Dave’s Monday Blast – July 24, 2023
One of the many definitions of God is that He is LOVE. He created humankind to know His love and then for those who accept His love and mercy and surrender to His Lordship, we are to share it with others (I John 4:7 – 8).
Christian Ministries International is one of my go to organizations for providing simple apologetics to our Biblical Christian Worldview. To this definition of God as LOVING they comment: “Our world today promotes many false ideas about love: love is sex, love is a feeling, love is personal fulfillment, etc.” Of course the Word of God defines love as being totally committed to the betterment of another person. It is selfless and seeks to serve for the good of others (Ephesians 5:1 – 2, 25 – 29).
The world often labels Christians as intolerant for not affirming its notions of love, but Jesus showed us that sometimes the most loving thing we can do is confront sin and point people to God’s will for our lives (John 8:3 – 11). And of course, Jesus modeled true love perfectly. He came to serve and sacrifice; and He loved with both grace and truth (Matthew 20:28; John 1:14). Having said that…Jesus expressed His emotions appropriately. God created us to have emotions, and the fully human Jesus expressed a comprehensive range of emotions in His lifetime. Although the one emotion we probably most associate with Jesus is love.
The Bible provides specific examples of Jesus loving certain individuals, such as His disciples (John 15:12); Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (John 11:5), and even the rich young ruler (Mark 10:21). He also expressed compassion toward those who were downcast spiritually and physically (Luke 10:21) and by knowing what would be accomplished through His crucifixion and resurrection (Hebrews 12:2).
Jesus also felt and expressed emotions that could appear to be non-loving to those who ignore context. In a recent article from Summit Ministries: Mental Health & The Way of Jesus we read: “He expressed sorrow and openly wept at the death of Lazarus (John 11:35) and the many who rejected Him (Luke 19:41). He even suffered anguish over His impending crucifixion (Luke 22:44). Jesus got annoyed at His disciples (Mark 10:14) and showed anger toward the stubborn religious leaders (Mark 10:14) and corrupt moneylenders in the temple (John 2:13 – 17)“.
Why are these examples significant? Jesus did not lash out with His emotions, instead expressing each one appropriately, again, even those that appear to be non-loving ones such as sorrow and anger. As Christians, we are not called to be cold and emotionless, but we must be in control of our emotions and not let them cause us to act rashly. HMMM…how to do this?
Next week we will unpack how Jesus processed His emotions and what allowed Him to express them without anger or its partner, regret. (You know…the eating of crow after the fact).
