” for emotions. See, How Christians Can Inadvertently Moralize Unpleasant Emotions. Speaking of biblical counseling and emotions, Hambrick explains that,
We need to have questions that assess both sin and suffering if our questions are going to represent God’s full concern for His people.”
“4S” Biblical Counseling: Saints, Suffering, Sin, and Sanctification
Theologically, we can expand Hambrick’s point even further than emotions, and even further than sin and suffering. We need a “4S” (Saints, Suffering, Sin, Sanctification) theological mindset:
“We need to have a theologically-saturated counseling mindset that leads to comprehensive spiritual conversations that address saints who face suffering and who battle against sin on their sanctification journey.
When a saint—a regenerated believer in Christ—comes to us and shares concerns about fears, I hope none of us enter into that one-another ministry with this mindset:
“Where are the majority of their fears demonstrating a lack of faith? Where can I sin-spot all of their fear-related sins?”
Instead, I pray that we enter into that soul care ministry with a “4S” mindset. Here, “off the top of my head” are some sample spiritual conversations we might have with a fellow believer who is experiencing fear…
Suffering-Focused Spiritual Conversations about Fear
- “I’m sorry you’re going through these fears. I want to hear what these fears are like for you…”
- “Tell me about these feelings of fear that you’re experiencing. What is the history of these fears? When did they begin? When are they worse? When do they seem to lessen?”
- “Have there been any fearful, scary, anxiety-producing, traumatic things you have gone through lately…or in the past…that might help us understand something of the origin of these fears…?”
- “If I could be inside your soul during these intense bouts of fear, what would I feel? Think? Do?”
- “Where does God seem to be in these fears? How are you relating to God in the midst of these fears?”
- “What is it like for you to lament these fears to God? Are there some Psalms or other biblical passages that capture what your fears are like for you?”
Saint-Focused Spiritual Conversations about Fear
- “David in the Psalms shows that our fear and our faith co-exist. Let’s look at some of those Psalms, and let’s consider what a believer in Christ does with their fears…”
- “The apostle Paul battled all sorts of fears. Could we take a look at some of his fears, anxieties, worries, concerns as he expressed them in the Bible, and see how his experience might relate to yours?”
- “Jesus in the Garden experienced a full gambit of human emotions. Let’s take a look at the Gethsemane passages and explore how Christ, your sympathetic High Priest, relates to you and your fears.”
- “In Christ, you are the Father’s beloved child. He speaks to you words of comfort in your fears, like those he spoke to Abram in Genesis 15:1. ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’ The Father does not just shield you; He is your shield. The Father does not simply give you a reward; He is your reward in His presence with you. How does this comforting scriptural truth impact you in the midst of your fears?”
- “As a believer, you are not only forgiven; you are also redeemed—you are more than a conqueror (Romans 8:31-39). What might it look like for you to respond to your fears with Christ’s resurrection power (Philippians 3:10) as a victor in Christ (Romans 8:31-39)?”
- “Could we explore what the Bible says about the beauty of our emotions…? Maybe we could start with Psalm 139…”
- “As a Christian, how can we glorify God with our emotions? Let’s look again at the emotional life of Christ and see how He glorified His Father with His emotions…”
- “As a believer, what is your biblical understanding of what God wants you to do when you are feeling fear? Could we look together at an Old Testament Psalm about fear and faith? Could we look together at a New Testament passage about fear and faith?”
- “Myself, and many other people, often find that shame and condemnation are like close cousins to fear. We feel fear, then Satan swoops in with his condemning words of shame. Have you experienced any of that? If so, could we talk about what it is like to remind ourselves of who we are in Christ and to Christ? Could we explore what the Bible says about God’s compassionate, fatherly attitude to His children when they are fearful…?”
- “As you picture God as the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, what are your prayers to your Father about your fears?”
Sin-Fighting-Focused Spiritual Conversations about Fear
- “We’ve already seen that fear is our God-given capacity to discern danger and to respond wisely (Proverbs 23:3). We also know that we can respond to our fears with faith or without faith; with dependence on God or with self-sufficiency. I’ve already shared some ways that I, at times, have turned in my fears to sinful responses. Are you ready to explore any ways that you might be responding to your normal fears in less than Christlike ways…?”
- “Let’s look at Psalm 34 together. It’s a powerful, personal picture of David’s fears. Let’s explore godly responses to fear and ungodly responses to fear in this Psalm…”
- “Ed Welch, in his article and his booklet, Fear Is Not Sin, lists several ways that sin can become entangled with our fears. Between now and next week, take a look at that section, and ask God to reveal any ways that sin might be creeping into your life as you face your fears…”
- “Ed Welch explains that, ‘Fear and what we do with our fear are two different things. Fear is natural; our responses to fear can be more complicated, but they can be examined with one simple question: Did I turn toward the Lord or not?’ How might you apply this spiritual diagnostic question to your life?”
- “We talked about some possible sinful responses to fear. We know that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. What would it look like and sound like for you to confess your sinful responses to the Lord? What will it be like for you to receive His forgiveness?”
Sanctification-Focused Spiritual Conversations about Fear
- “We talked about some possible sinful responses to fear. How can you apply His Word through His power to put off those responses and to put on new, Christlike responses…? What specific biblical passages and theological principles can you be applying to your life…?”
- “I love your phrase, ‘whole-person devotions,’ where you are turning to God in your fears with your whole body, soul, spirit, mind, brain, will, thoughts, emotions…every part of you. Tell me more about this… And…how can this become a part of your entire day—surrendering all of you to Christ moment by moment, especially as fears seem to sweep over you…”
- “Let’s work on a biblical fear-response plan that is specific to you—a whole-person fear response plan based on the many scriptural passages we’ve looked at together…”
- “We’ve looked at David, at Paul, at Jesus, and how they handled life in this fearful, evil, dangerous, uncertain world. What can you apply to your life from David’s life? From Paul’s? From the emotional life of Christ?”
- “In 1 Peter 5:7, Peter tells us that we will cast our cares on the Lord when we believe that He cares for us. What passages can you meditate on and apply in order to increase your faith in God’s care for you?”
- “God’s Word provides scores, if not 100s, of promises about His presence in our fears. Over the next week, select at least a dozen of those passages, and then let’s start talking about meditating on and putting those passages into practice…”
For over 1,000 sample spiritual conversations for biblical counseling, see, Gospel Conversations: How to Care Like Christ.
