Have you ever said something you regret in the heat of the moment? Have you ever done something without thinking it through, causing unintended consequences? We all have done so in one way or another. This is because we often say and do things we regret when we’re reacting from emotion rather than thought. When we are high in emotion, we are low in intelligence.
Pastor Jonny continued his Less Is More sermon series this week, looking at emotions, from James 1:19-27.
19My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
26Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
(James 1:19-27)
People often say and do things in haste, such as responding to work emails in a bad mood and regretting it, or saying destructive things to friends and family and causing hurt.
Emotions are powerful, they can be the best thing and the worst thing. God gave us emotions, but they’re fallen, just like everything in the fallen, sinful world in which we live.
Emotions don’t just affect us today, they affected people who lived in Biblical times too.
King David was walking on his palace roof one day and noticed a beautiful woman. While high in emotion, he sent out his servants to get the lady, Bathsheba, and bring her to him. She was married to one of David’s soldiers, but David disregarded this, slept with her, and she became pregnant. David felt guilt and shame, but caught up in emotion, he had Bathsheba’s husband killed to cover up his actions.
Another example of emotions ruling over rational thought is in the New Testament, when Jesus was arrested. Peter had seen Jesus demonstrate His power, and yet he didn’t think Jesus could handle being arrested, so he pulled out his sword and chopped an ear off one of the soldiers.
We often think of people as either “head” or “heart” people, or “thinkers” and “feelers” as some personality tests like to categorise them. Thinkers tend to make decisions, whereas feelers make reactions. To walk Christ-like, we need to understand that not everything that feels right is right, and that our emotions shouldn’t rule us, but instead, we should rule our emotions.
In fact, the best thing we can do is combine them, letting our emotions advise us in making rational decisions, such as letting empathy for other people’s feelings help us make difficult decisions.
A Biblical example of someone who combined thinking and feeling is King Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba (they eventually married). Solomon built a temple to God, and used the emotion of gratefulness to God to fuel his decision to build a temple to represent God’s glory and importance in our lives.
Another example of emotions prompting rational decisions is when Jesus cleared the temple of market stalls. He made a whip and drove the people out, prompted by his righteous anger. This wasn’t just an emotional reaction to anger, but the anger of seeing the temple misused in such a way prompted him to empty the temple for the sake of God’s glory.
We should be conscious of our emotions so that they don’t own us. We can experience feelings of rage, lust, gluttony, pride, jealousy, fear, etc, and the Bible has something to say on all of these. Let’s spend this week searching His Word to see where we can live simply, love God and obey His commandments.
Just like last week’s message about “stuff”, the same applies to emotions: less is more.