‘”And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them.” Acts 16:25

 “And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad.” Genesis 40:6

There were two good (Christian) prisoners in one prison with good feelings, and there were two bad (heathen) prisoners in another prison with bad feelings. There are but two kinds of feelings, good or bad. Modern thinking likes to teach that feelings are neither automatically good nor automatically bad: they are neutral, neither good nor bad. “What makes them good or bad is how we handle them.” This puts the emotions in a sort of limbo where they are neither bad enough to be condemned nor good enough to be approved. But this line of reasoning is without the support of scripture. The chief priests were glad when Judas went to them with the purpose of betraying Jesus. Mk. 14:11. Herod, too, was glad to hear John the Baptist preach. Mk. 6:20. He was also glad to see and meet Jesus. Lk. 23:8. But the emotion of gladness in these wicked men was surely bad. It was produced by wicked motives. On the other hand, we read that Nehemiah was sad (Neh. 2:1), and with good reason, for the cause of it was that Jerusalem lay in ruins. Also the disciples on the road to Emmaus were sad, and with good reason, for they had not yet heard the good news of Christ’s resurrection. Lk. 24:17. The emotion of sadness in these righteous men was good, for it was caused by mourning over Zion’s low estate.

Just think of how Paul and Silas must have felt! They had been seized by the agents of a demoniac fortune teller, were charged with out-troubling trouble, were opposed by a mob, suffered the shame of having their clothing ripped off by the rulers, then when rendered naked were caned with many stinging blows and thrown into prison. There they had their feet clamped in the wood of a huge log, used both to prevent escape and to punish. Not a very comfortable bodily position, was it? Their backs beaten, bruised and bloody, too! Further, they must have been nearly exhausted. It was the middle of the night! What were they doing, moaning and groaning? We could hardly blame them, if they were. But no, what they were actually doing was: “praying, they hymned God!’’ They were not doing two distinct things, but performed a single act of worship. They were praying by singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, such as found in David’s Psalter. Imagine such feelings! They, praying, hymned the true God! Their voices thrilled with the theme song of the church of Old and New Testaments: Blessed is God!

It was Tertullian who said, “The limb in the stocks feels nothing when the mind is in heaven.’’ In pain and wretchedness, they turned to God in prayer, yet their praying was singing. They sang a prayer for deliverance according to the counsel of His will. Their singing prayer was for strength to bear their affliction, for the furtherance of the gospel and the salvation of God’s people. What glorious, sublime feelings well up in the hearts of those whose minds are full of the gospel of Christ! They must have sung songs like these:

Loose the pris’ner, save the dying,

All Thy enemies restrain;

Then Thy flock, Thy chosen people,

Unto Thee their souls shall raise,

Be Thou my help when troubles throng,

For I am weak and foes are strong;

My captive soul from prison bring,

And thankful praises I will sing.

—No. 387, 5

Afflictions on the good must fall,

But God will bring them safe thru all;

From harmful stroke He will defend And sure and full deliverance send.

—No. 91, 3

In my distress I called on God;

In grace He answered me,

Removed my bonds, enlarged my place,

From trouble set me free!

—No. 317, 1

Who look to Him shall walk in light,

With joy their faces shall be bright, distressed they cried; the Lord arose And saved them out of all their woes.

—No. 90, 3

Now think of the butler and baker in that other prison. They looked sorrowful, dejected and uneasy. Sad they were because, being royal servants of high position in luxurious and lucrative surroundings, living richly and merrily, they ever expected being shortly released and restored, when an unsettling change occurred. They both had dreams which they sensed had portent of things to come. This worried them, for they were anxious as to whether they predicted good or bad luck. Their concern was not entirely free of superstition and was quite self-centered. Their outlook could not be God-centered, for before they had met Joseph they had known nothing of the true God. They were feeling-oriented. Joseph was God-oriented. That is why they were where they were, and why Joseph was soon found where he was, next to the king. As Pharaoh’s servants they knew they could not always have their own way. This was even truer in prison. Yet this did not prevent their always wanting their own way. For they were also desire-oriented. Joseph was commandment- oriented. His constant consideration was, What does God command me? These Egyptian prisoners’ always thought, What do they want? Thought of suffering was unbearable with their minds ever set on their pleasures, importance and opulence which they felt was their due. Joseph knew that the sufferings of this present time were not worthy to be compared to the eternal pleasures that would be his through constant faithfulness and steadfastness.

So there are two ways of life: one which is a feeling-motivated life of sin, oriented toward self, and another, a commandment-oriented life of holiness directed toward God. According to the former, modern advice urges people, “not to try to solve problems, but to discuss feelings.’’ The thought behind this plausible procedure is, “Feelings are neither right nor wrong; they just are.” Accordingly, you will likely be asked, “How do you feel?” But instructed Christians are thinking-oriented, rather than feeling-oriented, so that a much more meaningful approach would be, “What do you think?” How often we hear, “I feel blue”. “I feel sick”. “I feel good”. Or, “You got me feeling so upset with that nasty remark of yours”; “I felt like two cents”; “I felt like a fool”. Better it would be to approach the other person with the suggestion, “Could we sit down and calmly discuss together a problem and complaint I have?’’ and not ask, “What do you feel we should do about it?” It is always better to say, “May I share an idea, or an opinion, rather than merely to emote?”

The saints in the Philippian jail had a problem. They were in prison. What to do about it? They did not adopt the dubious method of dwelling on and indulging in their feelings rather than to labor to solve the problem. Such a procedure we call a “cop-out,” a sinking into a depressing avoidance pattern. Rather, they boldly faced the problem, and in prayer turned it all over to the great problem-solver, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was uppermost in their minds. Acts 16:31. They paid little attention to the fluctuating feelings they might have dwelt on. In fact, they were above such feelings as rage, resentment, bitterness and self-pity. So set your mind not on feelings, but on the problem to be solved. If the problem is, I’m not doing too well at school, then “get cracking” in your studies which the Lord has appointed you in your responsibility as a student, whether you feel like it or not\ You say, I feel so dumb! What you mean is, I’m stupid! Stupidity is not an emotion, but a problem. You may adjudge yourself, or conclude that you are stupid. The thing to do is to discuss with your teacher why you make this negative judgment, and what are the reasons for this conclusion. Then you are on the way to solving, not feelings, but the problem of stupidity. The responsible student, who conscientiously keeps up in his studies, is assidous in all his school life, does not “feel stupid.” At the end of a school day he may pray his prayers in a certain sense of satisfaction, so that he won’t be saying as he hops into bed, Wow! I feel guilty!

It is not a Reformed method to “express your feelings,” or to “get in touch with them by having your head listen to your heart.” What if your heart is not right? See Jer. 17:9- See also Ezek. 36:26 on how the heart that is not right may be made right. As for “feelings,” the Bible does not know the word. Take your concordance and look up the word “mind” (and related words). That emphasis will be far more beneficial to you. It’s wrong to propose: “Talk out your feelings with the person who bugs you so as to resolve them.” What you want to do is resolve your problem. All bad feelings are sins, ought to be faced as sins, called sins, confessed as sins and recognized as stemming from bad behavior, especially from disobedience. See Ephes. 4:26-31; 5:3-6. This being so it would be wrong to follow the directive: “Share your bad feelings with calm assertiveness as they occur.”  For first of all, this is rather childish, and means, e.g., I don’tknow how to deal with my habit (problem) of foolish talking and jesting. Help! In the second place, it is ridiculous to “share’’ one’s sin. That would only spread the sin. No, rather confess it (to any person offended and to God, asking their forgiveness, Eph. 4:32), put it away, then begin to practice what the Word of God teaches. Eph. 4:22, 24.

The feeling-oriented, not the commandment-oriented, stand in such a shaky position as to lose all they have of the Christian Faith. For feelings change, and bad feelings degenerate, become worse, deteriorating to the point where no more desire for the truth remains. This happened to Charles Darwin, of evolution’s “Origin of Species” fame. At about age thirty his higher emotional tastes began to shrivel, so that he lost his former love for poetry, art and music. His mind increasingly developed a decline toward one type of thinking, rather mechanically, in the direction of a naturalistic humanistic philosophy. He himself admitted this was harmful to his intellect (mind) and wilting and rotting to his emotional nature. He confessed, too, that this was at the root of his eventual drift away (Heb. 2:1,) from all religion.

Then do not wait until you “feel better and others respond to you more positively.” This is not only feeling but self-orientation. We must be God-oriented, as the gospel demands of us (Matt. 6:33); then we will set about to do better, right away. (Mark’s – the gospel writer’s favorite word, straightway, anon, forthwith, i.e., immediately, 1:16-17;2:11-12). We feel better only in doing better. The emotional nature of the Christian is purified and exalted in the sanctified affections of love, joy, peace and happiness as a result of walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. In the blessed light of the glorious gospel of Christ (II Cor. 4:4) is the infallible cure for all our perplexities and ills. Shining in our hearts (v. 6), it fills us with all joy and peace in believing (Rom. 15:13). It all boils down to this: Feeling good depends on doing well. “He that kept the Law, happy is he” (Prov. 29:18).