Biblical counseling has as it primary
strategy the love of God. For the essence of the being of God is love. This
love of God is more than the love that exists solely among the persons of
the Trinity. In a real sense the love of God extends from Himself into acts
of creation. For example, Jesus is the "firstborn of every
creature" (Col. 1:15). He is the firstborn in that He is the Creator of
all things: "For by him were all things created" (Col. 1:16).
Moreover, He is the firstborn of every creature because every thing that is
was born out of the love of the Father to the Son: "all things were
created by him, and for him" (Col. 1:16). Paul spoke of this creative
love in his letter to the Ephesians:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to
the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the
dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even
in him. (Eph. 1:3-10)
God is love and the good pleasure of His will was the
creation of all things. All things will be gathered in Him (Christ) because
all things were created in Him. Everything that exists was created out of
the love of the Father for the Son. Creation was a manifestation of that
love.
Love that is truly love is always creative by the very nature of its being.
Love, then, by definition requires an opportunity to be experienced. To
speak of love without a correspondent action is a total misuse of the term.
Love always has action. It is always something that is experienced.
The action of the love of the Father to the Son was the energy source that
produced the correspondent creation. Love, in its true sense, is so
empowered with creative energy that it can be said that love is life. God is
love. God is life. Godly love is always creative.
Creative love is the heartbeat of biblical counseling. The healing of the
hurts of people occurs in the experience of the love of God when two people
come together in Jesus. Since love is always creative, it seeks out others
for its manifestation.
As it was recorded of Jesus, "the son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matt.
20:28), creative love reaches out to minster to the needs of humanity. Just
as the servant motif was vital to the ministry of Christ, biblical
counseling must also be activated by the same principle, the taking on of
"the form of a servant" (Phil. 2:7).
Certainly, Christ looked beyond man’s faults and saw his needs, but the
inner compulsion which sustained Him through the garden and the cross was
not just the seeing of man’s needs. It was the manifestation of creative
love. Godly love always reaches out not just because a need is perceived,
but because of the very nature of love itself. Creative love always produces
new life.
Because creative love is that which two people experience together, biblical
counseling occurs best in the arena of day-to-day living. Although the
formal setting of an individual seeking a counselor is not altogether
inappropriate, creative love, the healing balm of Jesus Christ, flows much
more powerfully in the everyday reality of dynamic Christian living. In a
real sense, the healing of the hurts of humanity is found in the love of God
flowing daily through the people of God.
The primary strategy of biblical counseling is the
teaching/preaching/experiencing together the pure gospel of Jesus Christ.
The healing balm of the creative love of God flows to its maximum capacity
when at least two people learn to become the place where Jesus is
experienced: "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in
all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according
to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of
the body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:15,16). Christ
comes in the relationship between two people that has come together to
experience creative love
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