Iron-Sharpening-Iron Conversations Among Biblical Counselors

Recently, I posted a blog on Genesis 15:1 entitled, “Fear Not.” My post focused on an exegetical development and counseling application of God’s response in Genesis 15:1 to Abram’s fears in Genesis 14.

In the post, I first highlighted the warfare context of Genesis 14. Abram and his family were at risk of being attacked and killed by an alliance of four ungodly armies. Abram’s fears were realistic, normal, human, God-given fears. In fact, not to fear would be imprudent.

“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty” (Proverbs 22:3).

Given this context, and given God’s comforting response to Abram, I suggested that lamenting to our Father of compassion and God of all comfort is a wise, biblical response to fear. I also suggested that at times, repenting of fears is repenting of a non-sin.

“Sometimes we try to ‘repent our fears away.’ We think, ‘If I repent enough of my fearfulness, then my fears will disappear.’ Actually, we may need to repent of repenting! For repenting of emotions may be a way we seek to gain control and find emotional relief. We think, ‘If I am really spiritual; do a ton of daily devotions; pray a lot; and repent constantly, then perhaps God, like a Genie in a Bottle, will grant me my wish of freedom from unpleasant emotions.’ Of course, if we sinfully respond to our feelings, then it is biblical to confess our sin, receive God’s gracious forgiveness, and avail ourselves of God’s power to progressively reflect the emotional life of Christ.”

To understand the full gist of my post and of the call to lament to God, please read, “Fear Not.”

My fellow biblical counselor, Sean Perron, who has recently been posting extensively on X (Twitter) critiquing Ed Welch’s forthcoming book, Fear Is Not Sin, responded on X to my post about Abram. Sean shifted from Abram to Peter, saying,

“Peter sinned and Jesus helped him. Peter didn’t need to merely lament his way to God and avoid repentance.”

In another response to another post I made, Sean stated that,

“The majority of fear is a lack of faith… and therefore sin.”

Of course, no biblical counselor believes we should ever “avoid repentance” of any actual sins. The question is,

Is it biblically accurate to assume that the majority of a Christian’s fears require repentance because they are sinful fears?

For my biblical response to that question, see, The Beauty of Our Emotions: Biblical Counseling for Fear.

Today’s post contains my response to Sean’s tweet about Peter’s fear, our fears, sin, and repentance. I share my response publicly because it is vital that biblical counselors answer the following questions scripturally:

Biblically, how do we respond to one another in the midst of our very normal, human fears?

Biblically, how do we view emotions like fear?

Pathologizing Fear 

As my title indicates, I fear (pun intended) that as biblical counselors we may be pathologizing fear. What does this mean?

• We call something “sin” that God calls human, normal, healthy.
• We nouthetically confront suffering as if it is sin.
• We call something a disease that is healthy and normal.
• We misdiagnose healthy emotional responses as diseased responses.
• We treat healthy cells as if they are cancerous cells. We bombard healthy cells with horrific chemo treatment.

As a result of pathologizing normal emotions, we condemn the conscience of a fellow brother and sister in Christ, inadvertently heaping unbiblical guilt and shame on them.

Sean Perron on X

Here are direct quotes from Sean on X, expressing his views about fear, sin, correction, rebuke, and repentance. These provide a context for my concern about calling normal human fear sinful.

• “The majority of fear is a lack of faith… and therefore sin.” (For a theological assessment of this statement, see, The Beauty of Our Emotions: Biblical Counseling for Fear.)

• “Fear is not trusting God fully (sin).”

• “If we are afraid, it is a moral problem.”

• “We fear because we lack faith and don’t trust God’s promises. Unbelief is sin and we must turn from it in repentance.”

• “Fear does require repentance.”

• “Fear shows what we love too much, but it also shows we aren’t trusting God. And that is wrong.”

• “The cowardly are fearful and ultimately condemned to hell. That means the fearful / cowardly who don’t repent are in sin.”

• “I believe Welch’s position is not only unhelpful for biblical counseling but is harmful. It hinders the process of sanctification. It has the appearance of kindness but lacks its power. To call sin a sin is actually good news because it means we can have hope to change.”

• Speaking of “fear not”: “The use of a comforting command doesn’t exclude a corrective dimension.”

• “Just because Jesus comforts and isn’t always directly rebuking fear… does NOT mean worry and fear morally neutral. It might just there are different ways to confront / combat sin.”

• “Jesus does sometimes rebuke fear. I take ‘Oh you of little faith’ to actually be a rebuke.”

• “Why was Peter afraid? His fear came from a lack of faith. Jesus connects this fear with ‘little faith.’ This is a moral connection. Peter sinned and Jesus helped him. Peter didn’t need to merely lament his way to God and avoid repentance. He needed more faith. We are no better than Peter. May God help us in our hour of need! ‘But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.’”

• Speaking of Welch’s view, “This is a false dichotomy. ‘Do not be afraid’ are words of comfort… AND words of correction.”

Iron-Sharpening-Iron Feedback to All of Us As Biblical Counselors

I respect my brother, Sean. I see his zeal for the Lord. He wants to minister to fearful people.

However, I disagree biblically with his opinions that, “The majority of fear is a lack of faith… and therefore sin….” “We fear because we lack faith and don’t trust God’s promises. Unbelief is sin and we must turn from it in repentance.”

I am providing my public response for several reasons.

First, iron-sharpening-iron conversations can be helpful for all of us as counselors, care-givers, and friends of those who struggle with fears.

Second, this post is for the good of counselees who are struggling with fear. I fear (again, pun intended) that we can heap unbiblical guilt, shame, and condemnation on sufferers when we assume their emotional responses are sin.

As LaPine explains in The Logic of the Body, there is a danger of “adding iniquity to injury” when emotionally hurting people are told to repent of their normal human emotions. Sean is concerned that we not fear to call fear sin. I am concerned that we call suffering sin. I am concerned that we call normal, even healthy and wise, human emotions sin.

In this spirit of iron-sharpening, and for the sake of our counselees, here are eight biblical principles for biblical counselors related to emotions in general and to fear in particular.

Principle #1: Distinguish Between Normal Fears and Potential Sinful Responses to Fear 

We all agree that we can respond to normal human fears in sinful ways. For example, Welch spends a great deal of time in Fear Is Not Sin (both in his article and in his new booklet) addressing how our response to the emotions of fear and anxiety can become sinful. I agree—our response to our feelings can become sinful. However, that does not mean that for the redeemed, regenerated child of God, “The majority of fear is a lack of faith… and therefore sin.”

I also agree with Dale Johnson and Jonny Artavanis in their ACBC podcast, Is Worry Sinful?, where they highlight our response to our feelings of fear, anxiety, and worry. Artavanis states,

“When we are worried, when it becomes a sin, it is what we do with it. If we cast them on the Lord, I Peter 5:7, ‘cast all your anxieties on Him.’ That’s not sin. That’s what we need to do. But when we carry them rather than cast them, that is sinful.”

Johnson agrees, adding,

“The Bible’s very face forward in describing that we will, in a cursed world, have cares. We will have worries. We will have difficulties and struggles and sufferings and whatnot and they breed in us as sinful, fallen, finite beings, this worry. The big question is: are we taking those worries and trying to depend on ourself to fulfill these things? Or are we taking those cares and concerns to the Lord? 1 Peter 5:7 is the perfect text to describe that. We don’t have to be afraid of the worries that we may have or the cares and concerns that we may have. What are we doing with them? Where are we taking them, right? This is the teaching of Philippians 4:6-8. This is the teaching of 1 Peter 5:7. Where are we taking this?”

Principle # 2: Consider the Bible’s Teaching on the Beauty of Emotions 

What many of us are saying is that emotions as a category or capacity are not in and of themselves sinful. Emotions are our God-given, God-designed capacity to experience our world and to respond internally with a wide range of feelings.

Some examples. Anger, in and of itself is not sin, but it can become sinful, depending on what we do with it. “Be ye angry, but sin not.” Hatred isn’t even sin in and of itself (the hatred of sin is righteous). Grief is not sin, but we can respond to grief in sinful ways if we grieve without hope. Empathy is not sin, but “untethered empathy” is an example of how our response to the emotional experience of empathy could become sinful.

God created us as relational, rational, volitional, and emotional beings. Those capacities are not sinful, and as regenerated saints we can use those capacities in godly, Christlike ways, or we can sin as relational, rational, volitional, and emotional beings. But none of those capacities themselves are sinful—they are God-given.

For more about a biblical theology of emotions, and biblical counseling for emotions, see: The Beauty of Our Emotions: Biblical Counseling for Fear.

Principle #3: “Fear Not” Is God’s Comforting Response 

In my blog on Abram and Genesis 15:1, I emphasize that Yahweh did not say, “Fear not and repent.” He did not say, “Fear not, for fear is sin.”

In His comforting words of reassurance, Yahweh says, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I am your shield, your very great reward.”

Calvin insists that we must insert “because” or “for” into our translation.

“Therefore, to make the sense of the words more clear, the causal particle is to be inserted. ‘Fear not, Abram, because I am thy shield.’”

“Fear not” is not an exhortation never to fear. It is not a command that all fear, this side of heaven, will (or even should) be banished. No. “Fear not” is an encouragement to trust in Yahweh when circumstances are legitimately frightening, and feelings are legitimately troubling.

In my blog, I note five commentators/theologians who indicate that “Fear not” in Genesis 15:1 are not words of confrontation against sin, but Yahweh’s personal words of comfort, consolation, and encouragement.

• Gill explains that God speaks these words not to confront Abram, but “the more to encourage him.”
• Likewise, Calvin notes that “fear not” communicates that “God would soothe his sorrowing and anxious servant with some consolation.”
• The Cambridge Commentary describes “fear not” as “this particular encouragement.”
• Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown write, “To dispel his fear, he was favored with this gracious announcement.”
• Keil and Delitzsch combine an understanding of the warfare context of Genesis 14 with a description of God’s comfort in Genesis 15:1. “In these circumstances, anxiety about the future might naturally arise in his mind. To meet this, the word of the Lord came to him with the comforting assurance, ‘Fear not.’”

Principle #4: Fear Is a Normal Human Emotion 

I also documented in my post that several commentators indicate that Abram’s fears were normal, understandable, and not sinful. In fact, they indicate that had he not been fearful he would have been foolish.

“There is abundant reason for fear in the facts of life. There are so many certain evils, and so many possible evils, that any man who is not a feather-brained fool must sometimes quail” (MacLaren, Commentary of Genesis 15:1).

Calvin, commenting on fear in Matthew 8:26, comes to a conclusion similar to MacLaren. Calvin interprets the passage to teach that a lack of fear means we are “insensible” (oblivious, anesthetized, numb, lacking all feeling), and that fear itself is not faulty.

“If we fear nothing, an indolent and carnal security steals upon us; and thus faith languishes, the desire to pray becomes sluggish, and the remembrance of God is at length extinguished. Besides, those who are not affected by a sense of calamities, so as to fear, are rather insensible than firm. Thus we see that fear, which awakens faith, is not in itself faulty.”

In B. B. Warfield’s classic work, The Emotion Life of Our Lord, Warfield quotes theologians, commentators, lexical experts, and church history to demonstrate that Christ had normal human dread, fear, and anxiety—not the fear of God, but sinless dread, fear, and anxiety. See, The Emotional Life of Christ and Our Emotions. As I noted earlier, fear is a normal, God-designed human emotional providing us with the capacity to discern danger, respond emotionally with prudent fear, and act wisely. “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty” (Proverbs 22:3).

Principle #5: God Invites Us to Lament Our Feelings 

It is within this exegetical context of God’s comforting response to Abram’s realistic fears in Genesis 15:1, that I said,

Sometimes we try to “repent our fears away.; we seek to repent our way out of our troubling feelings.” We think, “If I repent enough of my fearfulness, then my fears will disappear.” Actually, we may need to repent of repenting! For repenting of emotions may be a way we seek to gain control and find emotional relief. We think, “If I am really spiritual; do a ton of daily devotions; pray a lot; and repent constantly, then perhaps God, like a Genie in a Bottle, will grant me my wish of freedom from unpleasant emotions.”

God calls us to lament our way into facing our feelings face-to-face with Our Father. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 42, we practice biblical candor, complaint, crying out, and comfort… (See “Fear Not” for what it looks like to lament our fears to our Father.)

Principle #6: Beware of Pathologizing Healthy Human Emotions 

God does not call us to exhort and nouthetically confront people to repent of normal, God-given human emotions like fear, anger, grief, sadness, and empathy experienced in response to living in a fallen, evil, sinful world. Instead, God’s Word calls us to help people to lament their normal human emotions to God.

As we do, then we also help people to assess if any of their responses to their normal human emotions have become sinful responses. Those sinful responses can be gently and humbly addressed in love.

Address our responses to our feelings? Of course. But condemn and shame people for being emotional beings and for having normal human responses to life in a fallen world? Of course not.

Principle #7: Fear and Faith Can Co-exist—Matthew 14:30-31 

In response to my Genesis 15:1 post, Sean tweeted about Matthew 14:30-31, interpreting that passage to mean that fear equals a lack of faith.

No. Jesus confronts Peter for his doubts about Christ’s power and care. Jesus does not confront Peter for his feelings. “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” Jesus does not say, “Wherefore didst thou feel?”

Peter experienced very normal, human fears: he was drowning and could die! He responded to those feelings with sinful doubt in Jesus’s power to save him.

According to Calvin, commenting on this very verse, not even all doubt is sin, and not all fear is sin.

“But a question arises, Does every kind of fear give evidence of a weakness of faith? for Christ’s words seem to imply that, where faith reigns, there is no room for doubt. I reply: Christ reproves here that kind of doubt which was directly opposed to faith. A man may sometimes doubt without any fault on his part; and that is, when the word of the Lord does not speak with certainty on the matter. But the case was quite different with Peter, who had received an express command from Christ, and had already experienced his power, and yet leaves that twofold support, and falls into foolish and wicked fear.”

Calvin is saying that you can’t extrapolate from Peter’s very specific situation and soul response, to every other person’s experience of fear. Context is king.

Calvin and I agree. With fear, like any emotion, our response to the situation and to our feelings can be godly or ungodly. In our fearful feelings, we can trust God, or we can refuse to trust God.

And even when we trust God, a myriad of feelings, including fear, can remain. Consider all the intense emotions that Jesus experienced in the Garden. His absolute trust in His Father and His sinless being did not inhibit Jesus from feeling deeply distressing emotions.

For more about the co-existence of fear and faith, see, David: A Man After God’s Own Heart…And…A Man with a Fearful Heart.

Principle #8: Our Responses to Our Fears Can Become Sinful—Mark 4:38-40

In another thread written in response to another of my posts about feelings, Sean interpreted Mark 4:38-40 to mean that fear is sin because it is a lack of faith. Mark 4:38-40:

“But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’”

When interpreting Mark 4:38-40, many commentators/theologians emphasize that fear itself isn’t sinful—it’s a God-given response to perceived danger. What Jesus critiques in Mark 4 is not the emotional experience of fear, but the disciple’s theological conclusion:

“Don’t you care that we are perishing?”

They responded to their natural fear in a faithless way—doubting God. They could have responded to their very normal, human, God-given capacity to fear (they were in danger of perishing by drowning) by trusting Jesus. Instead, they responded to their fear by doubting Jesus. Jesus is discipling their faith, not condemning them as sinful for experiencing feelings of fear and concern.

Consider several interpretations of this passage.

William Lane, in NICNT: The Gospel According to Mark, says, “The disciples’ fear is not rebuked, but their failure to trust Jesus in the midst of the storm.”

Likewise, David Garland in the NIV Application Commentary: Mark, writes, “Jesus doesn’t scold them for feeling fear…but for interpreting the situation as abandonment by God.”

Additionally, Robert Stein, former Senior Professor of NT Interpretation at The SBTS, in BECNT: Mark concludes, “The disciples’ mistake lies in their question of Jesus’ concern for them, not in the experience of fear itself.”

Another commentator said, “The disciples were in real danger; even seasoned fishermen feared for their lives. Jesus’ response is pastoral rather than punitive. Jesus corrects their false belief “You do not care.” He does not correct their understandable feelings of fear.”

These theologians/commentators do not see this passage as a rebuke against fear, but as a rebuke against responding to fear with a lack of faith in the Father’s care.

This is similar to 1 Peter 5:7 where we are told to “cast our cares (fears, anxieties, worries) on Christ because he cares for us.” Whenever I am counseling someone with fears (including myself!), I am wanting to help them to ponder their picture of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Do we see God as the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort? Do we see Christ as our sympathetic High Priest? Do we see the Spirit as the Encourager called alongside and residing inside us and groaning with us? Our refusal to cast our fears on God is a diagnostic indicator that we have a faulty view of God—as uncaring. So, biblical counselors help fellow Christians to address that faulty view of God. We do not insist that fellow Christians repent of their normal human cares and concerns.

In Summary: Let’s Rejoice That God Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Us As Emotional Beings 

Emotions are God-given. They are not satanic. Adam had them before the Fall. Christ has them. In themselves, emotions are not sinful. Emotions are beneficial, and yes, even beautiful.

The Psalmist understood this. 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. In Psalm 73:21, the same word is used to mean grieved and embittered. And in Proverbs 23:16, the kidneys are the place of rejoicing and gladness.

Hebrew language expert Hans 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!

God fearfully and wonderfully made us as emotional beings. Emotions were God’s idea. Emotions are God’s good gift to us. For further development of this, see: The Beauty of Our Emotions: Biblical Counseling for Fear.

The Rest of the Story 

For additional reflections on biblical counseling for fear, consider these posts:

“Fear Not”. This is my post on Abram and God in Genesis 15:1.

The Beauty of Our Emotions: Biblical Counseling for Fear. This is one of my posts that develops a biblical theology of biblical counseling for people struggling with fear. 

David: A Man After God’s Own Heart…And…A Man with a Fearful Heart. This is another of my posts, this one showing from David’s life that fear and faith can co-exist. 

The Emotional Life of Christ and Our Emotions. This post distills B. B. Warfield’s teaching on The Emotional Life of Our Lord, including Warfield’s exegetical, lexical support for the interpretation that Jesus experienced sinless dread, fear, and anxiety in Gethsemane.

10 Biblical Principles About Emotions—Drawn from the Emotional Life of Christ. This is a post where I address how the emotional life of Christ helps us to understand our own emotions—without shame and condemnation. 

How Christians Can Inadvertently Moralize Unpleasant Emotions. This is by Brad Hambrick and the Biblical Counseling Coalition, and addresses the concept I am addressing today of not pathologizing or moralizing troubling emotions.