Christianity is not reserved for the intellectually elite, nor is it reserved for the emotional “fired up for Jesus” type. One of the many beauties of the Christian faith is the way in which it blends these two elements together. At its heart, the Bible is a book of knowledge. It is intended to teach us about God, that we might come to know Him. However, it doesn’t stop there. In fact, if your Christianity does stop there then I would question whether you are truly a Christian at all. True knowledge – true faith – leads to love for God and people. It is a life full of deep emotion.

The Bible truly is sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces both the hearts of the most intellectual and the most emotional among us, convicting each of their own pitfalls.

Knowledge

Let me make this as clear as I possibly can: If you have no knowledge, no conviction, and no certainty regarding the doctrines of the Christian faith, you do not have a proper understanding of Christianity, nor do you have a healthy relationship with the God whom you claim to love. I could use the common example of a man who claims to love his wife, yet does not know anything about her. This is anything but true love. Helpful though this example is, the most effective argument always comes from God Himself. So let us turn to Scripture, which makes this point rather bluntly.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1:7, emphasis mine). Scripture clearly states that only an idiot despises knowledge, wisdom, and instruction. These things, built solely upon the fear of the Lord, are at the core of the Christian faith. In fact, the teaching of sound doctrine is one of the primary charges that Paul leaves with the young pastor Timothy.

“Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort; with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:2-4). Paul warns Timothy of a coming danger: people will soon seek the fulfillment of their “itching ears” and worldly “passions” over the truth of the gospel. Here, then, the intellectual Christian finds his peace. We must understand the doctrines of the faith rightly, for in this comes salvation and sanctification.

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“Uncertainty in light of our human limitations is a virtue. Uncertainty in light of God’s Word is not.” – Kevin DeYoung

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Emotion

If you’re anything like me, you did a lot of yes-ing and amen-ing during that first section. You love to read and to learn and to think deeply about complicated theological doctrines. That is a great gift to have. We need men and women who are passionate about the finer points of doctrine.

There is, however, another group of people out there. These are the people who raise their hands of even….*gulp*….dance during worship. They might cry during the slightest semblance of a sad story or give a hearty “Amen!” at a fairly mundane point in the sermon. Those of us in the “knowledge” side of things might have a tendency to cringe when we see this. We are frustrated because either a) These Christians have poor theology that is potentially dangerous and heretical or b) The emotion overshadows the fact that we serve a God of order. Both of these are pitfalls of which we need to be aware (particularly the first), but let us not forget that David danced publicly in the streets when the Ark, Israel’s symbol for God’s presence, returned to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6).

Christianity is supposed to be a life of love and emotion, not merely dogmas and catechisms. Christians should be joyful and loving and weepy and passionate. If we truly believe the truths that we preach, these things should naturally flow into our lives.

God has saved us from our sin: Sing with joy! God has loved you even in your worst moments: so love others! God’s own image bearers suffer and die: so weep! The gospel has changed everything about your life! If that doesn’t infuse you with passion, what will?

Yes, dear Christian, you were made to be an emotional creature. If everything that the Bible teaches is true, how can we not be?

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“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”
– 1 Cor. 8:1-3

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Conclusion

The gospel message shows no partiality. Just as it reaches people from every different nation on earth, so too it reaches those from every different personality type. More than that, the Church needs those from across the personality spectrum in order to flourish. We need one another.

Let me be clear: there are Pharisaical jerks and theologically destitute fools on the crazy extremes of both groups. We should be faithful to weed those people out, or better yet plead with them through Scripture to turn from their idolatry and believe in the gospel. Many of us, though, fall within the realm of what we would consider orthodox. We simply have some differences in personality.

The appeal of Christianity so often lies in how its truths compliment one another. We do not have to choose between knowledge and emotion, for Scripture calls us to both. Knowledge and emotion work together. If you are the smartest theologian on the block but do not love God and others with all your heart, you fall short of God’s desire for your life. Similarly, if you love God and and people with tears in your eyes, but do not know the true God then you are missing the gospel.

Emotion flows out of true knowledge. That is how God designed the Christian life to be. So let those of us who tend to be more intellectual push those on the emotional side to understand rightly the great doctrines of the faith, even those that are hard. Conversely, let those of us who tend to be more emotional in our walk with Christ push those of us on the intellectual side to daily increase in our passion and love for the Lord and His people.

This is how the Church was designed: to exhort one another, spurring us on ever closer to the character of Christ (1 Thess. 5:11).

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“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” – Colossians 3:16

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Ben White