Biblical EQ Notes

  • Biblical EQ by John Edmiston is a Christian handbook for emotional transformation.
  • It addresses questions about emotions, their control, importance to God, and origins.
  • The book aims to provide answers from a biblical, Christ-centered perspective.
  • Biblical EQ emphasizes ongoing emotional growth and maturity, not just fixing problems.
  • It is a fitness manual for emotional strength and health, not a diagnostic tool.
  • The book equips Christians, particularly those in ministry, to understand and express emotions wisely.
  • It rebuilds the Christian's understanding of emotional life from the ground up.
  • Part 1 focuses on Jesus as the model, providing biblical theology of emotions and emphasizing the Holy Spirit's role.
    • The ideal Christian has powerful, holy emotions expressed appropriately for God's glory.
  • Part 2 explores the inner self and emotional world, examining how emotions arise in the spirit, soul, and body.
    • It aims to provide a deep understanding of self and others, founded on literal scriptural treatment.
    • The inner self is seen as constantly being renewed through cooperation with God.
  • Part 3 provides practical techniques for emotional self-mastery and expression, drawing on Proverbs-like wisdom.
    • Focus is on self-mastery, emotional regulation, understanding others' emotions, and expressing emotions in love.
    • It emphasizes the importance of fixing minds on Christ and mastering personal responses to facilitate God's work through faith and love.
  • The book includes references for further reading, a teacher's guide, and an exhaustive index.
  • A seminar manual is available separately.
  • Part 1: Jesus as Our Model
    • Sets the biblical basis, looking at Jesus' emotional life and developing a model for redeeming our emotions to mirror His.
    • Explores the Holy Spirit's role in Jesus' emotions and proposes a five-step model for godly emotions.
    • Tests the model by examining the emotional lives of apostles, prophets, and carnal Christians.
  • Chapter: Commencing the Journey
    • Good emotional management is essential for Christian work to avoid marring relationships and service.
    • Secular materials lack the Holy Spirit's resources, and good Christian resources combining biblical insights with clinical data are scarce.
    • This book aims to fill that gap, centering on Jesus and His emotional life as a model, with the Holy Spirit as the main power behind transformation.
    • Incorporates compatible tips and data from secular authors.
    • It looks at how emotions arise in our spirit and soul and are influenced by our body and how our inner emotional life is formed.
    • Practical section looks at our experience and understanding of emotions and how they should be best expressed.
    • EQ(Emotional Quotient) is defined as emotional intelligence is a complex set of human abilities related to emotional management.
    • Emotional identification, perception and expression.
    • Emotional facilitation of thought.
    • Emotional understanding
    • Emotional management
    • Biblical EQ adds transforming power of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of Proverbs to those four key skill areas.
    • Biblical EQ’s model is the emotional life of Jesus Christ with His personal presence, self- control, emotional expressiveness and discernment of situations offering a clear pattern to analyze theories and determine truth from falsehood, wisdom from folly.
  • Secular models lack direction and an ideal person, leading to confusion and varying practices.
  • Secular EQ models rely on a medical/neurological framework, potentially depersonalizing individuals and diminishing human responsibility.
  • Secular EQ marginalizes prayer and spiritual disciplines despite their demonstrated utility.
  • The book aims to provide both relationship aspects and specific, focused wisdom and knowledge for biblical EQ.
  • Secular models lack a clear destination and sufficient power for transformation.
  • The book's central premise is that Christians can have their emotional lives redeemed to mirror Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit's power and grace as the key.
  • This involves renewing key aspects:
    1. Perceptions of reality
    2. Individual belief system
    3. Purposes and intents of the heart
    4. Physical bodies and their influence on emotions
    5. Awareness and understanding of emotions
    6. Understanding of others' emotions
    7. Ability to appropriately express emotion
  • Renewing perspective and core beliefs is essential for lasting emotional changes.
  • Chapter: Common Questions About Emotions
    • Mature saints are free from unholy emotions and full of love, joy, and peace.
    • Emotions can be broken down into three classes:
    • Holy emotions: experienced by God (compassion, joy, holy indignation) and accompanying life in the Spirit (praise, worship).
    • Human emotions: based in our human situation (grief, pain, fear, sorrow, anxiety).
    • Fleshly emotions: poisonous and destructive (malice, envy, sensuality, bitterness).
    • This classification helps us see the relative value of our emotional responses and to use the techniques described in the succeeding chapters to assist with our sanctification.
    • Holy emotions are derived from the kingdom of light and the Sprit agreeing with true wisdom.
    • All emotions are not equal; many are of higher value than others and some are positively wrong.
    • Human emotions (pain, frustration) are valid but temporary, not evil or toxic.
    • Fleshly emotions (malice, envy) are poisonous, destructive, and lead to spiritual death.
    • Focus is on participating in holy emotions to transcend human emotions and overcome fleshly emotions.
    • The Holy Spirit aids in holy responses, comforts during human emotions, and wars against fleshly emotions.
    • Setting the mind on the Spirit leads to life and peace, while setting it on the flesh leads to death.
  • Christians may stop changing emotionally due to defense mechanisms, lack of understanding, and taking emotions too seriously.
  • Right affections and emotions form the basis for right morality; emotions should align with ethics and Scripture.
  • What we like and dislike shapes our life; emotional attitude affects our success and future.
  • Right emotions are vital for character, ethics, choices, and destiny.
  • Emotions reflect what we value; confused emotions destabilize, and evil emotions drive sin.
  • Biblical EQ requires getting our heart in line with our faith and God, with Jesus as our model.
  • Jesus Christ is An Appropriate Model For Emotional Maturity despite potential objections:
    • The standard is too high: those in Christ are already seated in heavenly realms, it’s a gracious growing not terrifying ascent.
    • Solution: He was God and that's cheating: He was also fully human being tempted in every point as we are and still retains that humanity in Heaven as our faithful high priest.
    • The cultural details of Jesus life are scant. God seems to have mainly preserved only those details about Jesus that are relevant for all places and times.
    • Each of the EQ skills that Jesus displayed is written into Scripture for our instruction
    • Solution: Jesus had a totally different spiritual gifting. I could never be as assertive, confident or confrontational as He comes across as in the gospel narratives: becoming like Jesus is not about becoming a clone of a prophet but is a unique journey of self-discovery.
    • Each of them are Christ- like
    • There is almost a trick to this. If I imitate another human e.g. Billy Graham, I end up not being myself in the end yet if I imitate Jesus the reverse happens – I find myself.
    • Jesus was tactless and His