Paul's Passing Thoughts

When the Bible speaks of “sinful desires,” that is best interpreted as “emotions,” and better yet, “feelings.” Sin makes its appeal through the emotions. Christians must learn to separate feelings from truth. The wise Christian is an investor. He/she will decline an immediate payoff for the pure gold of good feelings based on truth. Often, the Christian will endure suffering for the sake of truth that produces the “joy set ahead.”

When I was a teenager, my stepdad tried to teach me how to fly his Piper Cub. My problem was that I could not disassociate my feelings of how the plane was flying from what the instruments were actually telling me. Have you ever noticed that airplane pilots tend to be emotionally level? That’s why. If you were a passenger in the plane at the time, the bickering between my stepdad and I would have undoubtedly made you very nervous. “We are coming in nose down.” ‘No we aren’t.’ “yes we are, look at the horizon gage.” ‘The gage is wrong.’ “You better let me take over.” ‘Why? This is fun.’ “I’m taking over before it’s too late.” ‘Whatever.’

And the Bible is not wrong. God has not left his children without a full philosophical statement for life and godliness. It has a self-sustaining power source, and communicates reality through words and their arrangement. God set the standard for epistemology when he created the metaphysical world with words. Feelings don’t interpret reality, words do. Feelings are not our authority; feelings must be brought to the court of law for a hearing and a judgment.

Feelings can invoke thinking and thinking can invoke feelings. It works both ways. A feeling arises, like maybe chest pain, and we think, “I could be having a heart attack.” That thought brings a feeling of fear, and then we think, “I’m going to die.” That might be true, and then again it might not be true. As Christians, we must function by truth. More times than not, worry is a lie. An extremely small amount of what we worry about actually happens. The apostle Paul tells us to bring every thought into captivity and bring it under the authority of Christ. Then we are to “dwell” on what is true.

The world dresses up lies to appeal to our desires. “If it feels good, do it.” Therein, feelings are the authority and not truth. I have noticed in our day that Christians rarely bring pithy truisms into the court of truth. There is simply no mental discernment policeman to arrest the thought and interrogate it. Pithy truisms are designed to stimulate the chemistry of the brain with an entertaining poetic ring. “If it feels good, believe it.” Then, eventually, you will do it. Perhaps the most apt example is Doris Day’s rendition of  Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). Who can watch that video and keep from humming that lie to ourselves throughout the rest of the day?

In all of this, God’s word teaches us an important principle: Christians can change their desires through investment. “Where your treasure is, your heart will be there also” Our treasure needs to be the truth. Paul said to “hate what is evil and cling to what is good.” Can you learn to hate someone or something? Sure you can. You ignore it, and you focus on the truth regarding it. That thing you are thinking of may make you feel good, but what is the truth regarding it? Not investing in it and thinking truthfully about it will eventually change our feelings about it. Often, how we feel about something is the only good thing about it, and that has death written all over it. Right doing leads to right feeling (Philippians 4:9).

Joy does not always walk with obedience at every moment, but it will always show up later, if not sooner.

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