Emotions: The Master or the Slave?

Emotions: The Master or the Slave?


When God created man, He created a masterful work. Not because man is special in and of himself but because God made man in His image. Of course, after the fall, things changed. From that moment, man was corrupted in every way. We read about the state of man in Ephesians 4.
In the beginning, God gave emotions to be part of the makeup of man, which allows him to experience the good creation that God has made. They let man experience the range of senses: joy, laughter, delight, awe, and then, as a result of the fall, we have the corrupted, sinful nature that taints that which was once perfect, and now we not only experience a range of emotions that are negative such as pain, sorrow, anger, etc., but we also must battle the reality that we are often at war with our emotions. We understand from the pages of Scripture that the negative emotions are a result of fallen mankind because we read in Revelation 21:4, “and He will WIPE AWAY EVERY TEAR FROM THEIR EYES; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things passed away” (LSB).
What a day that will be when our emotions are renewed as we are made whole, perfected in Christ, and realized. But until that day, we are to, as Paul says to the Ephesians, “walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (Eph. 4:1). That requires us to become masters of our emotions. Our emotions are so easily manipulated, well, by just about everything, but we must not let our emotions rule us. Rather, they need to be subjected to the truth of Scripture and brought under the rule of the word of God because, in reality, when our feelings are contrary to Scripture, they become one of our greatest enemies—a hindrance to our Christlikeness.

It's not enough to merely suggest that we are to master our feelings lest we become a slave to them rather than to truth; we must consult the pages of Scripture. What we find, both is the need, command, and ability given, implicitly and explicitly, to become masters of our emotions rather than a slave of our emotions.

In Romans 12:18, we are told to live peaceably with all as far as it depends on us. This implies a level of control over our emotions that leads to being able to live peaceably with others. We understand that to live peaceably often requires overlooking transgressions against us, giving the benefit of the doubt, and forgiveness, all of which are attached to and inseparable from emotions. To live peaceably requires one to be a master of his own emotions for the sake of obedience to the word of God. In other words, emotions must be subject to and ruled by a desire to exhibit godliness in one’s life.

Proverbs 16:32 says, "Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city." In other words, it is a mightier man who can control their emotions over one who could conquer a city. The expectation is that we can indeed rule over our spirit, over our emotions. This isn’t to say that it is always easy, but it is to say, it is not only possible, but a mark of the mighty.

In Galatians 5:22-23 we are given the fruit of the Spirit, one of which is self-control. This really doesn’t need any explanation, but we must acknowledge the fact that not only is control of our feelings expected, but it is expected because we have been given the Holy Spirit who’s fruit in our life is self-control. If self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, then we must deduce that we are not, as the world teaches, “to be free-spirited,” but rather to be self-controlled; otherwise, this would not be a fruit necessarily born of the Spirit of God in us. To be self-controlled in our emotions is to reflect something of the character and nature of God and is to be greatly desired in the Christian life. After all, we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling.

In Proverbs 19:11, we read, "Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense." Being easily offended is simply a sign of immaturity, demonstrative of one who lacks sanctification. There is no shortage of this kind of behavior on display today and social media has made this even easier to witness, but the Christian ought to be hard to offend in general and quick to forgive.

In Colossians 3:5 it says, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." We ARE able to put to death passions, which means we can and should control our emotions. The imperatives in the Scriptures not only give us the “what we should do,” but they also enlighten us as to what we have been given the ability to do. God never commands what cannot be done; that would be cruel, and we’ve already discovered that self-control is a gift of God through the work of the Holy Spirit who resides in every believer, and therefore, we can, because of the grace of God, through the work of Christ and the Spirit indwelling us, control our emotions so that they bring honor to the name of Christ and help us function, not as the world does around us, but to the glory of God and for the good of those around us.

The article started by mentioning the fact that our emotions can be easily manipulated, perhaps an illustration, which will no doubt be common all, will be helpful. Imagine the last time you cried in a movie (we’ve all done it). You are sitting in front of the screen and some huge event has just taken place in the movie, perhaps someone dies. The scene darkens, the music is somber, others in the movie are weeping over this tragic loss, this seeming untimely death and then comes the tear trickling down your face. We’ve all experienced something like this, perhaps the scene was an incredibly joyful one, but in either case our emotions were manipulated by the masterful workings of the movie industry.
There are many dynamics in play here, but let’s just address the fact that our emotions, as they say, “got played.” That person never died; in fact, they aren't even real, and you knew it. You knew it was just a movie; in some cases it's a cartoon or animation, and yet, your emotions were moved based on something completely fictional.
So consider how much more our emotions can be tricked in the real world when we often only have a small portion of the picture and next thing you know, the temper flies, unforgiveness begins to fester, motives are questions, wrongs are internalized, and the whirlwind of emotions rule our mouths and attitudes. The good news is that God has given us what we need to exercise restraint, and self-control, and every believer has this because they have been indwelt by the Spirit of God. So, the wise man or woman will strive to let truth rule them and not emotions. As we study and read the Scriptures, we come to know and understand not only the commands of Scriptures but the character and nature of Christ, allowing us to respond because we are looking to the One who created our emotions and has given us the ability to bring them into submission for His glory and this in turn blesses us and those around us.
Contrarily, when we allow our emotions to rule us, evil will always be lurking nearby. Whether it’s bitterness taking root through unforgiveness, unbridled rage that is not godly indignation, or various other ungodly passions, the result is that we have allowed ourselves to become slaves of emotion rather than the masters, so take great care, dear Christian, to pay close attention to your emotions, knowing that the Spirit of God within you gives you all you need to live according to truth rather than the fickle frailty of feelings.