No, feelings are not evil. Emotions were created by God when He created man. Love, joy, passion, fear, anger, hatred - the Creator gave us the capacity to experience them all, and none of them are inherently bad. In fact they are good and helpful in proper doses. 
 
However. 
 
The devil has turned our emotions against us. Paul said we we must not be ignorant of Satan's devices, lest he should take advantage of us (2 Cor. 2:11). Satan knows just how to wrench us toward sin using our feelings for his purposes. Jeremiah confirms this when he said: "The heart is deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9). The devil has turned the manipulation of man's heart into an art form. He can nudge your attraction to physical beauty into raging lust without you ever seeing it coming (Matt. 5:27-28). He knows just how to pique your anger and shove it over the edge toward blind hatred (Matt. 5:21-22; Eph. 4:26). 
 
We are not helpless, mind you. Please, never make the mistake of thinking humans are like helpless putty in the hands of the devil. No, sir! The devil CAN be resisted, he MUST be resisted (James 4:7). The control of our emotions was never put in the devil's hands by God. Self-comtrol is our purview. Yet, unfortunately, humans all too often cede control of their emotions to the evil one. 
 
We want to FEEL without thought. 
 
We want to DESIRE without restraint. 
 
We want to LUST without self-control. 
 
And we absolutely love to be deliciously ANGRY without restraint or accountability. 
 
Simply put, we abandon all reason and common sense in favor of our wants. 
 
We sin because we want things that can only supplied by sin (James 4:1-3). Samson, the big, strong, lug, showed us the danger. His parents could not convince him that the Philistine woman was bad news. They urged him to think and to remember that he had better choices for a wife among his own people. But, all Samson could think was: "Get her for me, for she pleases me well" (Judges 14:1-3). 
 
How many young people, with the mindset of Samson, have sprinted into tragically bad marriages with rotten people? They could not be bothered with advice. The fears of their parents could not have concerned them less. All they "knew" was that this person "is right for me." He/she "is the one." Then, maybe a month into the ill-advised union, the young man or the young woman looks across the breakfast table at their dumpster fire of a mate (for life - Matt. 19:6), and wonders, "What was I thinking? Why didn't someone warn me?" 
 
In my mind's eye, imagine the devil listening to these agonized words with a wicked grin on his face. He chuckles at his own shrewdness as he puts his wrenches back in his toolbox, to be used again and again. 
 
"Humans are so easy," he thinks. 
 
And he is unfortunately correct. The devil is expert in stalking and deceiving his prey (1 Pet. 5:8), and his prey is far too careless. Too few have genuinely given their hearts to the Lord (Mark 12:30). Too few love God's law and treasure it in their hearts so that they might not sin against God (Psalm 119:11, 97). The devil is vigilent. He never rests. He stalks us daily, ready to punce and make mincemeat your unguarded heart. 
 
Don't give the devil an inch, brethren! Love God not love the world (1 Jn. 2:15). Don't let your emotions rule you. Surrender to the King and His rule over your heart.

 

David Weaks