GOSPEL DELTA

Feel (1)

// March 3rd, 2010 // Affection, Doctrine

 In a recent class on Gospel-centered Leadership, focusing on the topic of character, one of the class members voiced this concern:

My notes are fuzzy on this but I think I heard you say that character is built out of our emotions.  Did I hear correctly?  I have always felt that emotions are not too reliable and if you were to look at my character through my emotions, I am going to be in trouble!! Please give me any insights into this.   Thanks!

She was referring to what our associate pastor Chris was talking about when he described the meaning behind the phrase “youthful passions” or “evil desires” in 2 Tim 2:22. He explained that the word Paul uses there is “epitumia” which can be translated as “over-desire”. Paul uses it often when referring to idolatry, i.e. desiring or loving a created thing more than God. I believe his point was that our emotions are a good barometer for uncovering our idols. If we regularly ask ourselves questions like “What is my greatest fear?”, “What do I worry about most?”, “What am I the proudest of?”, or “What would really make me happy?” it will become evident whether our character  is rooted in the Gospel, or settled on something else.

But this person’s comment about emotions intrigued me, because I have noticed that this is a common theme among people who lived through the charismatic movement; it’s a big concern. Even in contemporary circles, I have seen how the draw of experiential Christianity can drive church toward unbiblical positions and how charismania can move churches away from orthodoxy. But I’ve also seen how the pendulum can swing too far in the other direction, all the way to a sort of stoic anti-emotionalism, a fear of charisma, and even a diminishing of role of the Holy Spirit. As a guy who’s big on doctrine, I can say from personal experience that there are equally dangerous pitfalls on this side of the pendulum. I’ve seen how the pursuit of theology (knowledge, truth) apart from the practice of doxology (worship/experience) can easily lead people astray into dead orthodoxy. I’ve seen this tendency in my own life, and it’s forced me to think deeply about how to balance these things.

I recently read some snippets from a book called Feel by Matthew Elliot. It’s about uncovering what the Bible really teaches about our emotions. John Piper has touted Eliot’s work as “the most thorough study on emotions in the New Testament.” The basic premise of the book is that the concept of “emotion” has been radically altered today from the way biblical authors or original readers would have thought about it. In Feel, Eliot describes some of the errors he has observed in American Christianity when it comes to emotions:

• “we have become indoctrinated in the belief that emotions are unreliable, dangerous, and bad.”

• “we have made our relationship with God more about fulfilling our duty than expressing our passion. We make our spiritual lives into a list of dos and don’ts. We pursue this list more than we actually pursue Jesus. And this leads to a life that eventually becomes tired and numb, devoid of feeling, dead.”

Based on his reading of Scripture, Eliot puts forth a few key ideas:

• “our emotions were given to us by God to drive us to our best”

• “emotions give us a window to see truth like nothing else”

• “the true health of our spiritual lives is measured by how we feel”

 

I think that understood rightly, our emotions can be a great help to us, especially for uncovering our idols: “something or someone besides Jesus the Christ that has taken title to our heart’s functional trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and delight?” (David Powlison). I suspect that some of these statements from Eliot would raise eyebrows among most evangelicals, but I think there’s a lot of truth there and I would highly recommend checking this book out.

  

Here are some more great quotes from Feel:

• If you want to conquer a besetting sin, you need to stop loving it.

• Jesus Christ brings to each of us a new set of information about the world around us. Without him, we have reason to fear and worry. With him, our emotions have a whole new context.

• What we feel–our loves–reveals what we really believe and becomes the motivation for how we live.

• …emotion does what a friend does–it counsels and advises…As we are conformed to Christ, we can learn to rely on emotions as we might rely on a friend.

• Our emotional response to anything is a collage of our personality, upbringing, self-image, worldview, experiences, and beliefs. What we concentrate on, what we dwell on, what we run over and over again n our heads is what we get emotional about. So we need to stop and think about what we are always telling ourselves. If it does not line up with what is true, we must cancel the download. Then we need to reboot our thought patterns with godly values and beliefs. Only then can our emotions reflect a godly perspective.

• Whatever podcast you play in your head is what you will eventually believe about God, others, and yourself. It will determine your emotional starting point and the place out of which you will respond. You can spend most of your life at a single spot emotionally because you pitched your tent on one thing that you relive and rehash every day. Sometimes, you have to make yourself pack it up and move on to something new.