Does God have emotions?

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

God is described as responding to situations with emotional language. While real emotions, God’s emotions are not like ours. He does not respond from sin but with a settled and exacting response. As some examples: He loves, hates, is jealous, is compassionate, and is patient. He also expresses joy, grief, and laughter. God’s emotions do not define Him. Instead, they are His perfect response to a given situation. For example, though one of God’s attributes is perfect love, He is also perfectly holy. When He encounters someone sinning, He burns with anger toward them. However, that does not mean He has changed into an angry God who hates everyone. At the same moment He hates sin, but can also express His perfect love towards a righteous man or woman. He is in perfect control over His emotions and directs them perfectly as the situation necessitates. Jesus, the Son of God, perfectly demonstrated human emotion that rightly reflects God’s emotion. He was sorrowful, angry, and grateful. Note that though God expresses emotion, He does so perfectly and completely consistent with His character. For example, God never changes, is holy, and is just. When God expresses emotion, He never violates who He is and His perfection. Therefore, when we consider His other attributes, we need to understand that His emotion is not like our erratic and sinful emotions, but as perfect, settled, and intentional.

FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

• God expresses real emotion in perfect alignment with His character. He shows love (Jeremiah 31:3), anger (Exodus 32:10; Numbers 11:1; Deuteronomy 9:8), jealousy (Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 4:24), grief (Genesis 6:6), compassion (Judges 2:18; Psalm 135:14), patience (Nehemiah 9:17; Joel 2:13), and laughter (Psalm 2:4; Psalm 37:13). These emotions are always expressed righteously, revealing a God who feels deeply yet acts with holy and unwavering consistency.
• While God does express emotion, it is not like we do. We often describe our emotions as changes in our mood, but God is eternally the same and never changes (Malachi 3:6). God’s emotions are a perfect response to a situation, not the result of some internal change.
• Our emotions are often either prompted by sin or turn into sin. However, God’s emotions never arise from, lead to, or result in sin; they come from His perfect holiness (Isaiah 6:2—3).
• As sinners, we are apt to pervert justice. For example, we might pity someone and, therefore, suppress justice for something they have done. Or we might hate someone, and inflict punishment on them, not because they deserve it but because of our prejudicial sin. God, however, remains perfectly just (Deuteronomy 32:4). God’s emotions never cause Him to pervert justice.
• Because we change and because we sin, we can arbitrarily love and then hate. Conversely, God’s love is never diminished even when He is expressing hatred towards sin because He is love in totality and perfection (Psalm 136:1).
• Despite Israel’s continual rejection, God expressed His love for her in His blessings, presence, and judgment (Jeremiah 31:3).
• Because He is holy, God cannot allow sin; He hates sin (Proverbs 6:16–19). Notice that God does not just hate sin but also those who rebelliously sin. He can do this and still love because His emotions are not like ours.
• After rescuing the Israelites from Egypt, He commanded them, saying, “You shall not worship [idols] or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5). God will jealously condemn spiritual adultery. His jealousy is never unfounded and is a direct response to His people turning their attention away from Him, the true God.
• Speaking about the final, future victory, the LORD expressed joy over His people (Zephaniah 3:17). God takes great joy in righteousness and in destroying wickedness. When God finally ends history and judges sin, He will express Himself in great joy.
• After He created mankind and we rebelled, the earth was full of wickedness. God looked at us and His response was grief (Genesis 6:6).
• Looking down on earth and wicked men attempting to overthrow Him, God can’t help but laugh! “He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord holds them in derision” (Psalm 2:4).
• Though God judges sinners, He can also pity them. “For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants” (Psalm 135:14).

FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

• While eternally God, Jesus added on humanity to become like us (Philippians 2:7–8). Being fully human means that Jesus has the same range of emotions as we have. However, being perfectly righteous without any sin, Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). While He has human emotion, His are perfect reflections of the invisible God’s emotions.
• After Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, died, He went to visit Mary, his sister, and was deeply moved by what was happening (John 11:32—33). Going to the tomb, the simple statement, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) is made. Even though Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43–44), Jesus was so deeply moved with sorrow that He cried.
• When Jesus entered Jerusalem, He found the Jews using His Father’s house as a marketplace. He entered the temple and “began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be a house of prayer,” but you have made it a den of robbers’” (Luke 19:45–46). Jesus was jealous for the glory of His Father and righteously filled with anger against those who profaned His temple.
• In His ministry, Jesus expressed gratitude (Matthew 25:11).
• Peter addressed those who thought that God would never judge. He said, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God has full control over His emotion, holding back His anger so He can show us patience.
• God sent His Son to die for sinful men and women because He loves us (1 John 4:9; c.f., John 3:16). We learn that God loves even those He is angry with. However, we also learn that His love does not override justice. Instead, His love is displayed by providing a just solution so that His wrath can be satisfied while also lovingly forgiving people.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY

When Adam rebelled (Genesis 3), humanity became entirely corrupt, including our emotions. We rarely respond rightly to what is happening around us. When someone sins against us, we sin back by shouting at them. When someone cuts us off the road, we curse them. When we desire someone who doesn’t want us, we obsess over them. When we want a promotion at work, we lie and flatter our boss. In short, it is extremely rare, if ever, that our emotions are righteous responses to what is happening around us. Instead, at some level, our emotions are self-focused and self-serving.

God’s emotions, on the other hand, are always perfect. God responds to each situation with the perfect amount of anger, love, mercy, hatred, sorrow, and so forth as the situation dictates.

Jesus is the perfect example of this and the perfect example about how we can glorify God with our emotions. Being fully human, He was a man acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3) being persecuted (John 15:20), hunted (John 11:53–54), and crucified (Luke 23:33). Yet, He never once reviled in return. In humility, He accepted what the Father had set before Him.

We must strive to conform our emotions to Jesus’ example. While God gives us many joys in this life, He also gives hard things. We need to remember that everything happens because God permits it, even our suffering (James 1:2–4). Regardless of whether it’s joy or pain, He is working out everything for our ultimate good because we love Him (Romans 8:28). God intends to make us exactly like Jesus (Romans 8:29), right down to our emotions.

UNDERSTAND

• God has emotions, but unlike human emotions, His are perfect, controlled, and consistent with His holy character.
• God expresses a wide range of emotions but never in a sinful or unstable way.
• We are called to conform our emotions to Jesus’ example.

REFLECT

• When you experience strong emotions like anger or grief, how do you respond—and how might your response change if you remembered that God always responds perfectly?
• How do you struggle to control your emotions, and how could looking at Jesus’ emotional life guide you toward the way you use and respond to your emotions?
• How does knowing that God grieves, rejoices, and feels compassion personally impact the way you relate to Him?

ENGAGE

• How does understanding that God's emotions are perfect challenge or correct common ideas about Him being distant or overly harsh?
• How do our culture's views of emotion differ from how God displays emotion, and what can we learn from that contrast?
• How can we encourage one another to express emotion in ways that reflect God's character rather than react based on our own sin or brokenness?