Pastoral Perspective: Understanding emotion in relation to God

Much of our modern life seems to revolve around emotions and feelings. Social media, politics and even discourse deal more in emotion and how one feels than on facts or honest disagreement.

In many cases, if someone disagrees with another person, before they are offered the respect of being heard more times than not they are hit with Ad hominem attacks that have become the norm instead of thoughtful and intelligent dialogue.

Another effect of this emotional lifestyle is everyone being offended. Let me just say, offense is a choice. I may not like what you say; I might think what you say or believe is ridiculous; however, I choose not to be offended.

The answer is not to try and shut those up with whom we disagree, but to allow for more and diverse thought and speech, that is the remedy.

Unfortunately, this emotional way of life extends far beyond the secular world and has become normative within Christianity. Just for my own sick amusement, I picked up my trusty “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.” I looked up two words — emotion and feeling.

Emotion had no mention in the Bible; while feeling had two and neither scripture focused on our personal emotions and feelings. As a matter of fact, the word “feel” only had seven mentions and all were discussing touch.

Ephesians 4:19, 21st Century King James Version (KJ21) — 19who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Hebrews 4:15, 21st Century King James Version (KJ21) — 15For we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

The Ephesians text is discussing those who have grown numb to the work of the Holy Spirit. The Hebrews text is focused of the empathy of Christ toward us, so why the emphasis on emotions and feelings in the church?

This is not to say we as humans are not emotional, because we certainly are. As Christians, we believe we are made in the image of God. As we can see in scripture, God is emotional in many ways and we as His creation are as well.

However, we cannot be driven by emotions. One of the first things one learns in the military during training is not to panic. The person who panics in a serious situation is more often than not the person killed or injured.

Look at our firefighters and police, they like the military, go through strict training to overcome the natural emotion of flight. It is not normal for a person to run into danger, but this is exactly what these folks do on a regular basis. While the rest of us are heading for the hills away from danger they are doing the inverse.

You might say, you just stated, we are emotional beings and that only those rigorously trained can overcome those emotions. Yes, I did. However, it is possible to not let emotions and feelings drive us.

Many would argue that love is an emotion. Though, if we look at the word in scripture we find this is not the case. In English, we only have one word for love that covers a lot of ground, and has evolved lately into just an emotion. Therefore, we must go to the root of the word and look at its use in scripture and that requires us to go to the Greek.

Again, my trusty “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible” comes in handy as well as my Greek primer from seminary. As stated, the English language only has one word for love; however, in Greek we have three primary words for love found within the “New Testament.”

The first word is Eros: this is the root of the word erotic. This word is primarily concerned with the love of a man and a woman in marriage. Now for full disclosure, emotions are a part of this word and generally focus on lust. Not the best emotion in the lexicon.

Though, the love of a husband and wife does have emotion in it, it cannot and should not be centered on feelings and emotions. In fact, nowhere in the marriage ceremony liturgy will one find anything about feelings.

However, the word promise stands front and center. You see if a relationship is only based on emotions it cannot stand.

I, many times, hear people talking about someone coming along and sweeping them off their feet or of falling in or out of love. This is nothing but psycho-babble and modern day rubbish. Real relationships and those that last are founded on promises and not emotions. This could explain the high number of divorces as most people have fallen for the emotional trap in relations.

The second word is Phileo. Ever heard of Philadelphia or the city of brotherly love? This is exactly what this word represents. This is a bond between friends.

True friends are not those who feel good about you or have strong emotions but are the folks you can depend on no-matter the situation. They are there through thick and thin. Again, we see a move away from emotions and toward action.

The final word is Agape: This is the all-encompassing love of God, love beyond words or limits as the first two. Try as we may we can never truly achieve this type of love; though God pours it out on us all with infinite abundance.

Our faith journey can never be limited by our emotions, nor should it be. To make Christianity about how we feel because of a song or a sermon preached or some platitude spoken cannot be our foundation. It is only through the foundation of faith in Christ that we can truly be all that God has called us to be. To rely on emotions is to short change God, ourselves and this world.

Father, help us place our faith in you and not walk by feelings always standing on the firm foundation of Christ and your promises. Amen.

Rev. Carlin Ours pastors at First United Lutheran Church, Pontiac

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Rev. Carlin Ours Passtoral Perspective understanding emotion