The following is a portion of a series of reflections on the book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp. You may also want to read the first, second, third,  fourth, and fifth reflection in this series.

Humans are better at mimicking than perhaps anything else they do. Young married couples mimic their parents–often incurring massive debt trying to live a life twenty years their senior. Children mimic their peers–it’s called peer pressure–and make choices they’d never envision. The so-called “common man” mimics Hollywood, or the NBA, and dresses like a fool, spending far too much money in the process.

While this mimicry can be fought, it’s perhaps wiser to accept it as human nature, and instead examine what–or better, who–is being mimicked. For the Christian, Jesus is our high priest, but he is also our role model. He is our brother–we are adopted sons of his father–but he is also our imitable guide. And if there is any counseling to be done, Jesus certainly is the model counselor, the template to which all other counselors should strive to mold themselves. Effective counseling “means following Christ’s example and focusing on the heart–starting with your own” (96).

Jesus first lived sinlessly, and then based on that perfect heart, counseled others. While we cannot achieve sinlessness, we can purify and cleanse our hearts through Jesus and then focus on the purification and cleansing of the hearts of others.

Jesus never laid out a system or rules; he never suggested throwing flags or passing batons or inane mechanisms by which outward behavior is reined in. Rather, he ruthlessly focused on the heart. For our counseling to be modeled after his then, we must also focus on the heart.