Do you like the title of this lesson? Does it contradict what we studied shortly before? Let us examine it.
It would be completely wrong to claim that agape love is feelings and emotions. Such a position does not correspond to truth. It can be refuted very easily by understanding where love comes from and how it acts. Yet excluding feelings and emotions from the manifestations of love is also an extreme position held by people who do not understand what agape is.
The development of a Christlike character is the most important task God has placed before a human being, and character is the combination of thoughts and feelings. My thoughts form my desires and motives, while feelings give me an understanding of how right my thoughts will be when expressed in words and deeds, and what influence they will exert upon me and those around me.
My emotions give the proper coloring to everything I say and do. They adorn everything that proceeds from my heart. If emotions are removed from life, all my love will become a dry and lifeless principle that each person will understand according to the measure of the corruption of their own heart. Indifference will never adorn my love.
It is difficult to determine my true motives without hearing me and knowing me personally. Even the best deed can prove very bad if someone discovers the true motive I placed within it. And the reverse is also true.
Let us consider an example. There is a program for electronically reading books. You enter the text, press a button, and listen to a robot. It reads everything very correctly and without significant mistakes, but also without expression. I receive bare information and dry facts. The book has been heard, but I must imagine and supplement it with my own feelings and emotions. However, if the same book is read by a professional narrator, that person can give the words such emotional coloring and express the author’s feelings so clearly that I will understand many things precisely in the light of these revealed emotions and feelings.
Sometimes when reading the Bible, I place into one statement or another what I consider correct. For example, everyone may hear and understand the expression “Call unto Me...” in whatever way they desire. To one person it sounds like a commandment, to another it is a request, to someone else these words appear to be an order, to another a piece of counsel, while another person places nothing at all into this statement. In writing, it is very difficult and sometimes impossible to express the author’s thought with complete precision. This is why so many interpretations arise. But when we know the author of a letter and the author’s emotional condition, we can very easily see everything in the proper light.
It is written that Jesus shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. What is satisfaction? It is an emotional expression of joy and love. Can you imagine the gloomy face of a satisfied person? It is difficult. What about the gloomy face of a satisfied Christ? I believe the prophet saw a very broad smile and a joyful gaze.
Love knows how to express itself through feelings and emotions. It is interwoven so harmoniously with these manifestations of the human soul that when love proceeds from a heart filled with it and incorporates a person’s emotional capacities, it communicates that person’s feelings so clearly that sometimes everything becomes understandable without many explanations. People even say that a kind word is pleasant even to a cat.
Affection, tenderness, compassion, mercy, lovingkindness, friendliness, kindness, and goodness—all these are impossible to imagine without the corresponding emotional content.
Feelings and emotions are God’s gift to all creation. As I observe the animal world, I see a vivid manifestation of these qualities in many representatives of various species. Consider a dog, for example. It is a very clear example of the harmonious combination of emotions and feelings.
If we turn our attention to the most perfect creation—a woman—we can see within her the fullness of emotional beauty and the distinctive qualities of feeling. Considering that woman was created in the image and likeness of God, we come to understand that the same qualities of soul that overflow women are not foreign to God.
Men also possess emotions and feelings, but they are much more restrained in expressing them.
Love adorns itself with the emotional qualities of the soul and gives special meaning to its manifestations when it strengthens the power of its influence through human feelings. This voice of the soul is heard. The heart responds precisely to what has been placed within love and its expression. Yet love remains a profound principle founded upon the Divine foundation of holiness and truth. It does not contradict God’s statutes and laws but exists in complete harmony with them, reflecting the beauty of God’s character through human expression.
Love is sufficiently restrained to express feelings and emotions vividly. It does not create the illusion of a sensation or produce emotional shocks, but confidently accomplishes what it is directed toward and desires to attain. Its final goal is the human heart. Love strives precisely toward it. It desires to possess the heart completely and through it give itself to other souls.
My feelings express my inner world, my worldview, and my assessment of various events and experiences. The absence of feelings can be compared to an illness that needs treatment.
Emotions are my assessment of what is taking place within and outside me. They are a reaction to various processes and events in my life. The absence of emotions may be called indifference.
Love knows how to express a person’s feelings and emotions correctly and, through these qualities of the soul, adorn its influence by presenting Divine principles in language understandable to a human being.
Agape love is also feelings and emotions. It knows how to present itself correctly and never remains indifferent to what is happening. A person should not neglect these qualities when expressing love toward people.
Nevertheless, we must be extremely careful not to rely upon feelings and emotions. They are a very unreliable foundation upon which relationships should not be built.
Please read Hebrews 5:13–14; Philippians 1:8–11; and 2:5. What did you understand from this lesson? Read Galatians 5:22–23 and explain which of the qualities listed there can combine beautifully with feelings and emotions. Can feelings be the principal indicator of love? What will love look like without the expression of feelings? Is bland food with the taste of soap pleasant to eat? Can love without feelings have the same taste? What will a person become without feelings and emotions?