(Eric Johnson continues his reflections from the ABC conference) 

As we saw last week, two of the abiding themes of biblical counseling has been a concern about sin and about being conformed to the thinking and practice of “this world,” and the rest of the Christian counseling community has been remiss not to take these concerns more seriously. The Bible is clear about their value. Christians are to strive for ethical and spiritual purity, “to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit”(2Co 7:1) and “to keep oneself unstained by the world” (Ja 1:27).

            Yet in this broken, fallen world, it is all too easy to violate one moral principle in the zealous pursuit of another. Purity is essential-and so is the love of our brothers and sisters (Jn 13:35; 1Jn 3:10-18; 4:7-20). Faithfulness to the God we love requires us to harmonize love and purity in the way we live our lives together.

Faithfulness to God for Paul included promoting the unity of the church (Eph 4:1-7; Php 2:1-4). After encouraging the Galatians to serve one another through love (5:13), he exposed some works of the flesh, and a third of his list was devoted to division: enmities, strife, disputes, dissensions, and factions (5:19-21). He cited the “party spirit” of the Corinthians as evidence of their being “fleshly,” because “one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos’” (1Co 3:4).

            The way integrationist brothers and sisters have been treated and spoken about by some proponents of biblical counseling, one has to wonder whether a proper balance has been reached between a zeal for purity and a love of the brethren. Indeed, John considered a lack of love for the brethren to seriously threaten one’s avowed God-centeredness. “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1Jn 4:20). Of course no serious biblical counselors hate their integrationist brothers and sisters, but ignoring them or viewing them as so “beneath us” in the purity of our zeal for the truth would seem to raise questions about the depth of one’s commitments to be biblical, God-centered, and against sin wherever it is found (including our own hearts).

Or consider this verse. “Whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” (1Jn 3:17-18) If integrationists have a need for more biblical, theocentric values, then biblical counselors are obliged to share their good theology and their values with them, and help them to see how they might develop a more coherent Christian framework for counseling.

This will require patience; most integrationists are not beating down the doors of biblical counseling centers to gain their theology. However, it will also require humility, manifested by a willingness to listen to them as well, and take seriously their concerns (after all, who has all knowledge, except our God).  

            Maybe the time is right for the biblical counseling movement to consider making an adjustment in its historical stance towards other believers (dare we call it repentance?) by avoiding an insular, “party spirit” and working harder to reach out to its brothers and sisters, in order to grow in its fundamental commitment to biblical purity, and spend some time and energy more intentionally sharing its gifts with the rest of the Christian counseling community. In the process, biblical counseling will become more biblical.