In the church, you’ll discover two kinds of Christians – emotional
and stoic. Those who are emotional tend
to allow their feelings to interpret their ideas about God, circumstances and
the Bible. Those who are stoic, tend to root their faith in theology but it
produces a cold, try and a lifeless demonstration of faith and worship. This
tendency removes feelings from faith altogether. While it is true that our
emotions should not lead our theology, it is vital to our faith that theology
lead to a deep experience of our triune God.
Human beings are emotional creatures. We love or hate, feel happy
or sad, angry or joyful. And yet Christians sometimes struggle with integrating
emotion into their spiritual lives and end up falling victim to dangerous
tendencies when it comes to their emotions.
Good doctrine is critically important to the health of the
Christian and the church. But the church doesn’t need men and women who can
merely define repentance, saving faith, the Trinity, inspiration of Scripture,
and the nature of the gospel. Rather, the church needs people who hate sin and
love righteousness. Memorizing important aspects of theology is important, but
it is useless if it isn’t also producing in us awe, humility, love, and
worship. “Zeal without knowledge is dead,” but knowledge without deep
affection is just as lifeless.
It should be obvious that Scripture calls us to be a people who
feel what we believe, who not only know truth but experience it. There is a
righteous order to this. Our feelings and emotions must be governed and guided
by truth. We are to fear the Lord, hate evil, love the truth, mourn over sin
and injustice, and rejoice in our sufferings. These are not naked commands but
precepts given by God in light of who He is and what He has done. We are
supposed to feel the weight and the power of the truth revealed in Scripture.
Theology should do more than inform us—it should warm and stir our hearts. And
if it doesn’t, then we have missed the connection that God’s revelation is
designed to make between the head and the heart.
The key is not to pursue feelings themselves but to pursue the
Lord Jesus Christ by looking to Him, knowing His ways, pondering His promises,
and obeying His commands. Faith is what gives birth to feeling. The emotional
component of the Christian life isn’t always as present as we would like. Faith
must first go before, and then feeling will follow.
Consider how often we find ourselves afraid when we face the
unknown or the dangerous. When we run up against the fragility of life or the
potential of loss, anxiety and fear are right beside us, working their way into
our hearts. This is precisely when God calls us to “fear not.” yet the hope for
relief from fear is not found in ignoring what lies ahead, but in looking to
the God whose sovereignty is certain and whose promises are sure. It is when we
seek the Lord and ground our faith in Him that our fears are overcome (Ps.
34:4). The trouble itself may not disappear, but the knowledge of God conquers
what makes us afraid.
Pain and suffering are not only common to all, but for the
Christian, they are to be expected as a consequence of following Jesus. We know
the feeling of dread that can accompany severe trials. But the lifting of our
heads and the courage of faith is tied to God’s character and promise. We know
that He is “near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps.
34:18). We can cast all our anxieties on Him because we are assured that He
cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).
When we struggle with assurance and long for a confident hope in
Jesus, we must learn to trust Him more. The assurance of our salvation is first
and foremost based on the mercy and merits of Jesus Christ. We fix our eyes on
Him by faith and find in His life, death, and resurrection all the hope necessary
to stand before the presence of God without the threat of judgment. Christ
alone is our surety. This transforms us from a people who despair over our sin
into a people who sing the praises of the Savior who has delivered us from
our transgressions.
God has created us as emotional people. There is a time to weep
and laugh, to mourn and dance, to hate and love (Eccl. 3:1–8). Neither stoicism
nor emotionalism are marks of healthy faith. What is needed is robust, biblical
theology that informs and transforms our emotions and gives life to the
faith we possess in God.
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