Biblical counseling gets its motivations, hopes, content, methods, and power from God and according to His Word. For Biblical counseling to be rooted in God, it must acknowledge God as the Creator of all things, uphold the sovereignty and authority of God, remain confident in God’s eternal work in His people, rely upon God’s Word for knowledge, wisdom and direction, embrace characteristic’s of God’s counsel including compassion, patience, wisdom and mercy, and be devoted to God’s glory.
The gospel changes human hearts. The gospel is the core message of Biblical counseling. Therefore, our counsel must uphold the deity of Christ, His incarnation, His sacrifice on the cross, His resurrection, His future return, His present and future kingdom, and His judgment of the world, among many other truths. We ask the question, “Does my counsel present Jesus Christ as the one mediator between God and man and the Person toward whom my sanctification is focused?” Any promise of good and eternal change apart from or in addition to Christ is a false gospel.
We live in the service of God’s Spirit, not the other way around. We don’t use Him to serve our purposes. He uses us to serve His purposes. We are His ministers of grace. More than simply referring to the Holy Spirit, we actively trust the Holy Spirit to enable our counsel, give understanding to the minds of the counselee, as well as soften and transform their hearts. Every good and lasting change in the souls of people come by the Spirit’s power.
The relationship between the counselor and counselee should be filled with and shaped by Biblical love (1 John 4:7; Colossians 1:28-29). Shaped by Biblical love means motivated by affection for God and genuine compassion for others. It means we seek the eternal good of the person or people we counsel. We should be less concerned with receiving glory from those we serve and more concerned with helping them give glory to the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:26-30). Of course, faithfully holding to these principles will be dependent on the spiritual condition of our souls.
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