Trying to Be More Biblical Than the Bible Is Actually Pharisaical, Idolatrous, and Unbiblical 

Some falsely claim that using physical means of relief is idolatrous and surrenders away the ministry of the Lord to created things. However, the Creator has given us all created things richly to enjoy and freely to use in thankfulness and dependence upon Him (1 Timothy 4:3-5; 1 Timothy 6:17).

It was not idolatry, but dependence that Elijah experienced when God used created things like food, drink, and rest to calm his fears and address his depression. It was not idolatry, but dependence that Timothy experienced when he used God-created wine for his stomach’s sake.

The same Jesus who invites the weary to come to Him for rest for their souls (Matthew 11:28-30), also invites His weary disciples to “come away with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31-32; see also Luke 9:10).

Soul rest and body rest are equally spiritual. Soul rest and body rest equally demonstrate dependence upon God. In fact, because God designed us as embodied-souls, we are never more God-dependent than when we humbly choose whole-person, embodied-soul rest in Jesus. Surrendering our embodied-soul to the Lord is not surrendering to created things; it is surrendering to the Creator. It is whole-person dependence upon Christ.

Church History 

In today’s post, we’ll enjoy three images from church history that depict the legitimacy of physiological care for embodied-souls.

1. Bootless Counsel.
2. Food Before Talk.
3. A Multi-Lane Highway

Image #1: Bootless Counsel

It is sinful and cruel to provide counselor empathy for the soul but then ignore the bodily needs of that hurting person.

Valerian, writing before 460 AD, explains the “cruel piety” of “bootless counsel” that ignores immediate embodied needs.

“What does it profit to bewail another man’s shipwreck if you take no care of his body which is suffering from exposure? Or what good does it do to torture your soul with grief over another’s wound, if you refuse him a health-giving cup? These flattering remarks do not feed the hungry man; those bootless counsels do not clothe another’s nakedness. What good does it do to apply soft poultices to an indigent man, if you will not give a bit of food to one on the point of dying from hunger? What kind of mercy is that, in which you desire the man to live, but are unwilling to save him in his need? Clearly, that piety is a cruel one which knows how to grieve over the wretched, but does not know how to help those about to perish” (Valerian, Homilies, Hom. 7, sec. 5, FC 17, p. 349, page 153 in Oden, Classical Pastoral Care, Vol. 4, emphasis added).

We might paraphrase Valerian:

“What does it profit to bewail a person’s soul anxiety if you take no care of his body which is suffering from anxiety? Bootless counsel addresses the soul but minimizes the body.”

Thomas Oden explains that biblically and historically, “the care of the soul does not take place in a temporal vacuum” (153).

I would add:

The care of the soul does not take place in an embodied vacuum. We are soul physicians of embodied-souls who meet the immediate, temporal, physical relief needs of people as we engage with them about their ongoing progressive sanctification needs.

Image #2: Food Before Talk

Thomas Oden, in Classical Pastoral Care, Vol. 4, highlights the biblical-historical practice of “immediate relief for those in immediate need” (146).

Speaking of the interplay of counsel for the soul and biblical care for the body, Oden writes,

“The first need of the seriously malnourished is food. Food comes before talk” (146).

Oden then documents this reality from church history.

“If your brother should be weak—I speak of the poor man—do not visit empty-handed such a person as he lies ill. . .. God Himself cries out: Break your bread with the needy. There is no need to visit with words, but with benefits. It is unthinkable that your brother should be sick through lack of food. Do not try to satisfy him with words. He needs food and drink” (Commodianus, Instructions, ch. Lxxi, ANF IV, p. 217, page 146 in Oden).

Oden explains:

“Commodianus in the second century was relying upon a widely available tradition of preaching and care that preceded him. It still remains a key principle of pastoral priorities in care of the poor: bread for the needy must precede talk, and talk cannot be a substitute for bodily sustenance” (Oden, 146).

Perhaps we could encapsulate it like this:

• Physical therapy before talk therapy.
• Practical embodied ministry provides grounding for the personal ministry of the Word. 

Image #3: A Multi-Lane Highway

Do not shrink historical pastoral embodied-soul care down to secular, modernistic professionalized office counseling.

Historically, pastors “saw their lane” as a multi-lane highway of meeting whatever need the person had—physical and/or spiritual—typically both.

Thomas Oden summarized his historical research with these words:

“…counseling ministry and ministry to the poor were viewed as integrated, inseparable tasks” (Oden, Classical Pastoral Care, Vol. 4, 144).

Based upon his research into the history of Christian pastoral care and counseling, Oden explained:

“A significant amount of the pastor’s time will be given to caring for the sick. In reaching out for the physically ill, the pastor shares directly in Jesus’s own ministry. According to the parable of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25), Christ is present incognito in the sick. In caring for the sick, one in effect cares for Christ’s living body” (Oden, 26).

Historic pastoral/congregational care was holistic. That is unlike modern professionalized, office-based counseling—which is often unbiblically focused only on the soul, rather than on the whole person—the embodied-soul.

The Rest of the Story 

For an expanded version of this post, see, Is Relief-Oriented Care and Counseling for the Body Sub-Biblical?