Wednesday Bible Blurb Emotions 9 3 2025
When I was a little child, I remember my mother scolding me and my reaction was to run down the hallway to my bedroom and throw myself screaming onto my bed. I would throw one big ugly fit! Emotional outbursts are common to the entire human society. Little children throw themselves down in the grocery store aisle. A three-year-old who won’t eat at the restaurant and throws a very loud screaming fit. The sadness when a young teenage girl runs off and elopes with her older boyfriend. The squeal of joy as the maiden marries a prince. The rush of love as you see your first-born child for the very first time. Anger at the person who drove drunk and killed your family. Disgust and sadness at and for the meth addicted prostitute who flaunts her wares. Fear of nuclear attack. The pure joy of receiving God’s Holy Spirit at baptism.
We all have emotions, and they can help or ruin our lives. “Paul Ekman, a psychologist and leading researcher on emotions, surveyed more than 100 scientists and used their input to develop what’s known as the ‘Atlas of Emotions’.” (Big Feels and how to Talk about them, internet). Ekman breaks down our human emotions into five main categories: anger, fear, sadness, disgust and enjoyment. We are each subject to our human emotions. Let’s look at these five areas of emotion as they appear in the Bible.
Anger: Jesus walked up to the Temple in Jerusalen and witnessed the buying and selling of overpriced offerings. This was His Father’s house and was to be for prayer and thanksgiving, not for shady deals on used lambs and defective doves. Paul echoed the emotions of Jesus when he said, “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (Eph. 4:26 [NKJV]). What did Jesus do about the situation which so angered Him? “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” (Matt. 21:12-13). Anger is often a terrible and deadly emotion, Jesus showed how to use righteous anger.
Fear: Elijah had just finished calling fire down from heaven and burning up the offering doused in water. He had just concluded executing 950 false prophets when Queen Jezebell sent word to have him killed. Elijah’s reaction was one of real deep down emotional fear for his life. He temporarily lost his faith and fled to hide in a cave on Mount Horeb. Depressed, hungry and feeling alone (another emotional response) he waited. Then God Himself appeared and bolstered his spirit, and he went on with his prophetic missionary work to Israel. Fear can do terrible things to us; we just need to remember God is always with us. Read the account of Elijah in I Kings 19.
Sadness: David created his own sadness with his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite. Talk about getting “caught in the act”, the entire world knows of David’s horrible sins. The result was a baby was born between David and Bathsheba and as the baby lay dying, the very repentant David wept and prayed to God. What a horrible sadness it is to lose a child. The King’s servants were nervous about coming to him and telling him the child had died, yet what was David’s reaction? Once he understood the child had died and God’s will had been accomplished, the repentant David went into the Lord’s house and worshipped. His emotion of sadness for the baby was tempered by his belief in God and the resurrection. “David said, “While the baby was still living, I cried and refused to eat because I thought, ‘Who knows? Maybe the Lord will feel sorry for me and let the baby live.’ But now the baby is dead, so why should I refuse to eat? Can I bring the baby back to life? No. Someday I will go to him, but he cannot come back to me.” (II Sam. 12: 22-23 [ERV). David’s emotion of sadness was tempered by his understanding of God’s will.
Disgust: God is disgusted with sin and so should we. The wages of sin are death but God’s wonderful gift to us is eternal life (Rom. 6:23). All of us, everybody who has ever lived, except Jesus the Messiah have sinned and our sins are disgusting to God (Rom. 3:23). God wants all mankind to be in His family and live forever with Him (Rom 8:14-17) so, He describes for us what is disgusting. “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal. 5:19-21). Sin is disgusting.
Enjoyment: Jesus gave us an example of the joy to come when He resurrects His saints. His good friend Lazarus had died and had been buried for four days when Jesus showed up. The emotion of sadness was everywhere. Mary and Martha were distraught with grief, yet Jesus came and reminded them of what God has in store, and they believed Him. Can you imagine the joy of the sisters when Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave? Seeing their brother walk out alive from the tomb must have brought about the greatest of enjoyment for Mary and Martha. The last enemy of enjoyment is death (I Cor. 15:26). Jesus will destroy death bringing pure joy forever to this world.
Emotions are a part of our humanity. Each of us must learn to control and properly utilize our emotions to the glory of God. Can you imagine a full-grown adult throwing themselves on the grocery store floor in a screaming fit? I hope we have all grown out of this immature stage of emotional development. As we grow from our spiritual childhood to spiritual maturity, we must learn to control our emotions and rely on God to make things right. Anger, fear, sadness, disgust and enjoyment are a part of our humanity. Like our forefathers in the Bible, let us all learn to control ourselves and grow in His spiritual maturity.
