John MacArthur
We live in the age of the expert. The spirit of self-sufficiency that enabled our pioneer ancestors to settle the frontier has all but disappeared from our culture. People look increasingly to experts and professionals to help them do, or do for them, what they once did for themselves. The effect is not always positive.
Parenting, for example, was once based on common-sense wisdom handed down from generation to generation. In our day, however, various gurus specializing in child rearing have flooded the market with new, often contradictory, theories that debunk most of the old wisdom handed down to us from previous generations. The results have been disastrous for both the family and society.
Unfortunately, the church has not escaped this onslaught of expert mentality. Ministries such as visiting the sick and evangelizing the lost are often handed over to paid professionals. Specialists are now deemed necessary to advise church leaders on everything from demographics, to church growth strategies, to administrative policies, to how to stage an entertaining Sunday service.
Nowhere has the veneration of “experts” had a more insidious impact than in the area of counseling. More and more voices from within the church are touting the notion that counseling is an activity best left to skilled professionals, specifically trained psychotherapists. Psychologist O. Hobart Mowrer, although not an evangelical, noted the trend and asked pointedly, “Has Evangelical religion sold its birthright for a mess of psychological pottage?”1 To our shame, the answer in many cases is yes. Incredibly, many churches that affirm the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture are nonetheless quick to shuffle their hurting members off to the psychological and psychiatric “experts,” often even non-Christian counselors utterly blind to the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14).
The psalmist who penned Psalm 1 would never have understood that practice. He noted the folly of seeking counsel from ungodly sources. He wrote, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, / Nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” (Ps. 1:1). He understood clearly what the church seems to have forgotten. True happiness comes not from following the futile speculations of humanistic psychology but from living out biblical principles. Listen to his description of the individual blessed by God:
His delight is in the law of the LORD, / And in His law he meditates day and night. / And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, / Which yields its fruit in its season, / And its leaf does not wither; / And in whatever he does, he prospers (Ps. 1:2–3).
COUNSELING: A FUNCTION OF FELLOWSHIP
Ephesians 4:15–16 gives a prescription for the spiritual health of Christ’s body:
Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
As the members of the body minister to each other, speaking the truth in love, the church is built up. The strengthening of each member results in a collective growing up to the fullness of the stature of Christ. Thus the entire body is matured as the members minister to each other according to their giftedness.
Counseling is an important means through which the members of the body are supposed to minister to each other. When the body is functioning correctly, the unruly are admonished, the fainthearted encouraged, and the weak helped (1 Thess. 5:14). The notion that counseling is the exclusive domain of those who have been initiated into the esoteric secrets of modern psychological theory is utterly at odds with the scriptural concept of life in the body. The Bible presents counseling, like all other aspects of ministry, as a function of fellowship that takes place naturally when the body is healthy. Study the biblical passages pertaining to church life and fellowship, and this clear truth will emerge: all believers are expected to counsel one another. Every Christian is commanded to share in the ministry of exhorting, admonishing, and encouraging others in the flock. Our duty to counsel is even heightened, not diminished, when we see a brother or sister struggling with serious difficulties and sin. We cited some of the key passages on this matter at the beginning of chapter 1. Let’s examine one of them a little more closely:
Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one shall bear his own load. And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches (Gal. 6:1–6).
In that passage, Paul outlined a three-step process for restoring sinning members of the body to spiritual health: pick them up, hold them up, and build them up.
Before someone who has fallen into sin can get back in the Christian race, that person must first be picked up. Those caught in sin’s vicious grasp need help as much as they need rebuke. Counseling, therefore, involves helping people get back on their feet spiritually through confession of sin and repentance. That responsibility clearly lies with members of the congregation, not hired professionals, and certainly not with secular counselors. Only fellow believers, through the use of their spiritual gifts, are truly able to help those who stumble. The spiritually strong, wrote Paul, “ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please [themselves]” (Rom. 15:1).
Not only are those who are spiritually strong supposed to pick up those who fall; they must also help hold them up after the weaker brethren are back on their feet. Those who have just confessed and turned from their sin are extremely vulnerable to further temptation. Satan launches his most savage attacks after a spiritual victory. “Burdens” in Galatians 6:2 refers to the temptations to fall back into the very sins from which a believer has just been delivered. There is no more crushing burden than a persistent, oppressive temptation. Those delivered from the grasp of a stubborn sin often need further encouragement, counsel, and, above all, prayer.
Finally, after picking up and holding up sinning believers, the spiritually strong must build them up. “The one who is taught the word” and “him who teaches” are to “share all” the “good things” of the Word with each other (v. 6). Note that the same command applies to the teacher and the taught one. Thus all believers—leaders, disciples, weak, and strong—are responsible for sharing the good things of the Word. This is the essence of biblical counseling.
If, as this passage affirms, all believers are responsible to counsel one another, then all must be gifted to some extent to do that. The apostle Paul confirms that truth in Romans 15:14: “Concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another” (emphasis added).
EQUIPPED WITH SPIRITUAL GIFTS
In what way are believers equipped to admonish and counsel one another? They are equipped through the spiritual gifts that are imparted to each member of the body. The primary purpose of spiritual gifts is ministry in the church itself: “There are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:5–7, emphasis added). Nearly all the spiritual gifts delineated in the New Testament have usefulness in the counseling ministry.
It is important that we understand that the spiritual gifts described in Scripture are not detached entities given in identical measure or stamped according to a singular pattern. Every believer has a distinctive spiritual gift: “To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (v. 7, emphasis added). Each gift is thoroughly unique, designed by God’s grace for each individual in particular: “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (v. 4). “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us” (Rom. 12:6). Spiritual gifts are offered in infinite variety, each with a different design, like snowflakes. The gifts listed in the New Testament (for example, Rom. 12:4–8; 1 Cor. 12:4–10) are simply categories. An individual’s spiritual gift should comprise several features of the various abilities named as gifts in these passages. In other words, someone whose primary gift is teaching will probably also be gifted to some degree in wisdom, discernment, or mercy. That person’s gift is a singular blend of abilities and characteristics that enable him or her to minister according to God’s calling.
Let’s examine some of the main kinds of gifts enumerated in Scripture.
Prophecy is commonly associated with foretelling the future. The Greek word prophēteuō, however, simply means “to speak forth,” or “proclaim.” It refers to the public proclamation of Scripture. In biblical times, of course, the work of a prophet often involved the reception and proclamation of new revelation. But the title prophet actually refers to anyone whose gift is declaring truth with authority, or preaching. Thus a prophet, particularly in this present age, is simply a proclaimer of biblical truth, not someone who receives revelation directly from God. The great Reformer John Calvin understood the gift of prophecy in that light. He wrote, “I prefer, however, to follow those who understand the word in a wider sense to mean the peculiar gift of revelation by which a man performs the office of interpreter with skill and dexterity in expounding the will of God.”2
The apostle Peter said much the same thing when he exhorted those with the gift of prophecy in these words: “Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God” (1 Pet. 4:11).
Perhaps the clearest statement of how the gift of prophecy functions comes in 1 Corinthians 14:3–4: “One who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. . . . One who prophesies edifies the church.” The gift of prophecy can be employed to edify believers, call them to obey God’s Word, and encourage them in time of need: edify, exhort, and console. What are those but aspects of biblical counseling? Thus the prophet is equipped to counsel simply by virtue of this gifting.
The importance of the gift of prophecy can be seen in Paul’s emphasis on it in 1 Corinthians 14. There the apostle contrasted it with the gift of languages, demonstrating the superiority of prophecy. He exhorted the Corinthians to “pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy” (v. 1).
And in a sense, the preacher fulfills an important element of the counselor’s task with every sermon. Acts 15:32 gives an example of the gift of prophecy in action. After delivering the letter from the Jerusalem Council to the church at Antioch, “Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message.” They spent time strengthening the believers there by proclaiming to them the truths of the Word of God. Their prophetic preaching ministry itself had the same effect as good counsel.
One of Paul’s final exhortations to his protégé Timothy stresses the importance of proclaiming the Word:
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Tim. 4:1–5, emphasis added).
In other words, preachers of the Word ought to exercise their gifts exactly like wise counselors: reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with all patience and careful instruction.
Preaching and counseling that is truly biblical will be applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit and will produce spiritual growth. After all, God’s Word is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (3:16). A pastor who faithfully exercises his prophetic office is acting as counselor for the whole congregation. By equipping them and instructing them, the pastor facilitates their giftedness and furnishes them with what they need to counsel one another effectively. Strong biblical preaching is thus inextricably linked to effective biblical counseling in the church. The counseling ministry begins with the pulpit and extends from there to every level of ministry in the church.
Closely associated with prophecy is the gift of teaching. Indeed, biblical preaching must include a strong element of teaching as well. Unlike preaching, teaching is carried out on all levels of the church, not just from the pulpit. Those who teach Sunday school classes, lead Bible studies, or disciple others all exercise the gift of teaching.
The Greek word didaskō (“I teach”) includes the idea of systematic training or instruction. The gift of teaching is the ability to lead others to a deeper understanding of Scripture.
An emphasis on teaching marked our Lord’s ministry. At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, “the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28–29). Matthew 4:23; 9:35; Mark 2:13; 6:6; Luke 13:22; 20:1, along with many other passages, describe the centrality of teaching in Jesus’ ministry.
A strong emphasis on teaching also characterized the apostles’ ministry. Acts 2:42 describes the early church as “continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (also see 5:42). Acts 15:35 records that “Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching, with many others also, the word of the Lord.” From Acts 18:11 we learn that Paul “settled [in Corinth] a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” “I did not shrink,” Paul testified to the Ephesian elders, “from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house” (20:20). In his letter to the Colossians, the great apostle summed up his ministry in these words: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ” (Col. 1:28).
The gift of teaching is a prerequisite for being an elder (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9). Not all elders are called to proclaim the Word publicly; however, all must be able to teach the Word systematically to those over whom they have oversight. It is that qualification that sets elders apart from deacons. Teaching the Word is a primary way elders exercise oversight of their flock (see 1 Tim. 4:6, 11, 13, 16; 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:15, 24; Titus 2:1). Through the teaching of the Word, elders guard the congregation from doctrinal and practical errors. They also teach principles for godly living.
What marks an effective teacher? First, the teacher must live consistently with biblical teaching. Paul admonished Timothy, “In speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:12). The godly Puritan Richard Baxter wrote, “He that means as he speaks will surely do as he speaks.”3
Second, the teacher must be “constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of . . . sound doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:6). The greater the depths of doctrinal knowledge, the more effective will be the teaching. “He must not be himself a babe in knowledge,” wrote Richard Baxter, “that will teach men all those mysterious things which must be known in order to salvation.”4 Like Timothy, the teacher must “be diligent to present [himself] approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
Third, such knowledge should produce humility, not pride. Those whose teaching is marked by an arrogant attitude contradict with their lives the very truths they teach. Paul described to Timothy the proper attitude for those who teach:
And the Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth (vv. 24–25).
Finally, a skilled teacher will be characterized by purity of heart and holiness of life. Paul’s exhortations to Timothy to “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7), and “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness” (6:11) should be taken to heart by all who would teach God’s Word.
The importance of teaching in counseling cannot be overstated. Counseling is essentially a process of teaching. The wise counselor must be able to listen carefully, then apply the Word of God accurately to whatever problems arise in the counseling session. Counselees will never live out principles they do not know. Teaching biblical principles, therefore, is at the heart of the biblical counseling process. Adams wrote, “Nouthetic confrontation must be scriptural confrontation. Nouthetic confrontation is, in short, confrontation with the principles and practices of the Scriptures.”5 In contrast to the Rogerian “client-centered” nondirective methodology embraced by many today, the goal of biblical counseling is to change sinful patterns of thinking and living. This is done through the power of Scripture.
The Bible is the only unchanging touchstone to measure thinking, feeling, and behaving. The Word of God abounds with guidance and direction for living. Therefore, the methodology of biblical counseling relies on the Word of God rather than the wisdom of men. . . . Therefore, biblical counselors will seek to help their counselees live in submission to God’s love, His Word, and His enabling.6
Those who are gifted to teach, then, are specially gifted for this aspect of counseling.
While prophecy proclaims biblical truth, and teaching systematizes it, exhortation demands a proper response to it. Romans 12:8 lists exhortation as one of the gifts of the Spirit. The Greek word is paraklēsis, also used in such passages as Acts 20:2; 1 Corinthians 14:3; 1 Timothy 4:13; and Hebrews 13:22. It means “to exhort,” “to encourage,” “to advise,” or “to confront.” Its relationship to the counseling ministry should be obvious.
To exhort is to challenge fellow believers to act consistently with God’s will. As already noted, biblical counseling involves admonishing the unruly, encouraging the fainthearted, and helping the weak (1 Thess. 5:14). Through the gift of exhortation, counselors encourage sinning Christians to forsake their sin and practice righteousness, they comfort those devastated by trouble or sorrow, and they strengthen the faith of those who are discouraged and weak. Those particularly gifted in exhortation are invaluable counselors, often the backbone of a local church’s counseling ministry.
The gift of wisdom, referred to in 1 Corinthians 12:8, is the ability to understand how the truths of Scripture apply to the practical issues of daily living. Sophia (“wisdom”) is used frequently in the New Testament to describe the ability to discern and conform to God’s will (see Matt. 11:19; 13:54; James 1:5; 3:13, 17). As such, some degree of wisdom is essential for all biblical counselors. Obviously, it would do little good to teach counselees biblical principles and exhort them to follow those principles without showing them specifically how to do that. Wise counsel is what the counselee needs (see Prov. 1:5; 12:15; 19:20), and the gift of wisdom enables the counselor to provide it.
Foundational to preaching, teaching, and counseling is knowledge. The gift of knowledge is the God-given ability to understand the mysteries of God’s revealed Word, those truths unknowable apart from God’s revelation (see Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:3; Col. 1:26; 2:2; 4:3). It also entails skill in presenting that knowledge so others can understand it. The gift of knowledge is not merely the ability to accumulate and collate facts but a spiritual ability to see biblical and doctrinal truth in a coherent and meaningful way.
Without some degree of spiritual knowledge, counselors have little to offer except the foolish and futile speculations of worldly wisdom. God’s view of such counsel may be seen in His condemnation of Job’s counselors. The gift of knowledge enables counselors to give the wise counsel from God’s Word that alone offers hope to their counselees.
Mentioned in Romans 12:8 (“he who leads”) and 1 Corinthians 12:28 (“administrations”), this is the gift of leadership. Proistēmi, the term used in Romans 12:8, means “to lead,” “to manage,” “to be in charge,” or “to oversee,” while kubernēsis (1 Cor. 12:28) means “to steer or pilot a ship.” The gift of leadership, or administration, is the Spirit-given ability to organize, oversee, and motivate others to accomplish a task.
Since many counselees, especially those suffering from depression, lead unstructured lives, the gift of administration is a useful one for a counselor. To help counselees order their lives to glorify God is an important aspect of biblical counseling.
Those with this gift have a special love for and sensitivity to those in misery, whether from poverty, physical illness, or the ravages of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme example of One who showed mercy. In Luke 4:18, Jesus said,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, / Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. / He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, / And recovery of sight to the blind, / To set free those who are downtrodden.
Without the spiritual gift of mercy, counseling is often cold and clinical. Many people struggling with emotional upset, reeling from some disaster of life, or seeking relief from depression need to be able to share the burden with someone whose gift is mercy. Such people are often actually set back by psychoanalysis, which only prompts them to be introspective, self-focused, or obsessed with their feelings. What they really need is relief from the burden and a lightening of the load (see Matt. 11:28–29). Fellow believers with the gift of mercy are best equipped to help with such burden bearing.
MINISTRY IN THE BODY
Healthy churches breed relationships that are conducive to spiritual growth and emotional health, because as Christians minister with their gifts to one another, much of the work of counseling takes place in the natural interaction of fellowship. As is evident in this brief list of key spiritual gifts, the express purpose of our giftedness is to help meet the needs that drive most people to seek counseling.
All ministry in the body of Christ thus incorporates features of counseling. Both formal and informal counseling should always be taking place in the local church at every level of ministry and fellowship. Gifted members naturally minister to one another by admonishing, encouraging, strengthening, and teaching—all forms of counseling. When these functions are moved out of the fellowship and into remote clinics, the whole life of the body is disrupted.
Unfortunately, in the stampede to integrate psychology into the church, gifted believers have often been discouraged from counseling fellow Christians according to Scripture. As a result, spiritual gifts have fallen into a severe state of neglect. People who should be admonishing, correcting, encouraging, and showing mercy are instead referring people to professional therapists. Many Christians have accepted the notion that tolerance and deference are the only acceptable attitudes we ought to communicate to struggling people. The unavoidable consequence is that many believers have unnecessarily stunted their own spiritual gifts.
I am convinced that a healthy emphasis on the ministry of spiritual gifts would alleviate much of the need for formal counseling. People would minister to one another more effectively as a natural result of everyday fellowship. And as gifted believers gained skill in employing their gifts, a whole new generation of spiritually capable counselors would arise from within the church.
If that does not happen, the church is doomed. The boom in counseling clinics is not producing healthier Christians. On the contrary, it is producing a generation of believers who are utterly dependent on therapy and unable to enjoy life in the body of Christ as it was meant to be. Professional psychologists are no substitute for spiritually gifted people. Moreover, the counsel psychology offers cannot replace biblical wisdom and divine power.
Each Christian is gifted uniquely by God to help meet the needs of fellow believers in the body. If we can recover that simple truth and live it out with new enthusiasm in our fellowships, we can restore health to the body and at the same time fill even the deepest needs of the most troubled lives.