Biblical Psychology: 6 Emotions of the “Heart”

Table of Contents

1 The Human “Heart”

2 Misconceptions of the “Heart”

3 Reason Christian! I

4 Reason Christian! II

5 Desires of the “Heart”

6 Emotions of the “Heart”

7 Transforming the “Heart”

8 Whole-hearted Worship

9 Whole-hearted Prayer

10 A History of Half-hearted Spirituality

11 Modern Half-hearted Spirituality

12 Devil-darkened Reason

13 The Insanity of Humanity I

14 The Insanity of Humanity II

15 From Darkness to Light I

16 From Darkness to Light II

Appendix A Detailed Contents

Chapter 4.6

Emotions of the “Heart”

The Voice of the Heart

Overall Objective

Better understand the God-ordained purpose of our emotions and how they affect our spiritual life.

Table of Topics

A) The Nature of Human Emotion

A.1) The Meaning of Emotion

A.2) The Place of Emotion

A.3) The Power of Emotion

B) The Source of Human Emotion: God

C) Feeling Right: Reason-controlled emotions

C.1) Helpful Effects of Emotion

C.2) Harmful Effects of Emotion

Extras & Endnotes

Primary Points
  • Emotion is the voice of the heart reflecting what we believe.
  • Emotions were created to be reactionary and follow reason.
  • The fact that both biblical love and faith can exist without emotion helps to put it in proper perspective.
  • Every human emotion can also be found in God.
  • God created women to be more emotional because God is more emotional than most males and He wants His full image reflected in humanity.
  • The fact that all human emotions can be found in God demonstrates that no emotion is intrinsically evil, including lust, jealousy, and hate. These emotions are perfectly holy in God and illustrate the fact that, “There is a [proper] time for everything” even “A time to love and a time to hate” (Eccl 3:1, 8).
  • The morality of an emotion depends on its motive and purpose, or the desire behind it.
  • A biblically correct love can exist toward our enemies that does not involve positive emotions, the complete love we are to have for our God must include them.
  • Our reason enables us to worship God correctly (“in truth”), our “spirit,” (emotions) enable us to worship Him completely.
  • What has aided evil more than emotion? God’s primary point of influence with us is our reason. satan’s is our emotions.
  • Nothing God-pleasing or God-ordained occurs by our emotions acting independently from our reason.
  • It is the “high” that emotion offers that attracts us to it and that addicts us to it. Sin makes us feel like nothing else. And if all we want is to feel, sin will draw us in.
  • Many of the problems in the Church today would be remedied by more and deeper thinking, instead of feeling.
  • C. S. Lewis: “The heart never takes the place of the head; but can and should obey it.”
  • Relying on emotions is particularly dangerous in decision making. Unfortunately some believe a strong feeling = “God’s voice.” Since when is a mere “feeling” a good indicator of what is true? It is virtues (i.e. love, humility, self-control) that enhance God-pleasing decision making, not feelings. There is not a single verse of Scripture that would suggest that our life should be led more by feelings instead of reason.
  • Emotions may be the best indicator of what we believe, but the worst indicator of what is true or what we should believe.

A) The Nature of Human Emotion

A.1) The Meaning of Emotion: The voice of the “heart”

As with all other topics concerning the human “heart,” the place and nature of emotions is a difficult one and we do not profess to offer anything close to a complete treatise here on the matter. We might start with asking, what is more human than emotion? Emotion is an integral part of the “heart” God has created within us. Webster’s defines “emotion” as:

the affective aspect of consciousness. a state of feeling. a psychic and physical reaction (as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling and physiologically involving changes that prepare the body for immediate vigorous action. [1]

While this is a rather unemotional definition of emotion it reminds us of a few things. First, notice how close our feelings are tied to our desires. Nonetheless, these things can be distinguished. We can recognize discouragement as a feeling and love as a desire/decision. We can also recognize that feelings, like discouragement, can affect our desires/decisions. However, in the end, we know that there is hardly such a thing as desire without feelings and it would be difficult to imagine the presence of one without the other. [2]

Secondly, notice that emotion is defined as a reaction, which may in part distinguish it from desires as well. Desires are more a product of a reasoning process, whereas emotions are a reaction to the fulfillment or unfulfillment of our desires. In other words, emotion was created to follow our beliefs and desires, not dictate them. We will have more to say about this below.

Finally, we notice that emotions directly affect the body, which would be difficult to say for our beliefs or desires. Truth and desires in themselves do not make us cry, shake, laugh, or turn red; but grief, fear, happiness, and anger will.

The definition we find for “feeling” in Webster’s more precisely (and emotionally) describes our topic:

FEELING, EMOTION, AFFECTION, SENTIMENT, PASSION mean a subjective response to a person, thing, or situation. FEELING denotes any partly mental, partly physical response marked by pleasure, pain, attraction, or repulsion; it may suggest the mere existence of a response but imply nothing about the nature or intensity of it; EMOTION carries a strong implication of excitement or agitation but, like FEELING, encompasses both positive and negative responses; AFFECTION applies to feelings that are also inclinations or likings; SENTIMENT often implies an emotion inspired by an idea; PASSION suggests a very powerful or controlling emotion. [3]

While such technical definitions of emotion can be helpful, we like the one suggested by John Eldredge:

Emotions are the voice of the heart. . . . Not the heart, but its voice. They express the deeper movements of the heart, as when we weep over the loss of someone we love, or when we cheer at the triumph of a son’s team at the state championships. [4]

A.2) The Proper Place of Emotion

We are intrigued with Eldredge’s idea of emotion being “the voice of the heart.” Indeed, how do we most clearly perceive our beliefs, or most powerfully experience our desires, than in our feelings. Mere reflection by our reason may not always be the most accurate indicators of what is really occurring in our “heart,” but our feelings usually are. For sure our feelings are the best indicator of our greatest desires. But our feelings also may be the best reflection of our true beliefs. For example, you cannot honestly say that you believe there is no reason to fear someone or something while at the same time you experience fear when you encounter these very things.

Another indication of the importance of emotion is the damage that can occur with their continual suppression. Similar to the feelings (senses) of our body that alert us to the pleasure or pain we are “physically” experiencing, so our “psychological” emotions tell us what we are experiencing in our “heart.” Likewise, as ignoring our physical senses can do immeasurable damage to our body, disregarding our emotions can cause and perpetuate harm to our “heart.”

Still, in a feelings oriented culture like ours, it needs to be said that our beliefs have a hierarchical superiority to our emotion. You can have biblical faith without feeling emotion, but not without understanding and accepting the truth. Faith is not ultimately a feeling, and in fact, often its opposite.

The same can be said when it comes to the cardinal virtue of Christianity, love. One of the most unfortunate things that has occurred in our age is the redefinition of love as just a feeling or emotion. It is said and believed that when the feeling is gone in a relationship, that it is a sure indication that the love is gone too. Others mistake love for lust. God forgive us for perverting the most noble of virtues into something that describes the height of selfishness. Along these lines, Gordon H. Clark (1902-1985) wrote:

The love Augustine had in mind, and love as considered in Scripture, is a volition [desire], not an emotion. The Scripture commands love. Commands are addressed to the will [reason]. Emotions are involuntary. One should not interpret, misinterpret, Scriptural love in terms of the secular psychology of the twentieth century. [5]

Likewise, J. I. Packer writes:

Love is not essentially a feeling of affection, but a way of behaving, and if it starts as a feeling, it must become more than a feeling if it is truly to be love. Love does something; it gives; that is how it establishes its identity. [6]

It may come as some surprise that real love, at least initially, often times has nothing to do with emotion at all, but is rather a rational decision made on the basis of principle, not feeling. When Jesus Christ commands us to “love your enemies” (Matt 5:44), He is not expecting us to feel like doing so before we obey this command. No, love is an action, a decision, upon which our feelings may or may not follow. And what guides love is a rational process that recognizes, as the Apostle reminds us in Romans 12:1-2, that such love is the reasonable, moral thing to do, but not necessarily what we feel like doing. [7]

Nonetheless, the importance that God places on joy illustrates that authentic Christianity is incomplete without emotion. Authentic Christianity is to “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4) and a fruit of the Holy Spirit is “joy” (Gal 5:22). Accordingly, the Apostle Paul wrote: “The Kingdom of God is . . . a matter of . . . righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men” (Rom 14:17-18).

Joy is a supernatural emotion that operates regardless of our circumstances, but is based on what we believe. Therefore, joy is always dependent on reason (i.e. truth) and never separated from it, as all God-pleasing emotions are. The Apostle tied beliefs, desires, and emotion all together when he wrote: “Love [a desire] . . . rejoices [an emotion] with the truth [a belief]” (1 Cor 13:6).

In an effort to communicate a biblical balance between an empty intellectualism and an equally empty emotionalism Reformed theologian John Frame writes:

Redemption doesn’t make us more emotional (as some charismatics might suppose) or less so (as many Reformed would prefer), any more than it makes us more or less intellectual. What redemption does to the intellect is to consecrate that intellect to God, whether the I.Q. is high or low. Similarly, the important thing is not whether you are highly emotional or not; the important thing is that whatever emotional capacities you have should be placed in God’s hands to be used according to His purposes. [8]

It is emotion divorced from love and truth that we and God despise, not emotion in itself. Emotion based on proper reasoning (i.e. beliefs and desires) is what pleases God. Therefore, a lack of proper emotion can be a lack of good reasoning as well. There are times we should feel more strongly about something, but we don’t because our beliefs, desires, and values are faulty. An emphasis on reasoning does not necessarily diminish the place of emotion. Rather, it simply better ensures that emotions are appropriate, because inappropriate ones can lead to sin. Right beliefs lead to great and God-pleasing emotions. More will be said concerning the proper place of emotions below.

Pastoral Practices

Do you diligently monitor your emotions? This is surely included in the wise and biblical advice to “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov 4:23). Our emotions are often the best indicator of whether we are living in the power of the Holy Spirit or the flesh.

Far too many Christians, including Pastors, become too accustomed to sinful emotions such as anger, anxiety, lust, discouragement, etc. They have lived with such things for so long that they assume this is just how their life is supposed to be.

On the contrary, the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience . . . self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). This is the normal Christian life! Do not lower God’s standard in your own life or the lives of others. Continually encourage this kind of life and endeavor to live it yourself.

Habitual, overwhelming negative emotions probably indicate an unresolved issue in your life in which you are in bondage to lies, which hinder your ability to consistently live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Seek freeing truth for yourself and then your people.

A.3) The Power of Emotion

We have said all along in our study of the “heart” of both God and humans that its goal is happiness. That is an emotion. The God given goal of our life is not to just have the proper beliefs, desires, decisions, and circumstances, but the emotion of joy. Epistemologically for the human our beliefs of reason are the foundation, but joy and happiness are the pinnacle of human experience. Which is why both God and we seek them. And it is that seeking for the feeling of happiness that drives our search for understanding what will bring it, and the desire and pursuit of those things, all of which dictates virtually our whole life, just, we believe, as it does for God.

This perspective brings out the importance of another aspect of our “heart” which is the conscience, or the moral aspect of our reason. Its power is in its ability to produce the rather potent emotions of guilt or peace. Accordingly, David writes of the former: “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear” (Ps 38:4). Such “remorse” “seized” Judas so powerfully that he hung himself (cf. Matt 27:3-5). Why do the “Gentiles, who do not have the [written] law, do by nature things required by the law”? Because “their consciences [are] bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing [causing guilt or], now even defending them [causing peace]” (Rom 2:14-15). Why did the Apostle say, I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man” (Acts 24:16)? Because he sought to avoid the painful emotion of guilt and the pleasing emotion of peace.

This helps to explain why some “suppress the truth . . . about God” communicated in Creation. The message is “plain to them” and “clearly seen” and “understood” by their reason such that they “are without excuse.” However, while there is a part of them that believes in God, as is true of all humans according to this passage, [9] there is a belief that is stronger than this. It is the belief that if “God’s . . . eternal power and divine nature” were allowed to be a controlling belief in their life, the result would be the pain of guilt (and the loss of happiness), because of their “wickedness” (Rom 1:18-20), which they do not want to give up because they think sin will make them happy. In other words, to believe God exists is, in the mind of some unregenerate humans, to give up what makes them happy.

Emotions also powerfully affect our reasoning process as we know that the data we receive in the context of emotionally charged events makes a far greater impression on us than otherwise. Often our most powerful beliefs (good or bad) have been imprinted in the atmosphere of experiencing powerful emotions.

We also know the power of emotion by the tremendous affect it has in our life. Expressions such as anguish, passion, exuberance, and lust are power words because the emotions they reflect are powerful. The Scriptures describe several pictures of powerful human emotion, often referring to their strength as overwhelming the person. We have mentioned this already concerning guilt. The overwhelming nature of the emotional aspect of love is expressed when we read in the Song of Songs:

Love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. (Song 8:6-7)

It is the feelings God created us to experience in sexual intimacy that makes it among the most powerful experiences (and therefore) desires known to humans.

Likewise, we read of the power of anger and jealousy: “Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” (Prov 27:4). Fear can cause paralysis and prostration. Accordingly, we read of the emotional affect that fear had on the Prophet Daniel when he saw God. The Prophet says:

I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless . . . trembling on my hands and knees . . . I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless . . . [saying to the divine messenger] I am overcome with anguish . . . I can hardly breathe” (Dan 10:8, 10, 15-17; cf. Ps 14:5; 55:4-5; Job 15:24; ).

Sorrow and anguish can completely debilitate a person as expressed many times in Scripture (cf. Job 9:18; 15:24; Ps 116:3; 2 Cor 1:8-9; 2:7). The most powerful depiction of this in Scripture is Christ Himself the night before He was to endure the torture of the cross. Matthew records regarding that night in a garden: “He began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then He said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matt 26:37). The intense grief [10] that Christ felt as He pondered His impending punishment is especially illustrated by Luke’s account when he writes: “And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). It is perhaps the full emotion that the King experienced that best demonstrated His full humanity.

B) The Source of Human Emotion: God

And yet, the King’s emotion was equally a demonstration of His deity, as human emotion is again merely a reflection of the emotional part of God’s own “heart.” In fact, we know of no human emotion that cannot also be found in God as well. This includes such emotions as lust and jealousy (cf. Exod 20:5; 34:14), which, of course, are only found consistently in their purely righteous sense in God. The psalmist says God “has desired [avah] it [Zion] for His habitation” (Ps 132:13 NASB), using a word that means lust. [11] Likewise, in Luke 22:15 a righteous lust is applied to Christ when we read “He said to them, “I have earnestly desired [epithumia epethumēsa: lit. “with desire/lust I desired/lusted [12]] to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” This is the same word used by Christ concerning the sin of one who “looks at a woman lustfully” (Matt 5:28). Nonetheless, if God can “lust,” then we are not surprised to see it in humans in a positive sense as well (cf. Phil 1:23; 1 Thess 2:17). However, lust in its twisted sinful sense is only found in humans (cf. Matt 5:28; Mark 4:19).

Likewise, we find a full range of emotion in God, from deep delight, to severe anger, to intense grief. Deep divine delight is expressed in the Hebrew verb sûs, or “exult, rejoice” and is reflected in the Prophet Zephaniah who states, “He will take great delight in you . . . He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph 3:17). As we have noted above, joy is an essential aspect of not only authentic Christianity, but God as well (cf. Deut 28:63; Neh 8:10; Isa 62:5; John 15:11; Heb 12:2).

Severe divine anger is demonstrated in Revelation several times including 14:10:

If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury [thumou: “hot anger” [13]], which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath [orgēs]” (cf. Rom 2:8; Rev 16:19; 19:15).

Intense divine grief confronts us in the memorable statement in Genesis 6:6: “The LORD was grieved [nāham: “repent” [14]] that He had made man on the Earth, and His heart was filled with pain [āsab: to hurt, pain, grieve].” Thus, we see that the emotions of our “heart” are an image of those in God’s heart.

Likewise, we would suggest that each gender uniquely reflects an aspect of the Creator, and each gender uniquely emphasizes an aspect of the human “heart.” While we do not wish to press the stereotype too far, males are known for logic, and females for feeling. Even the Bible indicates that females are more emotional than males (cf. 1 Pet 3:7), [15] which was God’s design. God created them that way because God is actually more emotional than most males! If He had not created the more emotional woman, God’s emotional nature would not be fully reflected in humanity.

Nonetheless, the emotional makeup of humans differ, and that difference depends on how God created them, and therefore to disparage someone’s emotional nature is to disparage their Creator. Unfortunately, in our increasingly female oriented society in America, a lack of emotion on the part of males or others can be thought to be subhuman. On the other hand, men are tempted to mock and manipulate women because of the more emotional nature God Himself gave them. All of this is sin.

Finally, we would tentatively suggest that like the unique reflections of God the Father and the Son in our desires and beliefs of reason respectively, something of the same may be said in relation to our feelings and God the Holy Spirit. In the Trinity, the Holy Spirit would seem to always fulfill its proper place in responding to the desires of the Father and Son, not dictating to them. While being fully God, the Holy Spirit is depicted in Scripture more as a responder being sent, than a director decreeing things (cf. John 14:26; 15:26; esp. 16:13). This is how God has intended our emotions to work in relation to our beliefs and desires as well.

In addition, a trademark of the Spirit’s influence in our life is the emotions of joy and peace (cf. Gal 5:22). Unfortunately, these fruits of the Spirit can be faked, especially in worship services designed to evoke emotion from the flesh, instead of the emotion of the Spirit which is based on truth, a critical topic of discussion we take up elsewhere. [16] In addition, while the Holy Spirit always helps the work of the Father and Son, the same cannot be said of human emotion

C) Feeling Right: Reason-controlled emotions

C.1) Helpful Effects of Emotion

The intense and overwhelming power that emotion exercises over us highlight the importance of ensuring they serve to help us, rather than hurt us. God would have them empower godly and holy desires, while satan would use feelings to entice us with the pleasures of sin. Along these lines, Gary Friesen remarks:

There are two things we must bear in mind about our emotions. The first is that they can be greatly influenced by a host of things: our health, our upbringing, fatigue, medication, the weather, our diet, our hormonal balance, a news report, the feelings of others–in sum, everything that influences our immediate perception of reality.

The second factor is that emotions can affect our lives in one of two ways. They can function either as initiators or as responders. They can be the means whereby one determines “reality,” or they can be the means whereby one responds to truth. [17]

The fact that all human emotions can be found in God demonstrates that no emotion is intrinsically evil, including lust, jealousy, and hate. These emotions are perfectly holy in God and illustrate the fact that, “There is a [proper] time for everything” even “A time to love and a time to hate” (Eccl 3:1, 8).

The morality of an emotion depends on its motive and purpose, or the desire behind it. This points to the importance of our New Nature which conforms our emotions to God’s purposes, instead of the sinful nature that constantly uses feelings to serve sin. This is the background of what the Apostle is saying when he writes: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid [deilia: “cowardice”- a bad emotion], but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Tim 1:7). Regeneration does not sanctify our feelings, rather the indwelling Spirit redirects them and even opposes them when they obstruct the Christian life.

First, we will note some of the benefits of Spirit-controlled emotion in four vital areas of our life: 1) Our relationship with God, 2) our worship of God, 3) our thinking, and 4) our sanctification.

Regarding the place of emotion in our relationship with God, few, if any, have written as powerfully as the Puritan (and often thought to be unemotional) theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). Accordingly, an excerpt from his Treatise Concerning Religious Affections is worth the following rather lengthy quote:

[W]ho will deny that true religion consists in a great measure, in vigorous and lively actings of the inclination and will of the soul, or the fervent exercises of the heart? That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, and lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference: God, in his word, greatly insists upon it, that we be good in earnest, “fervent in spirit,” and our hearts vigorously engaged in religion: Rom. 12:11, “Be ye fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Deut. 10:12, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul?” . . .

If we be not in good earnest in religion, and our wills and inclinations be not strongly exercised, we are nothing. . . . It is such a fervent vigorous engagedness of the heart in religion, that is the fruit of a real circumcision of the heart, or true regeneration, and that has the promises of life. . . .

As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. As on the one hand, there must be light in the understanding, as well as an affected fervent heart; where there is heat without light, there can be nothing divine or heavenly in that heart; so on the other hand, where there is a kind of light without heat, a head stored with notions and speculations, with a cold and unaffected heart, there can be nothing divine in that light, that knowledge is no true spiritual knowledge of divine things. [18]

Human experience and virtue is simply incomplete without feelings, including our relationship with God. No relationship of love is complete without emotion. While we suggested that a biblically correct love can exist toward our enemies that does not involve positive emotions, the complete love we are to have for our God must include them. In other words, we can have sufficient love for our enemies in our actions as Christ commands (cf. Matt 5:44) without liking them.

However, supreme love will include all the positive emotions that result from an understanding and appreciation of God’s attributes. This is why Christ described this complete and supreme love as loving “the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37). There is no doubt that such love toward people and God involves the emotions, but this is not the level of love God would expect us to have for our enemies.

It is because God-pleasing spirituality and worship demand a “whole-hearted” approach which includes the beliefs of our reason, holy desires, and appropriate emotions, that a suppression of any of these God-given aspects of our human makeup is what we call half-hearted worship. Accordingly, in the contemporary Church, charismaticism has accused others of half-hearted spirituality and worship because of a lack of emotion. On the other hand, charismaticism is often guilty of an emotionalism that suppresses the other aspects of our “heart,” including reason, and therefore also resulting in unbiblical practices. Because of the importance of this topic to contemporary Christianity, and its practical application of the theological truths regarding the human “heart,” we further discuss whole-hearted spirituality and worship in chapters 4.8-4.11.

Not only do feelings enhance our worship and love for God, but actually can help in our thinking as well. For example, the often difficult and diligent study required to understand Scripture, and ultimately God better, is hard work. If a person does not delight in it and gain a certain sense of joy and satisfaction in it, they will not have the consistent motivation necessary to do it. Simply put, if thinking is pleasurable for us, we’ll do more of it.

Along the same lines, feelings enhance our giving. “The Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed [“happy”] to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35) No doubt if giving was always ultimately painful, we would not practice it as much. It is the good feelings associated with even sacrificial giving that partly motivates us to do it.

Likewise, obeying God often results in positive emotions, encouraging us to obey more. This is why the King said:

If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  (John 15:10-11)

Obedience brings joy!

Finally, God can certainly use our feelings even in our sanctification. The reason that divine discipline is effective is that, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful” (Heb 12:11). It is the pain that God either causes or allows in our life that He can use to mold us more in His image. The Bible tells us that even the King, “learned obedience from what He suffered” (Heb 5:8), and that the Christian, “who has suffered in his body is done with sin” (1 Pet 4:1). Likewise, the Apostle writes that, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (2 Cor 7:10). We see here that the source of our emotions are important, those being prompted by God being helpful, and those prompted otherwise being hurtful.

So we see that God certainly has several good purposes for our feelings. Accordingly, a neglect of the God-ordained place of human emotions leads to a mere empty intellectualism, or as Edwards said, life with light, but little heat. Particularly our charismatic brothers and sisters have been right to expose this tendency in American Christianity and there is no doubt that they have infused more God-honoring emotion into our churches.

C.2) Harmful Effects of Emotion

On the other hand, one wonders if anything has fueled and aided evil more than human emotion. It should never be forgotten that the emotional part of us is the most susceptible to the manipulations of our three arch-enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. God’s primary and initial point of influence with us is in our reason where we receive, process, and believe the truth. satan’s primary point of influence is our emotions. As Eldredge notes, “Many people have made a wreck of their lives by following an emotion without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea to do so. Neither adultery nor murder is a rational act.” [19]

This is why it is so critical that our feelings are subjected to desires controlled by the Spirit and a mind controlled by the truth of reason, because both of these protect the emotional part of our “heart” from corrupting the other parts. Nothing God-pleasing or God-ordained occurs by our emotions acting independently from our reason. Such a perspective is to separate what God has joined together which, among other things, are the functions of the “heart.” It leads to empty emotionalism, a life with heat, but little light, and Evangelicals have been right to expose this tendency particularly in charismaticism.

Therefore, while feelings can be an important ingredient in love, worship, thinking, and spiritual growth, they can also hinder all of them. Feelings corrupt love because they are often self-centered, and the sinful nature thrives on these very things. More specifically, what the sinful nature desires often promises to result in good feelings, tempting the person in its favor. This, in spite of the fact that the believer knows in their reason that whatever good feelings come from sin will soon turn sour (cf. Heb 11:25) and are empty counterfeits of the truly fulfilling virtues produced by the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22-23).

We sense the influence of feelings on our reasoning when we read the description of the first sin. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom [which she thought would enable her to reach the God-given human goal of happiness], she took some and ate it” (Gen 3:6). No doubt if the sight or thought of the fruit would have produced repulsive feelings, Eve would not have desired it. This is why satan works to make his temptations promise good feelings. It is emotion that can move us so strongly in a certain direction, whether it be for good or evil. Therefore, feelings do not automatically serve the purposes and glory of God but often thwart them.

It is the intensity of emotion caused by sin, the “high” it offers, that attracts us to it, that we experience in it, and that addicts us to it. Sin makes us feel like nothing else. And if all we want is to feel, sin will draw us in.

The eminent NT scholar John Stott, in his classic book Your Mind Matters, corrects the notion that the Fall should lead us to trust our feelings more, as so many contend today:

[T]he fact that man’s mind is fallen is no excuse for a retreat from thought into emotion, for the emotional side of man’s nature is equally fallen. Indeed, sin has more dangerous effects on our faculty of feeling than on our faculty of thinking, because our opinions are more easily checked and regulated by revealed truth than our experiences. [20]

It is not thinking that Scripture warns us about, but the wrong kind of thinking. No doubt, a good many of the personal and corporate problems in the Church today would be remedied by more and deeper thinking, instead of more and deeper feeling.

Regarding worship, as we have noted, the King said the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in their spirit and in truth (cf. John 4:23). Worshipping God in truth certainly involves our reason and purely emotional worship is not what God is seeking. [21]

This is certainly true of our sanctification. Many of those who exalt the place of emotions in Christian spirituality are the very ones who devalue the place of suffering, which is a vital part of the Christian life (cf. Matt 16:24-26; Rom 5:3; Phil 1:29; 3:10; 2 Tim 1:8; 1 Pet 2:21). If we allow our faulty theology or feelings of distaste regarding suffering to affect us, we may avoid it at all cost and miss its God-ordained purpose in our life.

Think a moment about the incredibly powerful emotions Christ was experiencing before His crucifixion. Because of His humanity, those emotions would have surely stopped Him from going to the cross, even causing Him to run and hide from it as all humans do to avoid the prospect of intense pain. However, His perfect beliefs and holy desires enabled Him to overcome the power of His human emotions and willingly go where He would be cruelly tortured and murdered. So the Spirit of God operating in us today can give us the same power over the emotions that would keep us from obeying our God.

We have already noted the potential harm our feelings can have on reasoning rightly. This needs to be heard loud and clear in our generation. C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) speaks of how such emotions can harmfully mess with our God-given reasoning abilities when he writes: “The heart never takes the place of the head; but can and should obey it.” [22]

Accordingly, the Christian philosopher wrote elsewhere:

In fact, I was assuming [when I was an atheist] that the human mind is completely ruled by reason. But that is not so. For example, my reason is perfectly convinced by good evidence that anesthetics do not smother me and that properly trained surgeons do not start operating until I am unconscious. But that does not alter the fact that when they have me down on the table and clap their horrible mask over my face, a mere childish panic begins inside me. I start thinking I am going to choke, and I am afraid they will start cutting me up before I am properly under.

In other words, I lose my faith in anesthetics. It is not [proper] reason that is taking away my faith: on the contrary, my faith is based on reason. It is my imagination and emotions [which ultimately, however, are based on other controlling beliefs of reason]. The battle is between faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination [based on other beliefs] on the other.

When you think of it you will see lots of instances of this. A man knows, on perfectly good evidence, that a pretty girl of his acquaintance is a liar and cannot keep a secret and ought not to be trusted; but when he finds himself with her his mind loses its faith in that bit of knowledge and he starts thinking, [because the belief promises more happiness] ‘Perhaps she’ll be different this time,’ and once more makes a fool of himself and tells her something he ought not to have told her. His senses and emotions have destroyed his faith in what he really knows to be true. . . .

Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable; but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods ‘where they get off’, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of Faith. [23]

An over-emphasis on emotions is particularly dangerous in decision making. While Christianity has traditionally warned that emotions can hinder good reasoning and decision making, it is popular today to claim otherwise. Yet this is essentially what mega mysticism encourages when it teaches that we are to expect extra-biblical impulses as an indication of God’s will. Accordingly, notice how the mega mystic Dallas Willard advises his readers to recognize extra-biblical revelation from God:

The quality of God’s voice [apart from Scripture] is more a matter of the weight or impact an impression [feeling] makes on our consciousness. A certain steady and calm force with which communications from God impact our soul, our innermost being, incline us toward assent and even toward active compliance. [24]

Essentially, then, according to mega mysticism, a strong feeling = “God’s voice.” Since when is a mere “feeling” a good indicator of what is true? It is virtues (i.e. love, humility, self-control) that enhance our God-pleasing decision making, not feelings, and the two should not be confused. In addition, no mega mystic would be able to point to a single verse of Scripture that would suggest that our life should be led more by feelings instead of reason. Along these lines, surely the words of D. M. Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) needs to be heeded:

Do not be swayed even by the fact that something . . . makes you feel wonderful. You may say, ‘Well now surely anything that makes me feel greater love to God must be right.’ Robert Baxter, to whom I have already referred in connection with the Irvingite movement [an early charismatic movement in England], used to say that he had never felt so much love, the love of God in his heart, or so much love in himself to God as he did at this period. He was ready to leave his wife and family for God’s sake. He was filled with a sense of the love of God, he said, that he had never known before, but he came to see that it had all been misleading him.

So we must not judge even in terms of such feelings. You may say, ‘I have never known such love, I have never known such peace, I have never known such joy.’ The people who belong to the cults will often tell you exactly the same thing. So we must not rely upon our own subjective feelings. Do not dismiss them or discount them, but do not rely upon them. Do not say, ‘I feel this is right, everything in me says this is right, all my Christian spirit.’ It is not enough. The devil is as subtle as that. Remember our Lord’s word—‘If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.’ [25]

While there is no hint in the Scriptures that our outward physical senses need to be doubted, there are warnings concerning inward, psychological processes such as emotions, intuitions and speculations. Such things bypass our God-given reason, and are therefore not God-ordained sources for reliable knowledge.

Contrary to popular thinking in modern mega mysticism, God says, “It is not good to have zeal [feelings] without knowledge . . . and miss the way” (Prov 19:2). We are warned that, “fools die for lack of judgment,” not emotion, and that God’s “people are destroyed from lack of knowledge,” not feelings (Prov 10:21; cf. Hos 4:6). It is because satan has a particular way of deceiving us through our emotions and impulses that God tells us to, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8 NASB). No doubt our repository of beliefs and truth in our reason is a critical part of having the kind of “sober spirit” that will protect us from the devil’s emotional manipulations. Emotions may be the best indicator of what we believe, but the worst indicator of what we should believe.

Surely this is what the Prophet was implying when he said, “The heart (lēb) is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). Remembering our study of the Bible’s use of “heart” in chapter 4.1, we can say confidently that the meaning here is not our God-given reasoning faculties, but actually the things that can come out of the “heart” to distort those faculties. Irrational fears and selfish feelings are certainly among those things that hinder rational, God-pleasing judgments. This is why Solomon said: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov 14:23).

In the end then, and in spite of the popularity of anti-intellectualism, [26] emotionalism, [27] and mega mysticism, [28] we insist on what we will emphasize throughout Knowing Our God: God does nothing to us or through us except that which He does to or through our reason. It is sound reasoning that Scripture continually exhorts us to and it is the God-ordained gatekeeper of what is real and true, not our feelings, emotions, and experiences.

Pastoral Practices

  • We believe all the “isms” mentioned in the preceding paragraph are very dangerous tendencies in American Christianity which severely inhibit it from being Authentic Christianity. We would suggest careful study of the sections referenced in the applicable endnotes, so that even if you would not agree with our view, you will be more sensitive to these potentially dangerous perspectives on human emotion in the Christian life.

Extras & Endnotes

A Devotion to Dad

Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for making us in Your image so that we too can feel. It truly is one of the best things about being human. But we confess it can also be one of the worst things. Help us evaluate those places and circumstances in which we are overwhelmed by negative, sinful emotions, and help us renew those places in our “heart” so that they may be more consistently controlled by Your Spirit.

Gauging Your Grasp

1) Why do we call emotions, “the voice of the heart”?

2) What is the helpful place of emotion in the Christian life in terms of its relationship to reason?

3) We claim that there is no human emotion that cannot also be found in God as well. Do you agree or disagree. What are the applications of this?

4) What do we claim it means to worship God “in spirit and in truth”?

5) What are some of the dangers of emotion in the Christian life?

6) Why is the emotional part of us the most susceptible to the manipulations of our spiritual enemies?

Recommended Reading

For a practical discussion on the place and purpose of emotion in the Christian life see Dave Bovenmyer, “The Heart and Emotions”; online at: http://davebovenmyer.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/emotions-and-the-heart.

Publications & Particulars

  1. Webster’s Dictionary; online at http://www.webster sdictionary.org. ↑

  2. The difficulty of distinguishing between emotions and desires is especially demonstrated in Jonathan Edwards’ famous writing on this subject entitled A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (online at ccel.org). Accordingly, he seems to include both desires and emotions in his “affections.” He writes concerning his own definition of “affections”: “The affections are no other than the more vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul” (Ibid.). In other words, for Edwards, “affections” are simply strong desires.

    This would seem to expose a minor flaw in N. R. Needham’s very helpful modernized and abridged version of the Treatise in which he simply refers to the “affections” as “emotion.” (The Experience That Counts! [Grace Publications Trust, 1997], 10-11). Edwards is not only speaking of emotion, but essentially strong desires.

    Nonetheless, while Edwards rather mixes desires and feelings in his “affections,” his thoughts generally apply equally well to both ↑

  3. Webster’s. ↑

  4. John Eldredge, Waking the Dead (Nelson, 2003), 42. ↑

  5. Gordon H. Clark, Faith and Saving Faith (Trinity Foundation, 1990), 116. ↑

  6. J. I. Packer, Keep in Step With the Spirit (Revell, 1984), 114. ↑

  7. For further discussion of the relationship between reason and love see section 4.3.C. ↑

  8. John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1987), 336. ↑

  9. For further discussion of humanity’s response to the divine revelation of Creation see section 4.13.A. ↑

  10. Some suggest that Christ experienced fear, but none of the texts say this, but rather specify His emotion as sorrow. This may be important as fear/anxiety is described in Scripture as a sin (cf. Phil 4:6; 2 Tim 1:7). ↑

  11. For the meaning of the Hebrew avah see Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT), Gleason Archer, R. Laird Harris, Bruce K. Waltke eds. (Moody, 1980), 18 ↑

  12. See New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT), Colin Brown, ed., 4 vols. (Zondervan, 1986), I.456-8. ↑

  13. W. E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Nelson, 1996), 688. The entry adds a slight distinction between the words used in Rev 14:10 and elsewhere in the NT for anger:

    Thumos, “wrath” is to be distinguished from orgē, in this respect, that thumos indicates a more agitated condition of the feelings, an outburst of wrath from inward indignation, while orgē suggests a more settled or abiding condition of mind, frequently with a view to taking revenge. Orgē is less sudden in its rise than thumos, but more lasting in its nature (27). ↑

  14. TWOT, 570. The entry for nāham relates two interesting facts. First, “The origin of the root seems to reflect the idea of “breathing deeply,” hence the physical display of one’s feelings, usually sorrow, compassion, or comfort” all of which reflecting deep emotion. Secondly, while the word can mean repent, it is not used concerning sin on God’s part, and a different Hebrew word is used of human repentance:

    The KJV translates the Niphal of nhm “repent” thirty-eight times. The majority of these instances refer to God’s repentance, not man’s. The word most frequently employed to indicate man’s repentance is shûb (q.v.), meaning “to turn” (from sin to God). Unlike man, who under the conviction of sin feels genuine remorse and sorrow, God is free from sin (571). ↑

  15. The Apostle Peter writes: “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker [asthenesterō] partner” (1 Pet 3:7). Of course the relative “weakness” in females could be a number of things including being weaker physically, and in authority particularly in marriage (see Wayne Grudem, The First Epistle of Peter, TNTC [Eerdmans, 1988, 1999], 144). However, greater emotional sensitivity is certainly involved here as well, especially when we notice Peter’s admonition to women in the preceding verse, “do not give way to fear” (v. 6). Obviously, none of this is to imply that women are created mentally or spiritually deficient as compared to males. ↑

  16. For further discussion of emotionalism particularly as it applies to many American worship services see chapter 4.11 ↑

  17. Gary Friesen and J. Maxon, Decision Making and the Will of God (Multnomah, 1980), 247. ↑

  18. Edwards, I.2.1, I.3.1. We will also add the following excerpt:

    The Scriptures place religion very much in the affection of love, in love to God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and love to the people of God, and to mankind. The texts in which this is manifest, both in the Old Testament and New, are innumerable. . . . . The contrary affection of hatred also, as having sin for its object, is spoken of in Scripture as no inconsiderable part of true religion. It is spoken of as that by which true religion may be known and distinguished; Prov. 8:13, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” And accordingly the saints are called upon to give evidence of their sincerity by this; Psal. 97:10, “Ye that love the Lord hate evil.” . . . . Again, Psal. 139:21, “Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?” . . .

    [Also] holy desire, exercised in longings, hungerings, and thirstings after God and holiness, is often mentioned in Scripture as an important part of true religion; . . . Psal. 42:1, 2, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God; my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God” . . . The Scriptures speaks of holy joy, as a great part of true religion. . . . Phil. 3:1, “Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” And chap. 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice.”. . . .

    Religious sorrow, mourning, and brokenness of heart, are also frequently spoken of as a great part of true religion. These things are often mentioned as distinguishing qualities of the true saints, and a great part of their character; Psal. 34:18, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” . .

    Another affection often mentioned, as that in the exercise of which much of true religion appears, is gratitude; especially as exercised in thankfulness and praise to God. This being so much spoken of in the book of Psalms, and other parts of the holy Scriptures, I need not mention particular texts. . . .

    Again, the holy Scriptures do frequently speak of compassion or mercy, as a very great and essential thing in true religion, insomuch that good men are in Scripture denominated from hence; and a merciful man and a good man are equivalent terms in Scripture; Isa. 57:1, “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away.” And the Scripture chooses out this quality, as that by which, in a peculiar manner, a righteous man is deciphered; Psal. 37:21, “The righteous showeth mercy, and giveth;” and ver. 26, “He is ever merciful, and lendeth.” And Prov. 14:21, “He that honoreth the Lord, hath mercy on the poor.” . . . .

    Zeal is also spoken of, as a very essential part of the religion of true saints. It is spoken of as a great thing Christ had in view, in giving himself for our redemption; Tit. 2:14, “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” And this is spoken of, as the great thing wanting in the lukewarm Laodiceans, Rev. 3:15, 16, 19. (I.2.4) ↑

  19. Eldredge, 42. ↑

  20. John Stott, Your Mind Matters (Intervarsity, 1973), 16 ↑

  21. We thoroughly discuss the place of reason in worship in chapter 4.8. ↑

  22. C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (Harper Collins, 2001), 30. ↑

  23. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Harper Collins, 2001), 139-40. ↑

  24. Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (Intervarsity, 1999), 175. ↑

  25. Lloyd-Jones, The Sovereign Spirit: Discerning the Gifts (Harold Shaw, 1985), 68. ↑

  26. For further discussion of anti-intellectualism see section 2.4.A. ↑

  27. For further discussion of emotionalism see chapter 4.8. ↑

  28. For further discussion of the mega mystical idea that we are to be led by impulses see Book 14. ↑