If what we believe affects how we live, then “what we believe” includes how we know what we believe. The methods by which we go knowing truth about God, creation, humanity and new creation will affect our responding behaviours including our thoughts, emotions and words, not just the content we believe about those things.
This means that if you are involved in discipleship, pastoral care and counselling, then when someone comes to talk to you about some problem, challenge or decision they are facing, then the very first thing you will want to talk with them about is how we know what to do in such a situation.
This is because we have two primary choices about how to make those decisions. Are we going to seek a level of autonomy in our decision making so that we are primarily responsible for the decision. This will mean that we either opt for a rational or an irrational/romantic way of making a decision. If rationale, then we will seek out the best advice and we will look for data and evidence to back up the reasoning of others. If irrational, then we might seek to be spontaneous, follow our own hearts, follow the examples of celebrity lives or even make our choices under the influence of drugs and alcohol. We may also make our choices in order to rebel against the advice and instruction we have received from authority figures in our lives including parents, teachers and pastors. Our approach here may also affect how we view and make use of different therapeutic approaches. For example, behaviourist type methods assume a level of rationalism.
What we have discovered when considering the question “How do you know?” is that both our rationalistic approaches which start with thinking and ask “is it true?”, and our irrationalistic approaches that maybe rely more on gut instinct and emotion, asking “does it work” miss the crucial thing. We attempt to make our decisions without hearing what God has to say. WE need to hear him speak clearly, that is why we need Scripture. This is not o rule out the helpfulness of common wisdom, medicine, psychology or other areas of expertise from legal to financial. General Revelation means that God is speaking in all those things but we need the lens of Scripture to control our understanding of those things and to see clearly.
Scripture as God’s special revelation is where He speaks to us and if it is God speaking to us, then he will disagree with us. That’s how we know he is real and not some imaginary friend. The difference between God and other human friends or expert advisers is that when he disagrees with us, then our correct response is to fall in line with him.
This starting point of asking “How do you know?” is relevant to any pastoral issue that may come up. This is because crucial to our pastoral problems is that so often, the root issue is that we are looking for meaning, truth and answers in the wrong places. So, the alcoholic or drug addict needs to know both that we will never find meaning in their addiction but they can find true meaning in Christ. The same is true of those who have different kinds of addiction, to work, fashion, technology or celebrity culture.
In fact, this gets to the heart of the human problem. We have legitimate and good desires first for identity, to know who we are, that we have value and where we fit in here in God’s good creation. Secondly we desire comfort, we look to be fulfilled and satisfied, to find joy and pleasure. Thirdly, we desire security, to know that we are safe. Of course, in Genesis 2, all of these things are provided for by God, Adam and Eve had identity, made in God’s image, were satisfied with the fruit of all the trees and were given the security of boundaries whether to the garden itself or of the one rule. The serpent sought to cause them to doubt these things, to distort their desires so that they looked beyond the good of identity, comfort and security in being God’s creation to rivalling God to be like him. However, remember also that the Serpent sought to undermine God’s Word. Adam and Eve were deceived into believing Satan instead of believing their maker: “Did God really say….?”
When Satan encounters Jesus in the wilderness, he uses the same tactics. He seeks to test Jesus in terms of identity, comfort and status. Once again though the battle is over what God has really said. This time, Satan quotes Scripture but out of context to distort it. Jesus answers with Scripture.
How do you know matters because, as we saw at the beginning, -the choice is between believing truth and lies about God, creation, humanity and new creation. The choice then is also between believing what God says about those things and what other voices say about them.
Take the couple who are struggling in their marriage were one is perhaps tempted to be unfaithful. The starting question for them is “which voices are you listening to?” In fact, if there isn’t a recognition that they have been listening to the world’s voices and a willingness to now listen to God, then they might as well give up and there is not much point really in attempting to offer counsel.
In such a case, the world offers a way out of marriage commitments. There is the promise of hedonistic, commitment free pleasure. This arises out of an irrational or romantic appeal to attraction and self-fulfilment. At the same time, more rationalist voices speak despair instead of hope and tell the couple that opting out of their commitment is the only way to discover their identity, find security and enjoy true satisfaction and comfort.
The lie is that either God is too distant and weak to really care about the minute of their family life or change the narrative for them, or that the kind of God who insists that they stay in this “loveless marriage” must himself be cruel and unloving. Notice how different voices are beginning to tell us what to believe about God and what he is like but also about ourselves, about who those two people are and where they can find security and satisfaction. This means even that we allow the world around us to define the meaning of love, relationship, commitment, joy, etc. The choice is not just about who we listen to when it comes to knowing God but also ourselves.
The latter point is crucial when we meet so many people who struggle with self-identity and self-worth. Whose verdict are they hearing over their lives? Are they hearing what supposed friends say or the voices of the media. Indeed, the harshest critic may be their own inner voice. At the other end of the spectrum is the narcissist who only hears self-approval. Both need to hear what God has to say about them.
Answers to the question “How do you know?” will affect the type of counsel that someone will look for from you and indeed therefore, the type of person they will go to for it. This means that for some, there is still a preferred model of therapy where they are given space to work things out for themselves whilst the counsellor sits and listens, perhaps asking the occasional non-judgemental question. They offer no opinions and no recommendations. They counselee is encouraged to work things out for themselves.
Others will be expecting to hear your own wisdom. They will be looking to you for your experience and of course that has an important place in the conversation. However, this can create a culture of dependency where a person simply seeks to copy you and places you on a pedestal as their authority figure. Sometimes it simply means that they will keep asking everyone until they find someone whose advice agrees with what they want to do.
Our job though is not first and foremost to dispense our own wisdom but rather to bring the person to hear what God has to say through His Word. The great benefit of this is that it protects both from legalism and licence. They hear both the challenge as the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and hope as he brings them to repentance and forgiveness. They need to hear God’s Word because it is true, without error and sufficient. They also need to hear it because of its clarity.
It is on these things, truth (without error, sufficiency and clarity that the challenge against God’s Word comes. This is true of ethical debates. We are told that we are either not to follow God’s Word on various matters from sexuality and gender through to beginning and end of life because either, the writers of Scripture got it wrong, we now have more information available to us that wasn’t known then or the Bible passages used are unclear and confusing, open to various interpretations. All of these challenges seek to undermine the authority of God’s Word to speak truth into our lives and disagree with us. This means that the inerrancy, sufficiency an clarity of Scripture matter not just in apologetics but in pastoral care.
Recognising the truth, sufficiency and clarity of God’s Word helps us also to think too about what people most need in terms of the life of the church. Whilst specific pastoral counselling has its place and whilst there are benefits in books that address specific issues, or blogs, podcasts and videos today, whilst a retreat or a conference away may be helpful, what we most need is the regular diet of God’s Word taught faithfully to the congregation.
Faithroots 