Emotions are an important part of our lives. It is important for Christians to understand emotions through the word of God.
Emotions can be powerful. They are so powerful that they can dominate our lives.
One of the strongest emotions is fear. Fear can influence our actions, forcing us to do things we don’t want to do. Fear can control our bodies, affecting our heart and other body systems. But we have not received a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).
Hatred and rage are strong emotions that can control people.
Depression a strong emotion that can be debilitating.
Emotions are influenced by many factors. When we are tired or hungry, we might get into a bad mood. When we are sick or in pain, we might feel depressed. Emotions can be affected by the weather or by the changing seasons. Hormones influence emotions. Circumstances affect emotions. When things are going well, we feel good. When things go badly, we feel bad.
If we are controlled by our emotions, then we are ultimately controlled by these factors that influence our emotions.
Feelings and emotions can be misleading. They come from the heart, and according to the Bible the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Emotions are often based on lies. Often fear comes from a lie from Satan. Sorrow often arises because of incomplete information. Anger can arise because of making a false assumption about someone.
In our Christian lives, there are problems with relying on feelings or emotions. Feelings go up and down. If our Christian life is based on emotions, then our Christian life will also be up and down. If our spirituality is based on emotions, then it is ultimately be based on those things that influence our emotions, like circumstances, hormones, other people, etc. God must be the foundation of our Christian life.
Emotions are not an accurate way to measure our spiritual life. Determining the validity of faith by emotions will lead to doubts. We might doubt if we’re truly born again because of our emotions, or we might doubt the promises of God because we don’t feel that they are true.
If we are relying on emotions in our Christian lives, then our obedience might be determined by feelings. We might do something because we feel like it, or not do something if we don’t feel like it. We might wait to obey God until we feel a sort of “inspiration.” Relying on feelings in our walk with God can lead to deception, when we might think that our feelings are the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The validity of our faith is proven by the word of God, not by our feelings. The word of God reveals spiritual reality, and our faith is to be based on the spiritual facts of God’s word.
Emotions are not inherently bad. God has emotions. Throughout the Bible God shows anger, jealousy, love, kindness, compassion, and sorrow. Jesus also showed emotions when he walked the earth. He showed sympathy. He experienced sorrow, joy, and many other emotions.
Throughout the Bible God’s people often showed strong emotions. In Psalms, David showed a range of human emotions. Nehemiah once got so mad with people for disobeying God that he starting hitting them and pulling out their hair (Nehemiah 13:25). Paul said he had continual sorrow because of Jews who refused to repent and believe in Jesus (Romans 9:2). How could Paul be sad all the time, but he command us to rejoice all the time (1 Thessalonians 5)? It’s possible to be joyful and sorrowful at the same time because we can have the joy of the Lord at the core of our being, even when we are sad about something.
Emotions can be right or wrong. The morality of emotions is determined by the word of God. When our emotional response is in line with the Bible, then it is healthy. When our emotional response is not in line with the Bible, then it is unhealthy. For example, if someone is sad because their friend forsook sin and started going to church, then this is not a good emotional response. If someone is happy when a person starts drinking alcohol to excess and being immoral, then this is a wrong emotional response. Our emotions need to be regulated by the word of God.
The Bible says it is possible to control our emotions. We can control our likes and dislikes, loving good things and hating evil things (Amos 5:15). One of the most frequent commands in the Bible is “Do not fear.” Fear is an emotion, and we are commanded to control it. Jesus commanded us to not be emotionally disturbed when we hear about wars or rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6). We are commanded to not be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6), and anxiety is an emotion. We are commanded to be slow to anger (James 1:19). We are instructed to bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, and other good emotions (Galatians 5:22-23). We are instructed to show sympathy to others, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15).
We are to regulate our emotions according to the word of God.
We can learn about controlling our emotions by the word of God by using an analogy from shipping. (Thank you Arun for the analogy.)
Big ships have a navigational system that sounds alarms when the ship is close to danger. This navigational system comes from the factory in a default setting. This alarm system must be set according to a chart that describes the ship’s surroundings. When the alarm system is set according to the chart, the alarms on the ship will ring at the appropriate times.
Emotions are like this. Before we were born again, our emotions sounded according to the rest of the world. They were in the “default” setting. Our emotions need to be set, or “charted” by the word of God. When our emotions are set by the word of God, they will be manifested appropriately at appropriate times.
If the ship’s alarm system is not set properly, then its alarms will sound randomly. This constant ringing of alarms can lead to alarm fatigue, when crew becomes so tired of the alarms that they ignore them.
Sometimes when our emotions are misaligned, they manifest frequently at random times, leading to emotional exhaustion. Jesus can heal us from this. As we renew our minds with the word of God, our emotions will be healed. As we wash over our minds with the master chart of the word of God, our emotions will also be “charted” to manifest at the appropriate times.
Each person is comprised of three parts, spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). When we are born again, our dead human spirit comes alive and is joined with the Holy Spirit. We are called to live according to the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. Emotions come from the soul. As we live in the Spirit, our spirit will dominate our soul. God will dominate our emotions. Our souls, moved upon by the Holy Spirit, will then bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. When our emotions are in line with the Spirit, we will bear an emotional response that is a blessing and is according to God.
God wants his people to be passionate about things that truly matter. God himself is an emotional being. As our emotions are regulated by the word of God and guided by the Holy Spirit, they will become an asset to our spiritual life and to God’s work.
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