All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Ed. (NASB95), published by The Lockman Foundation

The grave misunderstandings and ignorance of the gospel, flagrant sinfulness, and pervasive deceptions that plague the lives of western believers cry out to us as signals of an emergency situation. Most Christians in the westernized world are in dire need of a spiritual wake-up call. But in spite of what a preacher can give them in a half hour monologue, most of them won’t be provided with the specific and appropriate help they need as individuals, unless they are confronted on a personal basis. This calls for a renewal of the common Christian taking responsibility for his care of his brethren, and using the knowledge and power that the Lord has given him to come alongside his brother or sister, and deeply invest in their relationship together. The spiritual discipline I believe must be recognized and developed among Christian leaders and their followers is the normal, everyday, counseling of believers by their closest brethren in the Lord.

We’ve already seen that there are several obstacles we must overcome in order to effectively engage in spiritual counseling. We’ve also examined the main symptoms of spiritual immaturity and illness that should motivate us to provide proper counseling. But we’ve yet to provide a thorough description of what tools we have at our disposal as common Christians to engage in the counseling of our brethren.

These resources are very basic, but in a culture that is so distracted and deceived by worldly ideologies, concepts, and methods, it’s necessary to remind ourselves of the riches of wisdom, knowledge, and power that the Lord has given us, simply by calling us to Himself, and placing us among western Christianity. Almost every believer in the western world has four sources of counseling ability easily within his reach, and each of them demand our understanding and application:

  1. The Savior Himself
  2. The Scriptures
  3. The Instruction of Leaders
  4. The Spirit of God

From studying relevant Scriptures about these resources, we will be able to increase our appreciation for the reasonableness and necessity of most Christian’s involvement in spiritual counseling.

The Savior as the Source of Counsel

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he describes one of the fundamental tenets of our understanding of where our knowledge of reality and righteousness comes from:

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have . . . for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding . . . in a true knowledge of God’s mystery . . . [Messiah], in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col. 2:1-3)

This is one of Paul’s many purpose statements for his pastoral service of the assemblies he planted. His grand vision for the brethren under his care includes the blessing of their encouragement through their unity “in love”, which will contribute to them being enriched “from the full assurance of understanding” by knowing God’s “mystery”, or “secret,” which is Messiah Himself. And the reason that they’ll have full assurance of the truth by knowing the Messiah is because in Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” In other words, if you know the Lord, you know the Source of all “wisdom and knowledge.”

Why does Paul make a distinction between wisdom and knowledge? Because the Old Testament Scriptures do. In the wisdom literature of the OT, true “wisdom” refers to the knowledge and ability to put God’s truth into practice in everyday life. On the other hand, “knowledge” means exactly what most of us think it does – truth about reality that one believes is true. Both of these necessities for thinking and living right are found in the Lord Himself. Therefore, simply knowing Him, without anything else, provides anyone with the basis for becoming wise and knowledgeable about any matter of life.

It’s because Jesus is the Source of all wisdom and knowledge that Paul goes on to urge the Colossians to,

“Let the word of [Messiah] richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs . . .” (Col. 3:16)

This logically follows from the truth that all wisdom and knowledge are found in the Lord. If He is the Source of our wisdom and knowledge, then we must study, learn, and apply His “word,” or message. Paul pictures this as letting it “dwell” in believers “richly,” or abundantly. If we do this, then this will lead us into “teaching and admonishing one another.” Relevantly, the Greek word translated “admonishing” is the continuous form of the word that is most often associated with counseling in the New Testament. It literally means “to put to mind,” and always carries the idea of confronting a person with his failure or problem, and explaining why it’s wrong. Thus, Paul is actually calling the Colossians to counsel one another “with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”. But again, these songs are rooted in the message of Messiah, from which all the wisdom and knowledge of teaching and admonishing come.

As most believers know, the source of our revelation about Jesus are the holy Scriptures. This is the second resource we must understand and appreciate as a whole if we are to be equipped to counsel our brethren.

The Scriptures of Messiah

Although it should be obvious that Scripture – being our source of revelation about Jesus – is our main tool in counseling other believers, many believers fail to give the Bible the place it deserves in our service of advising and counseling. The number of churches, Christian organizations, and individual Christians that purport to provide the necessary instruction and information to believers, but are actually promulgating worldly thinking, is overwhelming. We live in a day in which the Scriptures are largely honored in word only, and not in practice. Many believers claim that they are their final authority for all necessary truth and knowledge, but live as if other sources of information are either necessary or superior.

Paul the apostle has given us the most concise description of the authority, applicability, and sufficiency of Scripture in his second letter to Timothy. It’s a well-known passage, but sadly many believers fail to understand its significance and demands upon them. It helpfully declares,

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Ti. 3:16-17)

In these two verses, most of what we need to understand about the basic characteristics of the Scriptures are simply laid out for us. We find three main qualities of Scripture here. First, Paul says that all Scripture is proclaimed by God. That word “all” is important, since it rids us of any notion that some Scriptures are more authoritative than others. Every historical document contained in the body of sacred writings we possess is equal in authority. Why? Because they’re all literally “breathed out by God”. What Paul is saying is that all the Scriptures – both Old and New Testaments – are writings directly provided by God Himself. Put another way, if you’re reading Scripture, you’re reading what God says.

The second aspect of Scripture in this passage is that it’s all profitable for four essential tools. First, Scripture can teach people. Second, it can reprove, or chastise, people by pointing out how they’re sinning. Third, it can tune people by correcting them in areas in which they’re sinning. Finally, to sum up all three of these uses of Scripture, it can train people “in righteousness,” or right living.

The final characteristic of Scripture that Paul describes is that it’s all purposed to make “the man of God” “adequate, equipped for every good work”. By “man of God,” Paul had in mind the gifted teacher of God, but he was in no way excluding any person who serves God. And what will the teaching, chastisement, correction, and training of God’s Word enable Christians to be? To be “adequate” or suitable, since they’ll be equipped to do every good work that’s necessary. By writing this, Paul is clearly asserting that the proper use of Scripture is all that’s necessary in order for Christians to know how to live righteously, and to be able to help others live righteously. No other source of teaching, instruction, or knowledge is necessary. Scripture is sufficient for adequacy in goodness, and therefore Scripture is sufficient to teach us what to say and do in counseling. But of course, bare knowledge of Scripture is insufficient without the work of God the Holy Spirit living inside us.

The Spirit of Counsel

Besides knowing who Jesus is, and being able to learn Scripture, we also possess the almighty power of the Holy Spirit within us. It’s due to His supernatural presence within our hearts that we were moved to trust Jesus in personal knowledge, and to revere and treasure the holy Scriptures. When the Spirit made the gospel understandable and believable to us, He transformed our hearts from evil, God-hating, and ignorant ones, to good, God-loving, and understanding ones. This is why Paul can assure the Roman Christians to whom he writes in Romans that they’re able to counsel one another because of two simple character traits:

“. . . I myself also am convinced, brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.” (Ro. 15:14)

Just as in Colossians 3:16, Paul is using the Greek word that could rightly be translated “warn” or “counsel,” when he tells them that they’re able “to admonish one another”. And the only two qualifications he reminds them of are that they are “full of goodness” and “filled with all knowledge”. His usage of “goodness” is comprehensive, in that he’s thinking of their general worshipful and loving character that pleases the Lord. More specifically, they’re good in the sense that they want to please the Lord by serving others. Secondly, they’re filled with “all knowledge,” so that they have a thorough understanding of the basics of the apostles’ teaching. From these two reasons alone, Paul can argue that they’re readily able to counsel one another. Hence, most believers aren’t far from having this ability as well. They just need to let the goodness of the Holy Spirit “fill,” or control them, and also fill their minds with useful knowledge from God’s Word.

Even if this seems out of reach for you, Scripture also tells us that living inside of us is the Person who directly teaches us the truth needed for us to counsel others. In his glorious promise about the Lord Jesus, Isaiah gives this description of the Holy Spirit living inside of Him:

“The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and strength,

The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” (Is. 11:2)

This Spirit who provides “wisdom,” “counsel,” and “knowledge” is the same Spirit who lives inside of every Christian. Paul elaborates on the Spirit’s work of teaching us the truths of Scripture, so we’re able to teach others, when he writes this to the Corinthians:

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, [interpreting] spiritual [things to] spiritual [people].” (1 Cor. 2:12-13)

So, when we study Scripture, we can’t merely rely on our thinking to understand it, but on the faithfulness and love of the Holy Spirit in teaching us what we need to know. Likewise, this goes for our ability to explain the truths of Scripture to others. We need not fret that we are inadequate in ourselves to counsel – though we are. The powerful and gracious Holy Spirit lives inside of us to empower us to counsel others! But we have yet one more aid in our service of counseling that we’ll think about.

The Instruction of Spiritual Leaders

As if it wasn’t enough that we possess the knowledge of Jesus, the Scriptures, and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord uses all of these resources in our final tool for counseling our brethren. In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul details the use of all the previous resources in his vivid picture of the proper functioning of God’s people in their corporate growth in Christlikeness. In this picture, he begins with the last of our sources for instruction and wisdom for counseling others:

“And He [Messiah] gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as [shepherds] and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature . . . [of] the fullness of Christ . . . speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ . . .” (Eph. 4:11-13, 15)

Although not all western believers have easy access to faithful “shepherds and teachers,” most do. And what is their main job in the Lord’s body? To equip “the saints for the work of service.” This service is that which will contribute to “the building up of the body of Christ.” And as Paul goes on to clarify, this growth isn’t growth in numbers, but in “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God”. In other words, the service that Paul has in mind is the service of the saints for one another.

What does this service consist of? According to verse 15, it mainly consists of “speaking the truth” to each other. Obviously, a major way that the saints speak the truth to one another is by counseling each other. But how has the Lord ordained our education in counseling? One of the most important ways most believers are to learn to counsel others is through the teaching of gifted “shepherds and teachers,” which is referring to one category of leader. Another way to translate this phrase would be “shepherd-teachers”. These are the “overseers” and “elders” to which Paul refers elsewhere.

Finally, note from this passage that the spiritual growth which results from all the members of the body speaking the truth to one another is comprehensive. As we build one another up, we are growing in all “aspects” to be conformed to the character of the body’s Head, who is Messiah.

Are You Using Your Resources?

It’s clear from our survey of the basic resources the Lord has given us to train us in counseling that we are sufficiently supplied. Most believers – excluding those who are just converted or walking in sin – are called to counsel their brethren to some degree. The question is, are you taking full advantage of those resources to grow in your own wisdom and knowledge, so that you can share that truth with your brethren? Here are some questions to ask yourself regarding your stewardship of the resources you have:

  1. Are you doing what’s necessary to grow in your personal knowledge of the Lord? Are you conversing with Him in prayer, and seeking His communication with you through His Word?
  2. Are you devoting yourself to thinking about, learning, and applying Scripture? Are you applying the Scriptures to specific areas in your life, so you’ll also know how to do the same in others lives?
  3. Are you relying on the Holy Spirit to give you the ability to understand the teaching of Scripture, and to explain it to others?
  4. Are you paying careful attention to the teaching and examples of your spiritual leaders? Are you seeking to understand their teaching in the light of Scripture, and are you applying it to your life? Are you listening to the wise advice of the more mature brothers that the Lord has placed in your life?

Let us not despise our wealth of resources, but use them to the fullest extent to learn what to say, how to say it, and when to say it to our brethren who are in need of counsel. The question is, how do we engage in counseling? We’ll study the apostles’ basic answers to this question next.