You Are Competent To Counsel

 

Romans 15:14

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁴ Personally I am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are rich in goodness, amply filled with all [spiritual] knowledge and competent to admonish andcounsel and instruct one another also.

   Throughout the past two centuries, in this country, there has always been a search to try to help those in need of counseling. With the rising of philosophers like Maslow, the focus became on trying to reach self-actualization. Basically, the foundation of what these philosophers believed in was faulty. They left God out of the picture, so man became the answer to man's problems. 

   The ministry of the church became outdated, as more and more emphasis came upon the academic. The problems of the soul were now going to be solved in the medical realm instead of in the spiritual realm. Man became the measure of all things. Although many theories were similar, there were many differences and incompatibilities in the belief systems of these great thinkers.

   No one could figure out the right category for counseling, so, it got put under the psychological category, while the psychological category was being considered as an issue that could be treated with medicine and therapy. Those leading in this field never considered the spiritual category, and had no intention on even acknowledging that there was such a thing. The church may not have been ready yet to take on such a responsibility.

    Many problems arose during the many decades that followed, in which psychotherapy was being developed. There were disagreements among psychologists and methods. The bottom line was that you can't treat spiritual problems with medicine or put it in a scientific category so it can be treated with a matching cure. No one could seem to figure that out though.

   About 50 years ago, the Biblical Counseling Movement began. It started with Jay Adams and has continued to develop. The foundation for Biblical Counseling is the Bible itself. Only the Bible has the correct understanding of anthropology and the cure for man's sins and effects of the fall. When man is rightly related to God, through the Cross of Jesus Christ, he is in a place where he can be changed from the inside out. Therapies having to do with psychology do not produce change from the inside. They deal with symptoms of issues that are on the outside, and remove the symptoms, but never deal with the heart, thus leaving a place for the problems to continue to grow and blossom, even though they were cut off for a time.

   In Paul's epistle to the Romans, he is telling them that they are competent to counsel one another. Counseling belongs to the church, as the church is the only place on earth where the Bible is the foundation for every person's life. As people are changed by the grace of God, they, in turn, can be used of God in the lives of others so others can be changed too. 

   If man is the highest being on earth, and the measure of all things, then we are in trouble. Mankind is living in darkness and to the bondage of sin. Mankind cannot break the chains of his enslavement to sin. Only God can do that. But God uses people to be a means of grace to others. If God is left out of the picture, then no true counseling will be taking place. 

   The Bible tells us that we are capable of counseling each other. The alternative is to let the world counsel us through the use of psychotherapy and psychology. If we are able to counsel one another, and if we put that into practice, then, just maybe, we won't even need to use secular counselors anymore. This is the challenge now. We need to be prepared to counsel. That is part of our responsibility in the church.