When I was first introduced to biblical counseling over a decade ago, I was quickly gripped by its emphasis on the centrality of Scripture, the power of the Gospel, and the importance of the local church in the process of change. But as I began to apply what I was learning to my own life, the one idea that most revolutionized my perspective on my struggles and the areas where I needed growth was how biblical counselors use the Bible’s teaching on the heart.
Scripture uses a variety of language to account for the internal life of man. Herman Bavinck notes that the Bible ascribes psychic activity to the kidneys (Job 19:27), bowels (Ps 40:8), belly (Ps 31:9), and bones (Prov 17:22).1 At the same time, the authors of Scripture most commonly reach for the word “heart” to describe that immaterial thing inside us all. Craig Troxel comments, “Appearing just over 1,000 times, the word ‘heart’ is used in the Bible more than any other for the inner self.”2 The “heart” also appears to be the preferred term of Jesus in the Gospels, as we see in Matthew 15:18, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.”
Every person sitting in the pew, sitting in the pastor’s office, or reading this blog has a heart, but not merely that nine-to-twelve-ounce organ pumping blood throughout their body. The heart is the living center of a person’s being, the intersection of the body and the soul, either spiritually dead or alive, which contains everything within man and produces everything outside of man. The heart should be important to every person we serve through pastoral care, counseling, and discipleship because the heart is central in the Bible. In Proverbs 4:23, Solomon warns his soon-to-be King son to “keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” The heart is also the target of Scripture, as Scripture is described as a two-edged sword that discerns “the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
This article will help pastors and counselors think about the Bible’s teaching concerning the heart and how they can address the heart with prudence and care in their ministries.
A Biblical Theology of the Heart
Our biblical survey begins with a somewhat counterintuitive point. Scripture repeatedly reminds us that the heart is a mystery. The prophet Jeremiah laments in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” As any person knows, there are many things happening behind the happy faces and smiles that pass us in the grocery store aisle. But this reality of mystery also extends to a person’s own heart. In Psalm 19:12, David asks that the Lord would “declare [him] innocent from hidden faults” because there are things about his own heart—including possible transgressions—that he may overlook or may be hidden to him.
A biblical approach to understanding the heart must recognize the limits of our ability to understand what is happening within others’ hearts.3 Overlooking this reality is an easy first step toward harming our counselees through overconfident, definitive pronouncements about another person’s soul—especially for those in positions of spiritual authority. A picture of a heart, tree, and its fruit on a whiteboard is not the spiritual equivalent of an X-ray machine. The relative moral goodness of non-Christians in common grace, as well as the remaining sin and struggles of regenerate Christians, complicates definitive pronouncements about the soul, whether immature, weak, backslidden, or unregenerate (see also Canons of Dort 5.4). For this reason, Princetonian Charles Hodge, speaking on behalf of the Reformed tradition, argues that the church “cannot judge the heart; she can only require a credible profession . . . [and] the qualifications which alone she has a right to demand.”4 The ministries of the church in the preaching of the Word and the sacraments are visible means by which the Holy Spirit works in unseen and spiritual ways within the heart in giving birth to and strengthening faith (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A 29–31; 88–92), as Jesus says in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The logical conclusion of the previous paragraph is not that biblical discussions and reflections upon the heart are, in the end, meaningless. Rather, they point pastors and counselors toward what Herman Bavinck refers to as “an appropriate degree of modesty” concerning the inner workings of the heart.5 David Powlison strikes this proper balance in the following directions: “No one but God can see, explain, or change another person’s heart and its choices. . . . And there is no counseling technique that can fundamentally change hearts. But the Bible teaches us that we can describe what rules the heart and speak truth that God uses to convict and liberate.”6 Biblical counselors can address the heart and draw out its contents in a manner mediated by the Word and Spirit (Prov 20:5). This pattern is evident in Paul’s preaching in Philippi and in the conversion of Lydia. Paul preaches the truth of the Gospel, Lydia hears the Word being proclaimed, and the Holy Spirit works in Lydia’s heart to heed Paul’s words (Acts 16:14).
The truth that the heart is a mystery is held in theological tension with another biblical reality. As the ministry of pastors and counselors is mediated through the Word and Spirit, the heart also manifests itself in a mediated way. As a favorite illustration of Jesus, our Wonderful Counselor often implemented a simple yet profound diagnostic tool for assessing the character of those he encountered: “the tree is known by its fruit” (Matt 12:33). Apple trees bear apples. Pear trees produce pears. Angry people produce anger. Adulterous people lust. This simple paradigm underscores the fact that the single most important factor that informs our actions and responses is the state and contents of our hearts, not our context and environment. In Matthew 15:18–19, Jesus says, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” In light of the doctrine of total depravity, biblical counselors should have no issue identifying even unwanted sinful thoughts, desires, and motions as sin. We should not be surprised when sinners with sinful hearts produce sinful fruit.
These two theological tensions help pastors and counselors maintain the proper balance in their interactions with those under their care. There are appropriate times when counselees should be pressed to consider what their thoughts, words, and deeds are revealing about the type of person they are, but these conclusions must always be qualified by the reality that Christ is the only counselor who infallibly knows what is in man (John 2:24–25; see also Acts 15:8).
The Heart and Counseling
If the heart is the target of all Word-based ministries, there are several further insights that can help pastors and counselors in their counseling practices. First, we see that Scripture assigns various overlapping functions to the heart.7 For many people today, the brain is the center of the intellect, while emotions and feelings are assigned to the heart. Scripture does not divide these functions this way. Rather, intellect, emotions, desires, intentions, and actions are all assigned in various ways to the heart.
For example, Scripture assigns a person’s thought life, including beliefs and convictions, to the heart. As the Pharisees respond with suspicion as Jesus declares to the paralytic that his sins are forgiven (Mark 2:6), Jesus responds to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?” (Mark 2:8). Later in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus locates faith—the mountain-moving kind—as operating within the heart. He says, “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him” (Mark 11:23).
Scripture also identifies the emotions and desires of a man as occurring within the heart. As Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). After Jesus tells the disciples of his impending departure, he responds, “But because I have said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart” (John 16:6). After his resurrection, two disciples ponder after their encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, “Did our hearts not burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32).
Finally, the Bible locates a person’s will, including intentions, commitments, and actions, as a function of the heart. In Acts 5, Peter asks Ananias, who thought he could deceive the church with a misleading offering, “Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?” (Acts 5:4). Paul also writes to the Romans concerning their salvation and sanctification of their new obedience “from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Rom 6:17). These points can be summarized as three overlapping functions or faculties of the heart—knowledge and cognition, the will and volition, and passions/desires and emotions.
While inquiring with care, pastors and counselors can probe how these specific “fruits” may reveal more than those receiving help are willing to admit. For example, convictions and beliefs are rarely as polished as a doctrinal statement nicely framed upon the walls of our theological study. Rather, our theology is regularly tested and revealed in times of trial and difficulty as we demonstrate in our actions and words our belief that God is sovereign and that he is good (1 Pet 1:7). Our emotions are often clues to our desires, as our joys, fears, and cries reveal the things that we value, like the merchants mourning the overthrow of Babylon and her wealth (Rev 18:15–17). Our actions and obedience reveal whether our faith (Jas 2:17) and love (1 John 3:18) are more than mere words. According to Scripture, our counselees consistently give us little hints about the deeper beliefs, desires, and commitments that inform their lives. Are we paying attention?
This brief biblical theology of the heart would be lacking if we overlooked one final central truth. Scripture uses the terminology of the “heart” to describe the inner life of man in order to reframe every aspect of human activity in reference to God. In the words of David Powlison, “The human heart has to do with God.”8 Elsewhere, Powlison comments, “In sum, the human heart—the answer to why we do what we do—must be understood as an active verb with respect to God. If you climb inside any emotional reaction, any behavioral choice or habit, any cognitive content, any reaction pattern to suffering, you ought to hear and see active verbs at work.”9 In other words, pastors, counselors, and Christians should be concerned with the heart because the heart matters to God. My heart matters to God. Your heart matters to God. God has a rightful claim to sit as preeminent over every human heart that he has created. As the greatest command puts it so poignantly, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut 6:5).
The hearts of those under your counseling and discipleship ministries were created to find their ultimate satisfaction, rest, and eternal joy in a relationship with God. This fundamental worship-orientation informs the natural programming of human responses they encounter every day. Having rebelled against God, these instinctive functions do not turn off; rather, they are directed away from God and toward the things of this world, as men and women repeat the familiar pattern of striving to find rest and satisfaction in the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:24–25). In other words, there are deeper issues at stake in the addictions, longings, and setbacks your counselees encounter than habituation or social conditioning. Biblical counselors apply biblical truths that, by God’s grace, produce life change through heart transformation, as men and women see the functions of their hearts—intellect, desires, and will—restored as they exalt and adorn their God and Savior with rightly-ordered worship.
Conclusion
Any honest pastor or counselor will recognize the severity of their task. They are called to minister the weightiest truths to the most broken areas of life. If preachers preach as to tombstones, many pastors and counselors can have moments when they fight despair as they regularly encounter the stench of death in lives that have been decimated by sin and its consequences. Thankfully, our God is in the business of turning the darkest of Saturdays into the brightest of Sunday mornings. Heart change is not dependent upon the pastor or counselor. It is first and foremost a work of our God as he calls his people out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9). Counseling does not cleanse hearts, but faith in Christ does (Acts 15:9). May this reflection give you guidance and courage as God mobilizes his church to offer the counsel found in his Word that pierces to the division of soul and of spirit, “of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
- Herman Bavinck, Biblical and Religious Psychology, ed. Gregory Parker Jr., trans. Herman Hanko (Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association), 68–70. ↩︎
- A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart: Orienting Your Mind, Desires, and Will toward Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 17. ↩︎
- This point differs from discussions related to the assurance of salvation since assurance is the fruit of the Holy Spirit providing personal confirmation within the heart of the believer that they themselves are children of God (see 1 John 3:1, Westminster Confession of Faith 18:2). ↩︎
- Charles Hodge, The Way of Life: Christian Belief and Experience (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2020), 225–26. ↩︎
- Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 4, Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 93. ↩︎
- David Powlison, “The Sufficiency of Scripture to Diagnose and Cure Souls,” The Journal of Biblical Counseling 23, no. 2 (2005): 9 ↩︎
- This section is influenced by the research in Jeremy Pierre, The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life: Connecting Christ to Human Experience (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2016). ↩︎
- David Powlison, “Cure of Souls (and the Modern Psychotherapies),” The Journal of Biblical Counseling 25, no. 2 (2007): 24. ↩︎
- David Powlison, “Questions at the Crossroads,” in Care for the Soul: Exploring the Intersection of Psychology and Theology, ed. Mark R. McMinn and Timothy R. Phillips (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 47. ↩︎
