Emotions: Gone Bad and Mad
Note from Bob: You’re reading Part 3 of a blog mini-series on emotions. For Part 1, read Emotions: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. For Part 2, read Emotions: Why Do We Feel What We Feel?
Our Fall into Sin and Our Emotions
So far we’ve focused on how God designed us as emotional beings. However, we’d be quite naïve to imagine that our emotions and moods are always well-ordered. Because of our fall into sin, we’re not the way we’re supposed to be—we are depraved and disordered.
In Ephesians 4:19, Paul chooses a very rare Greek word, apēlgēkotes, to describe mood disorder—our fallen emotionality. The NIV translates it as “having lost all sensitivity” The word literally means “past feeling, becoming emotionally callous.” Whereas God intended that our emotions send us signals that connect us to Him, our outer world and our inner world, instead we shut ourselves down to the messages that God intended our emotions to signal. That’s why, in the fallen heart, emotions are not a good guide.
Notice how Ephesians 4:17-19 connects how our fallen emotions reaction to our fallen beliefs and fallen wills.
“You must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking (fallen rational direction). They are darkened in their understanding (foolish rational direction) and separated from the life of God (fallen spiritual affections/false worship) because of the ignorance that is in them (fallen rational direction) due to the hardening of their hearts (fallen volitional motivation). Having lost all sensitivity (fallen emotional reaction), they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:17-19).
Designed to be responsive to the world, others, and God, we follow our fallen mindsets which separate us from the life of God, which leads to hard hearts, which leads to emotional callousness.
In our refusal to depend upon God, we pinball between two self-centered, self-sufficient emotional moods.
- Out-of-Control Emotional Expression
- Over-Controlled Emotional Suppression
Both styles share the refusal to listen well to our emotions, the refusal to use our emotionality to evaluate where we are spiritually. We refuse to face our feelings because we refuse to need God.
Using Our Feelings as Spears: Out-of-Control Emotional Expression
We read where Paul further describes sinful emotions in Ephesians 4:19 as “giving themselves over to sensuality.” We’re ungoverned. Out of control. We’ve taken the brakes off our emotions. We decide that we want nothing to do with managed moods. If we feel it; we express it. If it hurts others; so be it.
Consider King Saul. He massaged his jealousy toward David. When the women of Israel met Saul and David with dancing and song, they sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7). Saul was enraged. This refrain galled him. “And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David” (1 Samuel 18:9). Caressed anger leads to expressed anger.
“Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, ‘I’ll pin David to the wall’” (1 Samuel 18:10b-11a). Saul perfectly pictures imperfect, sinful emotions—we use our feelings as spears to hurt others.
Like all unmanaged moods, Saul’s resulted from a foolish internal evaluation of a difficult external situation. No doubt, it would be emotionally distressing for most leaders to hear subordinates praised to the extent people praised David.
Experiencing this, Saul kept thinking to himself, rather than talking to God. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” (1 Samuel 18:8b).
Imagining God to be a puny god with limited resources, imagining God to be a Hoarder, Saul could not imagine that there was enough respect and responsibility to go around for both David and himself. This town was not big enough for the both of them because God was not big enough for Saul.
People like Saul wear their emotions on their sleeves and hurl their feelings like a spear. They will not be controlled. They refuse to be inhibited. Their feelings become their god.
Yet, their feelings never direct them to God. They may feel their feelings, indulge their feelings, but they never engage their feelings, never use their mood states to detect their spiritual state.
The Rest of the Story
In Part 3 we’ll explore another sinful way of handling our emotions: Stuffing Our Feelings.
For Reflection and Application: And Us?
I know. We’re all thinking about people—other people. People who have treated us like this. But what about us? Am I, are you, are we ever guilty of indulging our feelings? Do we ever use our feelings as spears to harm others? If so, how could understanding the connection between our foolish beliefs, false worship, self-centered motivations, and our emotions help us to repent of emotional sin and use our emotions to honor God and minister to others?
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