The westernized body of Jesus has largely failed to live up to our high calling of truly acting like His body. Most members of the body live as though they are disconnected from the other members, and therefore suffer from serious problems of selfishness, foolishness, and all the attendant consequences that come from these and similar sins. For most local Christian assemblies, the time is long overdue to wake up to the dismemberment and sickness of the Lord’s body, to repent of our besetting sins, and to seek to reexamine, and put into practice, the apostolic model of Christian community.

However, such reformation won’t happen until we soberly recognize the serious issues that a great multitude of our brothers and sisters suffer from. In order to be appropriately motivated to solve our problems, we must recognize them for what they are, and feel the right emotions over them. Thankfully, Scripture doesn’t leave us without a solid idea of the main signs of spiritual ignorance and immaturity. There are many examples in the New Testament of believing communities that were either filled with, or susceptible to, the presence of Christians who lacked spiritual counseling and understanding.

There are at least three main areas of immaturity we find in the New Testament, and multiple instances in which these areas are wisely diagnosed and remedied by the apostles. First, there’s the problem of failing to grasp the very basics of the gospel, which leads to a lack of basic discernment. Second, there’s the danger of allowing our sinful flesh to control us, and thereby being led into a lifestyle of wanton sinfulness. Finally, there’s the condition of being unable to answer fallacious arguments against true Christianity, and thus being in danger of deception by worldly thinking. In order to recognize the failures that so many of our brethren are ensnared by, we will examine each of these categories of spiritual immaturity in turn, and briefly note how the apostles dealt with them in a counseling-like manner.

Misunderstanding of the Gospel and Its Demands

Soon after the apostles began to proclaim the gospel, many of the Jews – the first hearers of the gospel – began a fierce attack against anyone who would dare to worship Jesus as the promised Messiah and Son of God. One manner in which the Jewish Christians were attacked was through social ostracization, which involved many of the new followers of Jesus being cast off from the only society they had ever known. There was only one way to regain their former acceptance in Jewish society – to renounce Jesus as Messiah, and reembrace rabbinic Judaism as the only true religion of God. Sadly, this tempted many Jewish Christians, and the prime refutation of this temptation is found in the letter to the Hebrews.

The main purpose of Hebrews is to show that every major element of Old Testament Judaism is found wanting, and far surpassed by all that the Lord Jesus and His religion provides to believers. In the process, the author repeatedly warns his audience that if they return to their Jewish religion, they will be turning their backs on the true God, and on any hope of salvation from His judgment.

One central tenet of the author’s argument is that Jesus’s priesthood is far superior to the priesthood of the old covenant of Old Testament Israel. To begin describing the ways in which Jesus is the best high priest, the author states that He serves as a priest in the order of the obscure OT figure of Melchizedek. However, before he can provide any details about this argument, he must again chastise his audience for their drift away from the gospel of Jesus. In this beginning of the first “warning passage” of the letter, he characterizes the condition of the believers as “hard of hearing”, in need of “elementary” teaching, unfamiliar with “the word of righteousness,” and failing to “discern good and evil”:

“Concerning him [Melchizedek] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Heb. 5:11-14)

Do you know any believers who have trouble discerning what’s good from what’s evil? It’s highly probable that the reason for this is that they are still unfamiliar with the message of righteousness, which is that message which bestows righteousness if believed – the gospel. And if they are unfamiliar with it, it’s most likely because they’ve failed to pay close enough attention to good biblical teaching about the gospel – they are “dull of hearing.” Such believers need to repeatedly be taught the “elementary,” or “basic” things of God’s “oracles,” or Word. And by their ignorance, they reveal that they’re spiritual “infants”. This is why the author calls his task of explaining Melchizedek “hard to explain”. These believers had heard the gospel, but had failed to completely grasp and accept all that it taught. In their case, this included the fact that Jesus’s priesthood is far superior to the Old Testament temple priesthood.

In response to these believers’ stupidity, ignorance, and immaturity, the writer of this letter offers this counsel:

“Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the [Messiah], let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.” (Heb. 6:1-2)

This teacher immediately commands his audience to abandon their ignorance of the more complex teachings about Jesus, instead of obsessing over the basics. He urges them to press on to maturity, since the “foundation” of the basics of the gospel has already been laid. After this, he solemnly warns them that, if they forsake the basic gospel, they will suffer God’s eternal punishment.

Now, in some cases, believers who are demonstrating a failure to grasp the basics of the gospel are simply showing that they are pretend believers, and don’t have true faith. Such people must have the gospel explained again, and be clearly called to true repentance and faith. However, some believers are in the position of most of these Hebrews – they have been clearly taught the gospel, and ought to be able to teach it to others. If they’re being distracted by fake gospels – such as Judaism – then they ought to be rebuked, and urged to stop being dull, and to seek growth in understanding. Such is the case for many western believers. For many of them, the best way to present the right exhortation for them will be in personal counseling. But sometimes moral, rather than intellectual dullness, is the problem that needs to be addressed in an immature believer.

Being Mastered by the Lusts of the Flesh

In a multitude of cases, it isn’t simply a misunderstanding of the gospel that manifests immaturity, but a simple failure to discipline oneself, leading to control by sinful impulses. One of the best descriptions of this condition is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, where he laments,

“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (1 Cor. 3:1-3)

Here again, we see that spiritual infancy prevents believers from being able to understand complex teachings, or “solid food.” But in contrast to the previous teacher’s description of his students, Paul here characterizes the Corinthians as “fleshly.” He further describes this ailment as causing them to walk “like mere men,” or natural men – men of “the flesh.” In other words, they’re acting as if they haven’t been born again, given new hearts, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That’s why they’re engaging in “jealousy and strife.” As Paul warns about in Romans 6:12, they’re letting “sin reign in [their] mortal body”.

In his letter to the Ephesians, he elaborates on a similar type of living that believers are capable of if they fail to follow their love for the Lord:

“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality . . .” (Eph. 4:17-19)

Now, Paul wouldn’t have forbidden the Ephesians from imitating this way of living if he didn’t think they were capable of it. Sadly, a great number of believers in the west live as if they still think vainly, have little understanding, and have hard hearts. Such believers, like the Corinthians, must be called to repentance, and be reminded of the work of the Lord, which rescued them from enslavement to sinful living. Then, they must be taught how the gospel itself contains the truths that hold the power to their victory over sin and temptation, for the increasing holiness of their thinking and lifestyles. But unfortunately, there’s one more intellectual disease that puts many believers in urgent need of counseling.

Being Misled by Fallacious Arguments

The last category of spiritual sickness we’ll look at is deception through plausible arguments against Christianity. First, we’ll see how Paul describes the arguments themselves, and then we’ll note how he describes the process of opponents using such arguments to lead believers away from acceptance of the pure teachings of the gospel. To begin, take note of Paul’s dire warning to the Colossians about being fascinated by worldly thinking:

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to [Messiah].” (Col. 2:8)

In this verse, Paul provides three types of sources of anti-Christian arguments. He first calls them “philosophy and empty deception”. “Philosophy” literally means “the love of wisdom,” but obviously in this case refers to devotion worldly and idolatrous wisdom. This kind of thinking can sound very convincing and useful for making sense of the world, and achieving human goals, but is based on the foundations of pride and worship of the creation. Thus, Paul also describes it as “empty deception,” which is empty because it contains no fundamental correspondence with the reality of the world that God has created, sustained, and controlled up until now. Second, Paul sources such philosophy in “the tradition of men,” which is to say the long line of sinful and rebellious thought that has been handed down since Noah’s unbelieving progeny established their godless cultures. Finally, he roots human tradition in the basic “principles of the world,” or the foundational values of the God-hating domain that’s ruled by the devil.

Such philosophy, tradition, and principles do have the power to “captivate” believers, as evidenced by the fact that Paul has to forbid the Colossians from letting this happen. But such ideas are in no way in accordance with “Messiah”. Similarly, he expresses his fear that the Corinthians will be deceived by similar arguments, and abandon one of the most important aspects of Christianity:

“But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to [Messiah].” (2 Cor. 11:3)

Again, Paul is warning some believers of the danger of being deceived. This time, he calls the manner of deception “craftiness,” like that of the serpent who deceived Eve. The serpent demonstrated craftiness in that he didn’t outright contradict what God had said to interest Eve, but rather used a gradual, and indirect, line of reasoning, in order to plant doubts in Eve’s mind about God’s character, concern, and trustworthiness. In other words, he gave the appearance of trustworthiness, while at the same time opposing God’s Word.

And if the Corinthians are deceived like this, then the result will be disastrous. They’ll forsake “the simplicity and purity” of Messiah. What Paul is saying is that they’ll still retain Jesus in their worship, but they’ll add something contradictory to Him, so that they’ll no longer be able to represent Him genuinely, and know Him fully.

Sadly, all around us, we see the actions and lives of deceived believers contradicting the faith that they profess. Many of them are true believers, but like Eve, and so many Christian communities in history, they’ve believed the lies of find-sounding philosophies and ideologies that use Christian concepts in order to create their own twisted religions. Obviously, all these brethren need godly counsel in one form or another.

Are You in Need of Counseling?

Having surveyed the major problems for which Christians need spiritual counseling, do you see in what a needy position western believers are in? All around us, there are multitudes of believers who have poor understandings of the gospel, and are therefore lacking in basic discernment. Also, it’s apparent that most of the western body of Jesus is beset with blatant and gross ungodliness. Moreover, the number of believers who are held captive by the deceptions of pseudo-Christian thought is overwhelming. What do these brethren need? A huge number, if not most, of them need spiritual counseling. If not for these root issues, they surely need counseling for the deadly fruit of these maladies. For we know that wrong thinking or living in the believer’s life always leads to other problems, such as foolishness, depression, and anxiety.

But having thought about the general decay of Christians in general, what about you? Are you able to clearly and thoroughly explain and apply the gospel to basic matters of living? Are you controlled by the Spirit, or by your sinful flesh? Are you unknowingly ensnared by an ideology that is inherently anti-Christian, but may seem consistent with some of the teachings of the gospel?

What about the brethren in your life? How are they doing in these areas of weakness? How are you helping them to avoid falling into them?

Of course, it’s not enough to just identify the signs that believers need counseling. We must understand the tools we have at our disposal to counsel our brethren. Next, we’ll take stock of the resources that the Lord has given us, so that every single believer can serve as a counselor.