The Doctrine Of Imago Dei's Scripture

In every vocation, the foundational doctrines of any profession determine the goals and practices. The doctrine of imago Dei is a foundational Christian belief where humanity reflect God’s image as an analogy to the character and attributes of God. While this doctrine has infinite applications in human interaction, the relational aspect of the Imago Dei is the critical to the practice of sound Biblical counseling. The relational attribute can be seen throughout Scripture in the Trinity, the covenants God makes throughout Scripture, and the adoption of the elect into the family of God. Man bears the image of God by relating to God and to others, therefore Biblical counseling relies on the relationship between man God, relationship of the counselor

The relationship between God and man separates and shapes Biblical counseling from all other psychological fields. In counseling, as with anything, there is a specific goal that the therapist is attempting to achieve in counseling. God’s relationship to mankind fulfills His greatest need and gives the counseling relationship a blueprint of transformation. Firstly, because God has created man to be relational, the greatest fulfillment of that is man’s relationship to His relational Creator: “You stir him up so that he takes delight in praising you because you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Augustine as cited in Macdonald 2008 p.23). How this plays out in counseling is more that simply praying with the counselee and exhorting them to read the Bible more often. Rather, it is looking at the nature of counseling issues as the outcome of a broken relationship between God and man. For example, a woman struggling with gossip issues may come to counseling looking for ways to manage her relationships at work. While these techniques are helpful, her ultimate problem may be fear. She does not need to know only that she ought not to gossip, but rather look to her security in the unconditional and unfailing love of Christ as her source of significance and security. Made to relate to his creator, man will never find true healing

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35 ESV). The church should be a community of counselors where Biblical counseling is a regular event. Dr. Crabb emphasizes the necessity of a church community who exhorts, encourages, and educates each other as essential to Biblical counseling. Specifically how I would like to integrate this into my practice is not only to integrate Biblical content into my secession, but also to integrate into my counseling ministry a strong relationship with the local churches and to train Christians in the necessity of living in community for the thriving of