Hi all,
A person reasoning with emotions believes what they feel is truth, even if physical and logical evidence say what they feel is not true. They believe what their feelings tell them above everything else.
They will also insist others and life itself bend to what they feel – and anything and anyone that is contrary to how they feel in their emotional reasoning, is eliminated. Here are some examples.
Bringing it home…real life emotional reasoning examples
A spouse can’t resist believing their mate is being unfaithful, reading into everything said or done as emotional proof they must be seeing someone else, though there is in fact no physical evidence nor relationship evidence it is true.
You feel lonely so you conclude you are not worth loving, so no one cares for you.
You think your new romantic interest is perfect in every way, so much so you cannot see they are a flawed human like you – You feel good about them and all you see is the good and ‘fall in love’ because you feel ‘high’ about them, explaining away their flaws or thinking you will change them.
You are angry at a person but can’t explain why you feel angry towards them, or your reasons for being angry with them are petty but blown out of proportion – you feel they did something bad enough to make you justifiably angry.
You feel stupid though the evidence of your life shows you are ‘about even’ with others, unable to dismiss your mistakes in life that everyone makes, and decisions we all would do differently in hindsight. But you still feel stupid.
You focus on the negative that happened in the day and can see nothing but that, it fills your emotions and thoughts. Your day, your event was ruined because of that 1 negative.
You have such a high standard of expectations that everything is either perfect or they are ruined. You see things only right or wrong, good or bad.
Everyone and everything is right or wrong, without any ability to see more complex issues or other factors in why someone said or did something. If they are wrong, they are eliminated from your circle of friends or contacts. You don’t like them because all you see is their imperfections. You feel their imperfections are dangerous to you.
You don’t listen well, but emotionally grab hold of what a person is saying part way through a statement, and immediately form a rebuttal or attack on that, rather than listening to the whole sentence or line of thought. (Even if you sit silently as they talk, you aren’t listening, but rather forming your argument based on their earlier half sentence you grabbed hold of). Then, when you attack or rebut, they say ‘that’s not what I said’, and are right – but you stopped listening half way through the first thing said you think you didn’t agree with.
A person who feels life isn’t fair because they apply their standard of what is fair to every person and every event in life. If what happens differs from what they think is fair they feel resentment and anger. An example would be a person feels they deserve a bigger raise but the boss doesn’t allow it. Or with their spouse: They want a better car or better furniture or a Country Club membership, or a more expensive vacation, but their spouse insists on spending only what they can afford. This is also the person who binge shops or eats, because they feel they deserve ‘it’ because something elsewhere in life has been unfair to them.
You blame others for your emotional pain, like a spouse or friend. Have you thought or said: ‘Stop making me feel bad about myself’. Truly no one can make you feel bad about yourself, that is your issue – but you blame others.
You must be right in any argument or discussion. You bend people to what you want – the boyfriend who the girlfriend coerces or manipulates to get them to dress or act like they want, for example. Being right and getting your way is more important than the higher peace in the relationship. There is no peace unless the other person bends to your will. This person reasons by emotions and there is no winning against that, for if they feel they are right, then they are right and their friend or spouse or pastor or coworker or boss is wrong.
Let’s take some imaginations captive, shall we?
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God; bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
The Greek word translated ‘imaginations’ is ‘logismos’, and it means the ‘core reasoning that reflects someone’s values, how they assign value to determine what they find to be reasonable.’ Logismos emphasizes determining an opinion. In short, an imagining and connected emotion of what we think is right or proper or should be.
Castle walls
“Every high thing: is the Greek word ‘hupsoma’, and means a ‘high wall, tall barrier, rampart’ (like a castle wall) . In other words, our emotional reasoning and opinions formed from those emotions act as the wall of a castle, preventing Christ’s thoughts and ways from influencing us away from our emotions and imaginations.
We build the walls because we make decisions and form opinions based on (wrong) emotions, rather than reasoning.
The only solution is emotional discipline.
Bringing emotions “captive” to obedience. The Greek word ‘captive’ is ‘aichmalatos’, with the word ‘aichma’ meaning ‘spear’. This word means taken captive by spearpoint – take thoughts captive as a prisoner of war is the exact metaphor Paul uses, for in that day prisoners were taken captive at the point of a spear. That is what we must do with our ‘core values by which we assign meaning’.
When first attempting this it is usually very difficult because the emotional reasoning person has been doing it their whole lives, and no one but Jesus has ever gotten them to examine themselves.
More literally then: “Pull down your opinions which erect themselves as castle walls against what we know of Christ’s ways and thoughts. Take every emotion and thought and purpose captive at spear point like a prisoner of war and make it submit to what it has heard (of Jesus), and be ready to avenge within yourself any disobedience we find (within our emotional reasoning and thinking (and feelings).” (II Corinthians 10: 5-6)
How a person delivers themselves from emotional reasoning is next week, concluding the series then. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
