[혁신주의] The Sufficiency of Scripture to Diagnose and Cure Souls

From the Editor’s Desk

The Sufficiency of Scripture

to Diagnose and Cure Souls

By David Powlison

How do destructive people becomeconstructive? How do out-of-control peoplebecome fruitfully self-controlled? How do rigidpeople become flexible? How do drifty peoplelearn focus? How do hopeless people grow inhope? How do angry people learn to makepeace? And even before we can ask How? wemust ask, Why are troubled people troubled?What’s wrong with us?

In modern society, Scripture’s way ofexplaining and engaging people has been largelydisplaced. What must be done to recover thecentrality of Scripture for helping people to growup into the image of Christ? How can face-to-face “helping” relationships be reconfigured toserve as instruments of the only enduringwisdom and the only true humanity?

To recover the centrality of Scripture forthe cure of souls demands two things: convictionbacked up with content. The conviction?Scripture is about understanding and helpingpeople. The scope of Scripture’s sufficiencyincludes those face-to-face relationships thatour culture labels “counseling” or“psychotherapy.” The content? The problems,needs, and struggles of real people—right downto the details—must be rationally explained by

the categories with which the Bible teaches usto understand human life.

Conviction alone simply waves a flag andeventually degrades into sloganeering. Butconvictions demonstrated in action, convictionsshown to be penetrating, comprehensive, andsubtle, will edify the teachable and evenpersuade the skeptical. The church needspersuading that the conviction is true. A keyingredient in such persuasion will be to paradethe riches of Scripture for curing souls.

In the pages that follow, we will look firstat the conviction that Scripture is about“problems in living.” We will then explore onesmall bit of content, the term, “lusts of theflesh.” This phrase is central to how Godexplains us. It cuts to the root of our problems inliving, but it has languished in near uselessness.

Conviction: Systematic Biblical Counseling

What is a genuinely biblical view of theproblems of the human soul and the proceduresof ministering grace? Such a view must establisha number of things. First, we must ask, doesScripture give us the materials and call toconstruct something that might fairly be called“systematic biblical counseling.” In fact, we dohave the goods for a coherent andcomprehensive practical theology of face-to-face ministry. Scripture is dense withexplanations, with instructions, withimplications. We have much work to do to

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*David Powlison is editor of the Journal of BiblicalCounseling. He counsels and teaches at CCEF andteaches practical theology at WestminsterTheological Seminary.

The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Spring 2005© 2005, The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication should be reproduced, copied or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from The Christian Counselingand Educational Foundation. Inquiries should be made in writing, addressed to CCEF, 1803 East Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038.

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understand and to articulate the biblical“model.” But we don’t have to make it up orborrow from models that others have made upas ways to explain people.

In many places, the Holy Spirit reflects onthe sufficiency of the treasure that He hascreated through His prophets and apostles. Forexample, in one classic passage Scriptureproclaims itself as that which makes us “wiseunto salvation.” This is a comprehensivedescription of transforming human life from allthat ails us (2 Tim. 3:15-17). This same passagegoes on to speak of the Spirit’s words aspurposing to teach us. The utter simplicity andunsearchable complexity of Scripture enlightensus about God, about ourselves, about good andevil, true and false, grace and judgment, aboutthe world that surrounds us with its many formsof suffering and beguilement, with itsopportunities to shed light into darkness.Through such teaching, riveted to particularpeople in particular situations, God exposes inspecific detail what is wrong with human life.No deeper or truer or better analysis of thehuman condition can be concocted.

God’s words reconstruct and transformwhat they define as defective. He speaks as Heacts, to straighten out wrongs through thecorrective power of grace. To promote anysolution but God’s is to offer opiates to themasses, the stuff of dreams, not the stuff of realanswers for real problems. And this Godcontinues to personalize what is true, performingHis wisdom-renewing work in an ongoingprocess. The net result? We begin to live likeJesus Christ Himself.

Scripture accomplishes our renewal in theimage of Him who is wisdom incarnate, so thatwe become equipped for every good work.Biblical teaching addresses countless topics.One crucial topic is the area of humanmotivation—the interpretation and evaluationof our desires. The Bible’s view of what isdisordered in human motivation sharplychallenges all secular pretenders to explanatorywisdom about why we do what we do.

Content: “Lusts of the Flesh,” A Case Study inSystematic Practical Theology

The simplest way to discover why a persondoes, says, thinks, or feels certain things is to

ask, “What do you want? What desires made himdo that? What yearning led her to say that?What longings animate me when I follow thattrain of thoughts and fantasy? What did theyfear when they felt so anxious?”1 Suchquestions are plain common sense. AbrahamMaslow sensibly described matters this way:

The original criterion of motivation andthe one that is still used by all humanbeings... is the subjective one. I ammotivated when I feel desire or want oryearning or wish or lack.2

So, pose the question, “What do you want?” toyourself and others. Then pay attention to theanswers. If you listen to people, they’ll often tellyou exactly what they want. “I got angrybecause she dissed me, and I want respect.”“She became tongue-tied because she yearns foracceptance.” “He feels anxious because money’stight, and he fears that poverty will prove he’s afailure.” “Those fantasies of heroism and successplay in my mind because I long to be important.”Even when a person is inarticulate or unaware,you can often deduce the answer with a highdegree of accuracy if you watch and listenclosely, and if you know yourself well. Part ofknowing any person well is learning what he orshe typically lives for—the pattern of desires.The Meaning of Our Desires

But naming what you want is the easy part.The harder part is this: how should you nowinterpret what you’ve identified? Naming is notthe same as understanding what your wantsmean and how you should evaluate them. Themeaning of our desires is not common sense atall. Instead, it’s a battleground for contendingtheories of human nature, competinginterpretations of the underlying dynamics ofhuman psychology. Abraham Maslow, forexample, went on to explain our desires thisway:

It is these needs which are essentiallydeficits in the organism, empty holes, so tospeak, which must be filled up for health’ssake, and furthermore must be filled from

_______________________________________________1 A fear is simply desire turned on its head: “I don’t want.”

2 Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being, 2nd ed.(New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1968), 22.

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without by human beings other than thesubject, that I shall call deficits ordeficiency needs.3

Is it true that we have these “needs” for respect,acceptance, money, or significance that must bemet from outside? Many other greatpsychologists—B. F. Skinner, Alfred Adler,Sigmund Freud, Victor Frankl, Aaron Beck,Carl Jung, and Virginia Satir, to name a few—didn’t think so at all. They disagreed fiercelywith each other, too!

The God who reveals His way of thinkingin the Bible doesn’t agree either with Maslow orwith any of the others. In fact, no one everrightly understands and weighs desires withoutGod’s self-revelation in Scripture. Neitherlowbrow common sense nor highbrowpersonality theory gets it straight. God mustshow us how to properly interpret our wants,because we are compulsive misinterpreters: wedon’t want the true interpretation. It’s too

threatening to the pursuit of God-less autonomythat is our deepest, darkest, most persistent, andmost inadmissible passion.
God’s Interpretation and Intervention

“What do you crave, want, pursue, wish,long for, hope to get, feel you need, orpassionately desire?” God has an interpretationof this that cuts to the marrow of who you areand what you live for. He sees our hearts as anembattled kingdom ruled either by one kind ofdesire or by another kind. On the one hand,what lusts of the flesh hijack your heart fromGod’s rule? On the other hand, what holypassions express your love for God?” Our desiresare not a given, but a fundamental choice.Desires are most often unruly, disorderly,inordinate affections for XYZ, a good thing thatI insanely need. Sometimes they are naturalaffections for xyz, made sane and orderly by

subordination to passionate love for God thatclaims my heart, soul, mind, and might. Ourdesires are often idolatrous cravings to get goodgifts (overthrowing or ignoring the Giver).Sometimes they are intense desires for the GiverHimself as supremely more important thanwhatever good gifts we might gain or lose fromHis hand. That’s the first unique thing Godshows us about human psychology. This cosmicbattleground is something none of the secularpsychologists have seen or can see, because theycan’t see that deeply into why we do what we do.Their own motives give them reasons not towant to see that deeply and honestly. It wouldmean admitting sin.

To examine desires is one of the mostfruitful ways to come at the topic of motivationbiblically. New Testament authors repeatedlyallude to life-controlling cravings when theysummarize the innermost dynamics of thehuman soul. Which will triumph, the natural

deviancy of the lusts of the flesh or the restoredsanity of the desires of the Spirit? Christ’sapostles have the greatest confidence that onlythe resources of the gospel of grace and truthpossess sufficient depth and power to change usin the ways we most need changing. Themercies of God work to forgive and then tochange what is deeply evil, but even more deeplycurable by God’s hand and voice. The in-working power of grace qualitatively transformsthe very desires that psychologists assume arehard-wired, unchangeable, morally neutralgivens. Christ’s grace slays and replaces (in alifelong battle) the very lusts that the theoriesvariously explain as “needs” or “drives” or“instincts” or “goals.” That’s the second uniquething God shows us about human psychology.We can be fundamentally rewired by themerciful presence of the Messiah. None of thesecular psychologists say this or can say this.They have no power to address us so deeply, andthey don’t want to address us at the level of

_______________________________________________3 Ibid., 22-23.

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what we (and they) live for. It would meanconfessing Christ.

We will use a series of fifteen questions toprobe the world of our desires.

1. What is the most common way that theNew Testament talks about what’s wrongwith people?

Lusts of the flesh (cravings or pleasures) is asummary term for what is wrong with us inGod’s eyes. In sin, people turn from God to servewhat they want. By grace, people turn to Godfrom their cravings. According to the Lord’sassessment, we all formerly lived in the lusts ofour flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh andthe mind (Eph. 2:3). Those outside of Christ arethoroughly controlled by what they want. (“Ofcourse I live for money, reputation, success,looks, and love. What else is there to live for?”)And the most significant inner conflict inChristians is between what the Spirit wants andwhat we want.

But the term “lust” has become almostuseless to modern readers of the Bible. It isreduced to sexual desire. Take a poll of thepeople in your church, asking them the meaningof “lusts of the flesh.” Sex will appear first onevery list! Greed, pride, gluttonous craving, ormammon worship might be added in theanswers of a few of the more thoughtfulbelievers. But the subtleties and details getwashed out, and a crucial biblical term forexplaining human life languishes. In contrast,the New Testament writers use this term as acomprehensive category for the humandilemma! It will pay us to think carefully aboutits manifold meanings. We need to expand ourunderstanding of a term that has been truncatedand drained of significance. We need to learn tosee life through these lenses, and to use thesecategories skillfully.

The New Testament repeatedly focuses onthe “lusts of the flesh” as a summary of what iswrong with the human heart that underlies badbehavior. For example, 1 John 2:16 contrasts thelove of the Father with “all that is in the world,the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes andthe boastful pride of life.”4 This does not meanthat the New Testament is internalistic.5 Ineach of these passages, behavior intimatelyconnects to motive, and motive to behavior.

Wise counselors follow the model of Scriptureand move back and forth between lusts of theflesh and the tangible works of the flesh,between faith and the tangible fruit of the Spirit.2. Why do people do specific ungodly things?

Lusts of the flesh answers the WHYquestion operating at the heart of any systemattempting to explain human behavior. Specificruling desires—lusts, cravings or pleasures—create bad fruit. Inordinate desires explain andorganize diverse bad behavior and mentalprocesses: words, actions, emotions, thoughts,plans, attitudes, brooding memories, fantasies.James 1:13-16 establishes this intimate andpervasive connection between motive and fruitthis way:

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I ambeing tempted by God”; for God cannot betempted by evil, and He Himself does nottempt anyone. But each one is temptedwhen he is carried away and enticed by hisown lust. Then when lust has conceived, itgives birth to sin; and when sin isaccomplished, it brings forth death. Donot be deceived, my beloved brethren.6

In modern language such sinful cravings oftenmasquerade as expectations, goals, felt needs,wishes, demands, longings, drives, and so forth.People talk about their motives in ways thatanesthetize themselves and others to the true

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significance of what they are describing.

3. But what’s wrong with wanting things thatseem good?

What makes our desires wrong? Thisquestion becomes particularly perplexing topeople when the object of their desires is a goodthing. Notice some of the adjectives that getappended to our cravings: evil, polluted lusts.7What do such strong words describe? Sometimesthe object of desire itself is evil: e.g., to killsomeone, to steal, to control the cocaine tradeon the Eastern seaboard. But often the object ofour desire is good, and the evil lies in thelordship of the desire. Our will replaces God’s asthat which determines how we live. John Calvinput it this way: “We teach that all human desiresare evil, and charge them with sin—not in thatthey are natural, but because they areinordinate.”8 In other words, the evil in ourdesires often lies not in what we want but in thefact that we want it too much. Naturalaffections (for any good thing) becomeinordinate, ruling cravings. We are meant to beruled by godly passions and desires (seeQuestion 15, below). Natural desires for goodthings are meant to exist subordinate to ourdesire to please the Giver of gifts. Grasping thatthe evil lies in the ruling status of the desire, notthe object, is frequently a turning point in self-understanding, in seeing the need for Christ’smercies, and in changing.

Consider this example. A woman commitsadultery, then repents. She and her husbandrebuild their marriage, painstakingly, patiently.Eight months later the man finds himselfplagued with subtle suspiciousness andirritability. The wife senses it and feels a bit likeshe lives under FBI surveillance. The husband isgrieved by his suspiciousness because he has noobjective reasons for it. “I’ve forgiven her; we’verebuilt our marriage; we’ve nevercommunicated better; why do I hold on to thismistrust?” It emerges that he is willing to forgivethe past, but he attempts to control the future.His craving could be stated this way: “I want toguarantee that betrayal never, ever happens

again.” The object of desire is good; its rulingstatus poisons his ability to love. The lust toensure her fidelity places him in the stance ofcontinually evaluating and judging his wife,rather than loving her. What he wants cannotbe guaranteed this side of heaven. He sees thepoint, sees his inordinate desire to ensure hismarital future. But he bursts out, “What’s wrongwith wanting my wife to love me? What’s wrongwith wanting her to remain faithful to ourmarriage?” Here is where this truth is so sweet.There is nothing wrong with the object ofdesire; there is everything wrong when it ruleshis life. The process of restoring that marriagetook a long step forward as he took this to heart.

Are preferences, wishes, desires, longings,hopes, and expectations always sinful then? Ofcourse not. What theologians used to call“natural affections” are part of our humanity.They are part of what makes humans differentfrom stones, able to tell the difference betweenblessing and curse, pleasure and pain. It is rightthat we don’t want the pains of rejection, death,poverty, and illness, and we do want the joys offriendship, life, money, and health. Jesus was nomasochist; of course He cried out, “Let this cuppass from Me!” The moral issue always turns onwhether the desire takes on a ruling status. If itdoes, it will produce visible sins: anger,grumbling, immorality, despair, what James sovividly termed “disorder and every evil thing”(James 3:16). Jesus was no idolater; Heentrusted Himself to His Father and obeyed.“Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done.”But Jesus was also no stoic or Buddhist aiming toflat-line human desires. His desires were strong,but mastered by love for His Father. If naturalaffections remain submitted to God, such faithwill produce visible love. For example, if youwish your son or daughter to grow up to be aChristian, and your child strays, it may breakyour heart, but it will not make you sin againsteither God or your child. Anger, obsessiveanxiety, suspiciousness, or manipulation givesevidence that desire for a good thing has grownmonstrous. Wise parenting demonstrates thatthe desire, a passionate and broken-heartedlove, is aligned rightly.
4. Why don’t people see this as the problem?

Consider a second adjective that Scriptureattaches to the phrase “lusts of the flesh”:

_______________________________________________7 Col. 3:5; 2 Peter 2:10.

8 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, translatedby Ford Lewis Battles, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press),604.

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deceitful lusts.9 Our desires deceive us becausethey present themselves as so plausible. Whennatural affections become warped andmonstrous, they blind us. Who wouldn’t wantgood health, financial comfort, a loving spouse,good kids, success on the job, kind parents, tastyfood, a life without traffic jams, control overcircumstances? Yet cravings for these things leadto every sort of evil. The things people desire aredelightful as blessings received from God, butterrible as rulers. They make good goods but badgods. They beguile, promising blessing, butdelivering sin and death.

Some sins are high-handed, done with fullawareness of choice (Ps.19:13). Other sinsreflect the blind, dark, habitual, compulsive,hardened, ignorant, confused, instinctiveinsanity of sin.10 One of the joys of biblicalministry comes when you are able to help turnon the lights in another person’s dark room.

5. Is the phrase “lusts of the flesh” useful inpractical life and counseling?

Apply the term to twentieth-centuryexperience, redeeming the evasive languagepeople substitute. People frequently talk aboutwhat they want, expect, wish for, desire,demand, need, long for. Pop psychologiestypically validate these needs and longings asneutral givens. Little do people realize thatmuch of the time they are actually describingsinful usurpers of God’s rule over their lives:inordinate desires, lusts of the flesh, cravings.They are being honest about what they want,but they aren’t interpreting their experiencerightly. For example, listen to children talk whenthey are angry, disappointed, demanding,contrary: “But I want. . . . But I don’t want. . . .”In our family we began teaching our childrenabout the “I-wantsies” before they were twoyears old. We wanted them to grasp that sin was

People usually don’t see their desires as lusts.Our souls awaken as the light of God’s analyticgaze disturbs our ignorance and self-deceit.Souls are then comforted and cured by the lovethat shed substitutionary blood to purchase theinexpressible gift.

I have yet to meet a couple locked inhostility (and the accompanying fear, self-pity,hurt, self-righteousness) who really understoodand reckoned with their motives. James 4:1-3teaches that cravings underlie conflicts. Why doyou fight? It’s not “because mywife/husband...”—it’s because of somethingabout you. Couples who see what rules them—cravings for affection, attention, power,vindication, control, comfort, a hassle-freelife—can repent and find God’s grace made realto them and then learn how to make peace.

more than behavior. For example, analyze anyargument or outburst of anger and you will findruling expectations and desires that are beingfrustrated (James 4:1-2). The language peopletypically use day-to-day gets you into the detailsof a person’s life, but it usually comes with adistorted interpretation attached. Wisecounseling must reinterpret that experience intobiblical categories, taking the more pointedreality of “lusts, cravings, pleasures” andmapping it onto the “felt needs” that underliemuch sin and misery. The very unfamiliarity ofthe phrase is an advantage, if you explain itcarefully and show its relevance andapplicability. Behavioral sins demand ahorizontal resolution—as well as verticalrepentance. But motivational sins have first andforemost to do with God. Repentance quickensthe awareness of relationship with the God ofgrace.

6. Does each person have one “root sin”?

_______________________________________________9 Eph. 4:22.

10 Gen. 6:5; Ps. 19:12; Eccl. 9:3; Jer. 17:9; Eph. 4:17-22; 1Tim. 1:13; 2 Peter 2:10-22.

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to the lusts (plural) of the flesh. The humanheart can generate a lust tailored to anysituation. Again John Calvin powerfullydescribed how cravings “boil up” within us, howthe mind of man is a “factory of idols.”11 We areinfested with lusts. Listen closely to any persongiven to complaining, and you will observe thecreativity of our cravings. Certainly oneparticular craving may so frequently appear thatit seems to be a “root sin”: love of mammon, fearof man and craving for approval, love ofpreeminence or control, desire for pleasure, andso forth, can dictate much of life! But all peoplehave all the typical cravings.

Realizing the diversity in human lusts givesgreat flexibility and penetration to counseling.For example, one lust can generate very diversesins, as 1 Timothy 6:10 states: “The love ofmoney is a root of all sorts of evil.” Every one of

They don’t assume all people have the samecharacteristic flesh, or that a person always doesa certain thing for the same reasons. The flesh iscreative in iniquity.

7. How can you tell if a desire is inordinaterather than natural?

By their fruits you know them. Humanmotivation is not a theoretical mystery; there isno need to engage in a long, introspectivearcheological dig. Evil desires produce bad fruitsthat can be seen, heard, and felt (James 1:15;3:16). For example, a father who wants his childto grow up to become a Christian reveals thestatus of that desire by whether he is a goodfather or is manipulative, fearful, angry, andsuspicious. In a good father, the desire issubordinate to God’s will that he love his child.In a sinful father, the desire rules and producesmoral and emotional chaos. Similarly, a wife

the Ten Commandments, and more, can bebroken by someone who loves and servesmoney. The craving for money and materialpossessions is an organizing theme forsymptomatic sins as diverse as anxiety, theft,compulsive shopping, murder, jealousy, maritaldiscord, a sense of inferiority or of superioritycompared to others, sexual immorality thattrades sex for material advantage, and so forth.

On the flip side, a single behavioral sin canemerge from very different lusts. For example,sexual immorality might occur for manydifferent reasons: erotic pleasure, financialadvantage, revenge on a spouse or parent, fearof saying no to an authority, pursuit of approval,enjoyment of power over another’s sexualresponse, the quest for social status or careeradvancement, pity for someone and playing thesavior, fear of losing a potential marriage partner,escape from boredom, peer pressure, and soforth! Wise biblical counselors dig for specifics.

who wants to be loved reveals the status of thatdesire by whether or not she loves and respectsher husband. Visible fruit reveals whether Godrules or a lust rules.

It is a serious mistake to engage inintrospective “idol hunts,” attempting to dig outand weigh every kink in the human soul. TheBible calls for a more straightforward form ofself-examination: an outburst of anger invitesreflection on what craving ruled the heart, sothat we might repent intelligently. The Bible’spurposes are “extraspective,” not introspective:to move out toward God in repentant faith(James 4:6-10) and then to move out towardsthe one wronged by anger, making peace inrepentance, humility, and love.
8. Is it even right to talk about the heart, sincethe Bible teaches that the heart isunknowable to anyone but God? (1 Sam.16:7; Jer. 17:9)

No one but God can see, explain, control orchange another person’s heart and its choices.There is no underlying reason why a person

_______________________________________________11 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 65, 108.

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serves a particular lust rather than God; sin isirrational and insane. And there is nocounseling technique that can fundamentallychange hearts. But the Bible teaches us that wecan describe what rules the heart and speak truththat God uses to convict and liberate. Effectivebiblical ministry probes and addresses whypeople do things, as well as what they do. Jesus’ministry continually exposed and challengedwhat people lived for, offering Himself as theonly worthy ruler of the heart.

For example, 1 Samuel 16:7 says that manjudges by externals while God judges the heart.Yet a few verses earlier, we are told that Saulvisibly disobeyed God for a reason: he feared thepeople and listened to their voice, instead offearing God and listening to Him (1 Sam.15:24). His motives are describable, even ifinexplicable. There is no deeper cause for sinthan sin. Jeremiah 17:9 says that the humanheart is deceitful and incomprehensible to anybut God, but the same passage describes howbehavior reveals that people trust in idols,themselves, and others, instead of trusting inGod (Jer. 17:1-8). Scripture is frank to tell us thecauses of behavior: interpersonal conflicts, forexample, arise because of lusts (James 4:1-2). Ifanger and conflict come from a lust, the nextand obvious question is, “What do you wantthat now rules you?”

To search out motives demands no subtlepsychotherapeutic technique. People can oftentell you what they want. The Israelitesgrumbled—a capital crime—when they had tosubsist on boring food. Why? They cravedflavor: fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions,and garlic (Num. 11:5). Later they grumbledwhen they got thirsty and no oasis appeared.Why? They craved juicy foods, or foods thatdemanded irrigation: grain, figs, vines,pomegranates, and water (Num. 20:5). In eachcase the craving reflected their apostasy fromGod and expressed itself in visible, audible sins.When we see the God-substitutes that claim ouraffections, then we see how good and necessarythe grace of Jesus is in subduing hijackers andretaking the controls.

9. Doesn’t the word lusts properly apply onlyto bodily appetites: the pleasures andcomforts of sex, food, drink, rest, exercise,health?

People follow the desires of body and mind(Eph. 2:3). Bodily appetites—the organism’shedonistic instinct to feel good—certainly canprove powerful masters unto sin. But desires ofthe mind—for power, human approval, success,preeminence, wealth, self-righteousness, and soforth—are equally potent masters. The desiresof the mind often present the most subtle anddeceitful lusts because their outworkings are notalways obvious. They don’t reside in the body,but the Bible still views them as “lusts.”
10. Can desires be habitual?

Paul describes a former manner of lifecharacterized by deceitful lusts. Peter tells hisreaders not to be conformed to their formerdesires.12 Like all other aspects of sin—beliefs,attitudes, words, deeds, emotions, thoughts,fantasies—desires can be habitual, or typical.You will counsel people who typically andrepeatedly seek to control others, or to indulgein the pleasures of sloth, or to be seen assuperior, or to be liked. Jesus’ call to die daily toself recognizes the inertia of sin. God is in thebusiness of creating new habitual desires, forexample, an active concern for the well being ofothers before God.

Many counseling systems are obsessedwith locating the reasons for current problemsin the distant past. The Bible’s worldview ismuch more straightforward. Sin emerges fromwithin the person. The fact that a pattern ofcraving became established many years before—even that it was forged in a particular context,perhaps influenced by bad models or byexperiences of being sinned against—onlydescribes what happened and when. The pastdoes not explain why. For example, pastrejections do not cause a craving to be acceptedby others, any more than current rejectionscause that craving. A person who was alwaysaccepted by significant others can be just asmastered by the lust for acceptance! Theoccasions of a lust are never its cause.Temptations and sufferings do push our buttons,

_______________________________________________

12 Eph. 4:22, (cf. 4:17-19, which reinforces the notion of acharacteristic lifestyle); 1 Peter 1:14.

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but they don’t create those buttons. That bringshuge hope for change in the present by the graceof God.
11. What about fears? They seem asimportant in human motivation as cravings.

Fear and desire are two sides of a singlecoin. A sinful fear is a craving for something notto happen. If I want money, I fear poverty. If Ilong to be accepted, I’m terrified of rejection. IfI fear pain or hardship, I crave comfort orpleasure. If I crave preeminence, I fear beinginferior to others. With some people the fearmay be more gripping and pronounced than thecorresponding desire. Wise counseling will workwith what is pronounced. For example, a personwho grew up during the Great Depression mightmanifest mammon worship through a fear ofpoverty that shows up in anxiety, hoarding,repeated calculations of financial worth, and soforth. A wealthy thirty-something entrepreneurmight manifest mammon worship throughunchecked consumer spending. With theformer, address fear; with the latter, addressgreed. They are complementary expressions ofcraving treasure on earth.
12. Do people ever have conflicting motives?

Certainly. The conflict between sinful lustsand the Holy Spirit’s desires is a given of theChristian life (Gal. 5:16-17). All of us oftenhave mixed motives, some good, and some bad.Most preachers and counselors willacknowledge that genuine love for Christ andpeople battles with perverse love for personalsuccess and human approval.

In other instances, two sinful cravingsmay conflict. For example, a businessmanmight want to steal something from aconvenience store, but holds back in fear ofwhat people would think if they found out. Inthis example, mammon worship and socialapproval present themselves as options for theflesh; the heart inclines to the latter. Peopleoften prioritize their cravings, and arrange thepriorities differently in different situations. Forexample, the man who would never shopliftbecause of the social consequences mightcheat on his taxes because he’s not likely to getcaught, and no one who “matters” would knowif he did. In this case self-will and mammonworship seize the steering wheel, and socialapproval moves to the back seat. The “broad

way” has a thousand creative variants!

13. How does thinking about lusts relate toother ways of talking about sin, such as “sinnature,” “self,” “pride,” “autonomy,”“unbelief,” and “self-centeredness”?

These words are general terms thatsummarize the problem of sin. One of thebeauties of identifying ruling desires is that theyare so specific. Insight can therefore enablemore specific repentance and specific change.For example, a person who becomes angry in atraffic jam may later say, “I know my anger is sin,and it comes from self.” That is true as far as itgoes. But it helps to take self-knowledge a stepfurther: “I cursed in anger because I craved toget to my appointment on time, I fearedcriticism from the person waiting for me, and Ifeared losing the profits from that sale.”Repentance and change can become morespecific when the person identifies these threelusts that expressed the lordship of “self” in thisparticular incident.

The Bible discusses sin in an astonishingvariety of ways. Sometimes Scripture addressessin at the general level: e.g., Luke 9:23-26 on“self,” or Proverbs on the “fool.” At other times,Scripture increases the microscope’s power andtreats a particular theme of sin: e.g., Philippians3 on the pursuit of self-righteousness, or 1Timothy 6:5-19 on love of money, or 2 Timothy3:4 on love of pleasure. In still other places, theBible speaks of “desires” that lead to sin withoutspecifying. This invites us to make the specificapplication to ourselves.13 We could diagramthis roughly as follows: (1) general terms, (2)mid-level typical patterns, and (3) detail-levelspecifics. (See figure 1.)
14. In counseling, do you just confront aperson with his sinful cravings?

Wise counselors don’t “just confront”anything. They do many different things tomake confrontation timely and effective.Counselors never see the heart, only theevidences, so a certain tentativeness isappropriate when discussing motives. Perhaps itwould be more accurate to say that counselingaims to illuminate the heart. We want to helppeople see themselves as they are in God’s eyes,and in that to make the love of God a sweet

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_______________________________________________13 See James 1:15-15 and 4:1-2; Gal. 5:16-21; Rom. 13:12-14.

General Terms

Sampling of typical themes,patterns, and families
of idolatry

self-exaltation

Specific desires

co

pride, self, self-centeredness,self-trust, autonomy, authority,flesh, old nature, fool, evil

m

false religiions

fear of manor trust in man

physical pleasureor comfort

necessity. Since counselors have the samepackage of typical lusts, we meet on commonground in our need for grace because of pride,fear of man, unbelief, and love of comfort andcontrol.

We can and must tackle such issues. As wesaw earlier, Second Timothy 3:16 begins with“teaching.” Good teaching (for example, onhow Galatians 5 and James 1 connect outwardsins to inward cravings) helps people examineand see themselves. Good teaching invites self-knowledge and self-confrontation. Experiencewith people will make you “case wise” to typicalconnections (e.g., the varied motives forimmorality mentioned above in Question 6).Probing questions—“What did you want orexpect or fear when you blew up at yourwife?”—help a person reveal his ruling lusts tohimself and to the counselor.

In the light of self-knowledge before God’sface (Heb. 4:12-13), the Gospel offers manypromises: mercy, help, the Shepherd’s care inprogressive sanctification (Heb. 4:14-16). “Theunfolding of Your words brings light” (Ps.119:130). Repentance, faith, and obediencebecome vigorous and intelligent when we seeboth our inner cravings and our outward sins inlight of God’s mercies. Work hard and carefullyboth on motivation issues (Romans 13:14: thelusts of the flesh versus putting on Jesus Christ)and on behavioral issues (Romans 13:12-13: thevaried deeds of darkness versus proper“daylight” behavior).

The patterns, themes, or tendencies of theheart do not typically yield to a once-for-allrepentance. Try dealing one mortal blow to yourpride, fear of man, love of pleasure, or desire tocontrol your world, and you will realize whyJesus spoke Luke 9:23! But genuine progress willoccur where the Holy Spirit is at work.Understanding your motivational sins gives youa sense for the “themes” of your story, how yourFather is at work in you over the long haul.
15. Can you change what you want?

Yes and Amen! This is central to the workof the Holy Spirit. You will always desire, love,trust, believe, fear, obey, long for, value, pursue,hope, and serve something. You are motivatedwhen you feel desire. God does not anesthetizeus; He redirects our desires. The Holy Spiritworks to change the configuration and status ofour desires, as He leads us with an intimatehand.14 The desires of the heart are notunchangeable. God never promises to give youwhat you want, to meet your felt needs andlongings. He tells you to be ruled by other,different desires. This is radical. God promises tochange what you really want! God insists thatHe be first, and all lesser loves be radicallysubordinate.

The best way to understand this is to thinkabout prayer. Prayer means asking. You askbecause you want something. You ask Godbecause you believe He has power to accomplish

myriad of specific, individualized desires thatexpress self’s typical themes and patterns

FIGURE 1. DESIRES OF THE FLESH

_______________________________________________14 Gal. 5:16-25; Rom. 6:16-18; 8:12-16; Ps. 23:3.

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some desired good. For example, when Solomonprayed for a wise and discerning heart, Godfreely gave Solomon what he wanted (1 Kings3). God was delighted that Solomon did not askfor a long life, riches, and success. These are thefelt needs of most people in power. Solomon hadnot treated God as a genie in a lamp who existsto grant him three wishes. What we want bynature—the cravings of the flesh—expressesour sin nature. But Solomon had learned toknow what he really needed. He had learned topray according to the will of God, and it pleasedGod to answer him. The Lord changes what wewant, and we learn to pray for what delightsGod, to want what He wants.

God challenges the things that everybody,everywhere eagerly pursues (Matt. 6:32). Whatdesires of body and mind (Eph. 2:3) do peoplenaturally follow? Consider our characteristicpassions: desires of the body include life itself,air, health, water, food, clothing, shelter, sexualpleasure, rest, and exercise. Desires of the mindinclude happiness, being loved, meaning,money and possessions, respect, status,accomplishment, self-esteem, success, control,power, self-righteousness, aesthetic pleasure,knowledge, marriage and family. Must these ruleour lives? They did not rule Jesus’ life. Can thesecravings really be changed? The Bible says Yes,and points us to the promises of God: to indwellus with power, to write truth on our hearts, topour out His love in our hearts, to enable us tosay “Abba, Father.”

As we have seen, many of these things arenot bad in themselves. The evil in our desiresdoes not lie in what we want, but in the fact thatwe want it too much. Our desires for goodthings seize the throne, becoming idols thatreplace the King. God refuses to serve ourinstinctive longings, but commands us to beruled by other longings. What God commands,He provides the power to accomplish: He worksin us both the willing and the doing of His goodpleasure (Phil. 2:12-13).

Can you change what you most deeplywant? Yes. Does that answer to this questionsurprise you? It counters influentialcontemporary views of human motivation. MostChristian counseling books follow on the heelsof secular psychologists and take your desires,your “felt needs,” as givens. Many leading

Christian psychologists make theunchangeability of what we long for thefoundation of their systems. For example, manyteach that we have an “empty love tank” inside.Our craving for love must be met, or we aredoomed to a life of misery and sin. Desires to feelgood about ourselves (“self-esteem”) or toaccomplish something meaningful are similarlybaptized. This creates the psychologicalequivalent of the “Health and Wealth” theology,which similarly selects certain common desiresand accepts them as givens that God is obligatedto fulfill. The psychological versions of healthand wealth miss that God is about the businessof changing what people really long for. If feltneeds are unchangeable, then it is impossible forus to learn to pray the way Solomon did. Thisreinforces our tendency to pray for our cravings.It reinforces a sense of victimization in thosewho were mistreated. It reinforces the tendencyto press God into the service of our lusts.Nowhere in the Bible does anyone pray, “Lord,meet my need to feel significant and my need tofeel loved.” Knowledge of the significance ofyour life and of the security of God’s love for youcomes through a different channel than “I longfor significance and security.”

The deepest longings of the human heartcan and must be changed as we are remade intoall that God designed us to be. Our deviantlongings are illegitimate masters. even wherethe object of desire is a good thing, the status ofthe desire usurps God. Our cravings should berecognized in order that we may more richlyknow God as the Savior, Lover, and Converterof the human soul. God would have us long forHim more than we long for His gifts. To make ustruly human, God must change what we want;we must learn to want the things Jesus wanted.It is no surprise that the psychologists can’t findany biblical proof texts for their view of humanmotivation. The Bible teaches a different view.

The Christian life is a great paradox.Those who die to self, find self. Those who dieto their cravings will receive many times asmuch in this age, and, in the age to come,eternal life (Luke 18:29). They will find newpassions worth living for and dying for. If I cravehappiness, I will receive misery. If I crave to beloved, I will receive rejection. If I cravesignificance, I will receive futility. If I crave

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control, I will receive chaos. If I cravereputation, I will receive humiliation. But if Ilong for God and His wisdom and mercy, I willreceive God and wisdom and mercy. Along theway, sooner or later, I will also receive happiness,love, meaning, order, and glory.

Every vital Christian testifies that theinstinctive passions and desires of the flesh canbe replaced with the new priorities of the Spirit.This reorientation is not instant and complete,but it is genuine and progressive. Two of thegreatest books of practical Christian theology—Augustine’s Confessions and Jonathan Edwards’sTreatise Concerning Religious Affections—meditate exactly on this transformation. Andone assumes that Francis of Assisi meant hisprayer: “O Divine Master, grant that I may notso much seek to be consoled, as to console; to beunderstood, as to understand; to be loved, as tolove.” The craving to learn how to love andunderstand replaces the craving for love andunderstanding.

Those who hunger and thirst for suchrighteousness will be satisfied. We have Jesus’word. We have no promise, however, that Godwill satisfy the instinctive cravings of the soul.The Bible teaches us to pray, to learn to ask forwhat we really need. Can we pray the petitionsof the Lord’s Prayer and really mean it? Yes. Canwe long for God’s glory, for His will to be obeyed,for daily material provision for all God’s people,for sins to be forgiven, for aid in warfare withevil? Yes.

A wise Puritan pastor, Stephen Charnock,once wrote of “the expulsive power of a newaffection.” New ruling desires expel lessermasters from the throne. What are the new anddifferent motives that rule in renewed hearts?What changed objects of desire characterize themaster motives of the new, listening heart? Howdoes God change what people want? The Bibletreats these matters everywhere.15

Idolatrous cravings hijack the human

heart. Both the Christian life and Christianministry are by definition about the business ofaccomplishing a transformation in what peoplewant. Such transformations lie at the center ofthe Holy Spirit’s purposes in working His Wordinto our lives. The lusts of the flesh leadsomewhere bad: dead works. The lusts of theflesh have a specific solution: the gospel of JesusChrist, which replaces them. “He died for all, sothat they who live might no longer live forthemselves, but for Him who died and roseagain on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:15). The desiresof the Lord lead to somewhere good: goodworks. One key ingredient in reclaiming thecure of souls is to make this transformationcentral.

Conclusion

We have probed only one of the manyterms by which the Bible explains the workingsof the human heart in specific detail. This is atheme whose riches are inexhaustible. Thehuman heart is an active verb. We do not “haveneeds”; we “do desires,” just as we do love, fear,hope, trust, and all the rest. In this article wehave examined the verbs of desire. We couldhave examined any of scores of complementaryverbs that capture the fundamental activism ofthe heart of man. But we would do so confidentof this: The gospel of Jesus Christ is as wide ashuman diversity and as deep as humancomplexity. The Scriptures that bear witness tothis Christ in the power of His Spirit aresufficient to cure souls.

***

As our staff and authors work on eachissue of the Journal of Biblical Counseling, one ofthe real pleasures is to see how an issue “comestogether.” Unexpected thematic unities becomeclear. Articles complement each other. Thepersonality and perspective of one author differsfrom another author in such a way that, whenwe put the two side by side, a wisdom emergesthat no single author could ever capture. ThisSpring 2005 issue is a prime example. You willread, from many angles, how personal honestybecomes accurate. This issue of JBC is full ofstories in which honesty changes as people cometo see themselves differently. And you will read,

The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Spring 2005 13

again from many angles, how an honest persongrapples with himself or herself by the grace ofour most kind Savior. This issue of JBC is full ofstories getting caught up in The Story.

“How Christ Changes Us By His Grace”sets forth a model for understanding how peoplechange. At first glance, it’s a simple model:situation, instinctive reaction, merciful Savior,renewed response. But Paul Tripp and Tim Lanehave put on paper a template for practicalsanctification. It is able to embrace thecomplexities and details of life lived—and lifelived well.

The next two articles bear witness to howthat template works out in practice. SusanRoberts (“A Heart Full of Worry”) and MaxBenfer (“A Heart Full of Pride”) trace their ownstories. Pay particular attention to how honestchanges take place in tiny moments of daily life.This is of critical importance, if we are tounderstand how counseling ministry (and life!)really work. The big ideas, profound personalinsights, and life-rearranging truths actuallywork out in the tiniest moments.

William Farley explores how humilitydevelops in “Finding Intimacy with God.” TheHumility section in Barnes & Noble, Borders, oramazon.com is not large! But humility happensto be the surprise door that leads to life.

“The Sins We are Unaware Of” by JamesEberhart tackles an issue that needs tackling.Most people view “sin” as consciously, willfullychosen wrong-doing. But God (against whomsin registers, by definition!) takes a very differentview of sin. How do we become aware of things

in ourselves of which we are currently unaware?Gossip happens to be one of those sins ofwhich many people are unaware. After all,gossip is both an industry and a lifestyle: thestuff of Entertainment Tonight, the “gossipcolumn” in the newspaper, and animatedconversations in 10,000 lunchrooms. ButBrenda Payne shows up gossip for what it is in

“The Heart that Wags the Tongue.”
Psalm 77: “I Was in Distress... Then I

Thought....” carefully works its way through oneof those characteristic psalms in which anhonest man talks it out with the Lord in whomhe hopes. Sue Nicewander applies the psalminto the life experience of a woman beatendown by life’s disappointments.

Just as Barnes & Noble doesn’t offer muchin the humility line, so it doesn’t offer muchabout forgiveness that shows it as the deepesthuman need before God. Only if you are rootedin the mercies of God in Christ can you trulyforgive other people. Tim Lane revisits thisessential aspect of love in “Pursuing andGranting Forgiveness,” and unfolds thepracticalities of forgiveness.

Over the past five years “Theophostic”ministry/counseling has become very popular incertain Christian circles. It is appropriate thatTim Ackley reviews this counseling model inthis particular issue of JBC. Theophosticministry claims to be Bible-based. But itsapproach to counseling takes a view of humanbeings and a view of how God works that standsin marked contrast to the nine articles you willhave just read.

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