Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:6-7
I do not know about you, but I often allow my emotions to get the best of me. Why is this so? Is there a biblical answer to our emotional roller coasters? We are studying this topic in our Sunday School class and I thought I would share some thoughts in this blog for the benefit of the church family.
I believe the starting point to discuss emotions is the doctrine of divine emotivity. Brian Borgman, quoting Greg Nichols, defines this doctrine in contrast to the doctrine of divine impassibility as: “God has emotivity in His supreme capacity to act responsively and sensationally; to feel pure and principled affections of love and hate, joy and grief, pleasure and anger, and peace; in accord with His supreme, spiritual, and simple Being and impeccable virtue.” When we understand that God has perfectly righteous and holy emotions, then it becomes difficult to impose our emotions on Him without consequences (Psa. 50:21). Yet God reveals His emotions in His Word, and we reflect them in the imago Dei, although improperly most of the time. Again, Borgman quotes Benjamin B. Warfield: “A God without an emotional life would be a God without all that lends its highest dignity to personal spirit, whose very being is movement; and that is as much as to say no God at all.”
Since God is an emotional Being, one can understand Scripture to teach that He loves emotions. Created in His image, we express passions. We experience love, compassion, sympathy, empathy, depression, grief, and other emotions. For example, Jesus wept (John 11:35, Luke 19:41); the Spirit grieves (Gen. 6:6, Eph. 4:30); and the Father rejoices (Zeph. 3:17; Luke 15:7). We do these, too (Matt. 26:75; 1 Sam. 15:35; Exo. 18:9). Therefore, we should allow ourselves to think, feel, and relate to the profound life experience which is happening. However, we must also understand that emotions are a product of the fall (Gen. 3) and may be sinful, just like thoughts (Prov. 15:26; Isa. 55:7) and behaviors (Gen. 4:7; 1 John 3:12). Jeff Forrey reminds us that there are even three intersecting dimensions by the Creator’s Design: theological, psychosomatic, and social. And all three are a part of what makes us who we are.
Forrey continues to show that humanity’s emotions would support honoring and glorifying God before the fall. However, now one’s emotions function in a perverted way. Our desires are independent of God. Therefore, we must use Scripture to determine if our emotions are sinful or not (1 Cor. 13:12; James 1:23). The Bible is the mirror we must use to assess our emotional state and hold up as the Truth for us to understand where our heart is deceiving us or not (Jer. 9:8; 17:9). We should look at the conditions of the heart because it is central to understanding the situation, especially how we perceive the situation.
Finally, we should use Scripture to help change our improper emotions. Our help and hope are not found in working through secular stages or behavioral-type therapy. God’s Word, which is sufficient for faith and practice (2 Tim. 3:17), guides our emotional state back to Jesus. The Bible helps us to categorize our emotions. As Forrey states, “Both arousal and expression can be evaluated as either ‘righteous’ or unrighteous.’” It is not that negative emotions are sinful or positive emotions are righteous; instead, either may be misappropriated to the wrong treasures of the heart (Matt. 6:21). We ought to assess what experiences contribute to the emotions we are feeling and, with the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, renew our thinking and begin to nurture honest emotions. However the assessment proceeds, as positive or negative perceptions, we must do it through a conscious relationship with our loving heavenly Father (Gal. 5:22; 1 John 4:7-17), and find our emotional stability in Him.
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Brian S. Borgman, Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 31.
Jeff Forrey, “The Biblical Understanding and Treatment of Emotions,” in James MacDonald, gen. ed., and Bob Kellemen and Steve Viar, man. eds.Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives with God’s CHangeless Truth (Eugene, Or: Harvest House, 2001), 394.
Andrews PCA 