Church Members Should Counsel Each Other - Romans 15:14

Romans 15:14 (ESV Strong's)
14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

Church Members Should Counsel Each Other

The Church, as a categorical grouping, has given their responsibility to admonish, train, correct and encourage on another over the field of “counselors.”   We are told, by most churches, we “lack” the skills to counsel.   So, we have to send out members to special classes that “teach” them the “science,” or “art,” or “theory” of counseling.   Yet, in the above passage, Paul talks plainly about the members of the Roman church having both he ability and opportunity to counsel each other.   Paul simply gave them all his theology (chapters 1-14) and now states that he is “satisfied” that they are equipped to provide “counseling’ to each other.  The word Paul uses of “instruct” one another is the Greek word, noutheteō.   That word has opened up an entire field of counseling known as Nouthetic Counseling.   Although many churches count it as a special ministry for just those who are trained to do so, “instructing” (noutheteo) others is, here, something every member of the Roman church is encouraged to do.  Our ability to simply take God’s Word and admonish our brothers and sisters in Christ is foundational to the “community” of believers.   Here is what one writer stated about Nouthetic Counseling:

“In that way, the full force of the Biblical concept of counseling may be set forth while avoiding the many contradictory connotations surrounding the English one. The three ideas found in the word nouthesia are confrontation, concern,and change. To put it simply, nouthetic counseling consists of lovingly confronting people out of deep concern in order to help them make those changes that God requires.”

If we look at those three ideas we can see that all members of the Body of Christ are equipped and required to practice them.   Paul says he believes this group of believers are:

1. Full of goodness (an fruit of the Spirit ... Galatians 5:20-21)

2. Full of knowledge (again, a ministry of the Holy Spirit ... 1 Corinthians 2:12-14)

3. Able to instruct each other. The word for able is the Greek word: dynamai.  It is were we get the English world dynamite.   Our ability to accomplish this type of “instruction” (counseling) in the lives of others comes from the power of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:14-21).

We need to be engaged in instructing (counseling) the Body of Christ.   This is God tool for the church to encourage and keep each other persevering in the Christian faith.