In Christian counseling, there CAN tend to be 2 extreme approaches: truth without love AND love without truth. Counselees need BOTH from their biblical counselors who represent Christ.
John 1:14 reminds us that Jesus the Christ was BOTH full of grace and full of truth. 100% of both! That must be our goal, too, especially when helping hurting people.
We need truth-tellers in the body of Christ. We need those who speak God’s Word of truth to others.
We also need those who love others sacrificially in the body of Christ. We need those who convey the love of Christ in a winsome way.
Thank the Lord for BOTH – we should all strive to be balanced by speaking the truth in love like our Savior and Lord who was full of grace and full of truth (John 1:14).
We counsel in teams of two because we want to provide a balance of grace and truth which often occurs in a team counseling approach.
-Mark (aware that I fall short in both of these areas more often than I care to admit – but by God’s grace, learning to balance both daily)