Dear Veritas,

I hope this letter finds you well and encouraged in your walk with the Lord. As I write this I’m fresh off a week at Biblical Counseling training. It is impossible to encapsulate what I learned in those 35 hours, but I did want to bring together some of the thoughts and share them with you, as they are incredibly pertinent to us here and now.

Let's start with this reminder from Paul to Timothy:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

In the book of Genesis we are already exposed to the foundational truth for us to fight the attitudes of this time, the time mentioned by Paul in his letter to Timothy. We see three counselors brought up in Genesis 1-3.

First, we see God as the perfect and trustworthy counselor. In the beginning, He spoke creation into existence, established order, and gave Adam and Eve clear, life-giving instruction. He gave them purpose. His words and actions were filled with truth, love, and provision—a display of trustworthiness that His creation could follow.

Then, there is Adam, given authority to name the creatures and to tend and have dominion over the garden with his wife. He had received a message of hope: “This garden is yours and you will be with Me!” Adam, while created in God’s image, became a flawed and hesitant counselor. When the serpent approached Eve with deceptive questions, Adam was present but silent. His failure to speak truth and protect his wife reveals the danger of passivity and neglecting our God-given responsibility to counsel one another with wisdom and courage.

Finally, we encounter the deceitful counselor, Satan, whose voice challenged God’s trustworthiness with subtle lies and half-truths. The serpent’s words struck at the foundation of the relationship they had with God. Could we trust God? Is God withholding something from us? Is there a quicker shortcut to getting what we want? This led Adam and Eve to trust in their own understanding rather than trust God's clear command, aside from his faithful actions. The consequences of listening to this voice were devastating, introducing sin and brokenness into the world.

As a church, we are continually faced with these same three voices/counselors. God’s voice, revealed through scripture, calls us to life and righteousness. Our own voices, and those of fellow believers, can either reflect His truth or, if we are not vigilant, fall into passivity or error. And, of course, the enemy continues to counsel with deceit, offering us a shortcut to peace, pleasure, and the pursuit of happiness—seeking to lead us away from the goodness, grace, and instruction of God.

Let us, therefore, be a people who intently follow our Creator, challenging one another by speaking biblical truth, and remaining watchful against the millions of subtle lies presented by the deceitful counselors of our age. Let our lives and counsel be the kind that fights against the arrogance, pleasures, and shortsightedness of our day.

With grace and truth,

Matthew