đ This essay was originally published on Deep Spirituality. Read the original here.
One of the most profound experiences Iâve had was reading Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. When it was published in 1995, it upended our cultureâs tendency to overemphasize IQ, undervalue gifts that arenât intellectual, and ignore emotional insight.
For me, the book opened a door. It helped me understand my emotional numbness, suppression, and immaturity. Goleman broke through and made it okay to talk about emotionâat home, in school, at work, and beyond. Suddenly, those of us who were emotionally unaware or afraid had a path forward.
Over the years, Iâve recommended the book to many peopleâyet most of them never finish it. That always puzzled me. But eventually, I realized why: trying to overcome emotional limitations with insight alone is too much. People resonate with what Goleman teaches and might discover helpful insights about themselves, but they often donât have the power to live it out.
And thatâs where I believe his book stops just short of the deeper truth: we need spiritual power.
Great spiritual teachers, like Buddha and Jesus, have touched their disciplesâ hearts by speaking in the language of emotion, teaching in parables, fables, and stories. Indeed, religious symbol and ritual makes little sense from the rational point of view; it is couched in the vernacular of the heart.
Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence
Goleman writes about Jesus and gets close to the truth. He describes Jesus as emotionally effective, but Jesus was more than that. Jesus was also spiritually real and powerful.
Jesus didnât just speak the language of the heartâhe transformed it. He didnât just help people understand emotion; he gave them the power to become new people through the Holy Spirit.
How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
Galatians 3:3 NLT
Emotional intelligence opens the door to change. But without the Spirit, most people canât walk through it. Only those who walk with God the way Jesus did will step beyond emotional intelligence into a powerful and transformative life. Thatâs why the spiritual intelligence of Jesus must be taught, understood, and imitated if we want total transformation. Without it, we will rely on humanistic strength, grinding and striving to become someone better by our own effort.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Galatians 5:22-23 NLT
Transformation doesnât come by trying harderâit comes from being connected with God. This is what produces qualities like love, joy, kindness, and strength in our lives and relationships. In todayâs edition of The Chemistry Lab, we will discover how these qualities can become limitless in our lives, not through self-reliance, but through the Spirit who makes it possible.
Notebooks open. Letâs see what we can learn today.
The Weekly Experiment
A hands-on reflection and action guide designed to turn insights into growth.
If spiritual intelligence is the missing ingredient in our emotional growth, then we need to learn how Jesus lived it. What does it look like to follow his pattern?
First, we have to recover the real Jesus.
Because for too long, religious tradition has bled him dryâextracting his intensity, his tenacity, and his dangerous loveâleaving behind a lifeless symbol. Theyâve robbed us of the revolutionary who walked with outcasts and confronted power, substituting him with a harmless institutionalized figure who confronted no one and changed nothing. What theyâve stolen isnât just his edgeâitâs his heartbeat and his breath. Itâs his capacity to shatter comfortable lies and awaken sleeping souls.
Theyâve made him seem unreachable in an effort to depict sinlessness, detached in an effort to make him appear supernatural, and turned his humanity into a costume instead of reality.
But Jesus wasnât a symbol. He was a man. He was a carpenter. He was built for storms and suffering. He was tough enough to face demons and tender enough to touch lepers. He was spiritually intelligent enough to read a roomâand a soulâwithout saying a word.
When I try to grasp that presence, I often look to movie characters who show me glimpses of it. I see the spiritual steadiness of Jesus in Obi-Wan Kenobi. I see the focused intensity of Jesus in Jason Bourne. I see the mission-driven courage of Jesus in Mission Impossibleâs Ethan Hunt. I see the relentless empathy of Jesus in Robin Williamâs portrayal of Patch Adams.
But even these charactersâas incredible and even superhuman as they areâfall short.
To me, Jesus was a spiritual scientistâa people scientistâwho unearthed the mysteries of the human soul the way Newton revealed gravity and Einstein revolutionized our understanding of reality itself.
As a people scientist, he didnât just understand emotions; he transformed them. He didnât just observe people; he discovered them. And what he discovered wasnât weakness to be fixed but potential to be awakened.
Thatâs the Jesus we follow. And thatâs the pattern weâre called to practice.
We can become spiritual and powerful people scientists like Jesus was. Hereâs what he did, and, if we are bold enough to experiment, what we can do too:
1. Open your eyes
âMy food,â said Jesus, âis to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. [35] Donât you have a saying, âItâs still four months until harvestâ? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
John 4:34-35 NIV
People scientists like Jesus pay attention to the people around them. They open their eyes to notice others, but they donât make superficial judgments. They stop, listen, and learn. People scientists make it their lifeâs work to study and understand those around themâtheir needs, interests, dreams, passions, weaknesses, and strengthsâwith a deep and loving curiosity.
2. Act with compassion
Whenever crowds came to Him, He had compassion for them because they were so deeply distraught, malaised, and heart-broken. They seemed to Him like lost sheep without a shepherd. [37] Jesus understood what an awesome task was before Him, so He said to His disciples, âThe harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. [38] Ask the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into His harvest field.â
Matthew 9:36-38 Voice
Noticing peopleâs needs made Jesus feel compassion for them. But Jesus didnât just feel something. He did something.
Compassion, for Jesus, wasnât sentiment. It was action. It was a decision each day to alter the conditions of those he came to know.
People scientists donât stop at empathy. They follow Jesusâs example. They move toward the hurting with a love that intercedes with prayer and intervenes with action.
3. Diagnose spiritually
But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. [25] He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
John 2:24-25 NIV
Emotional intelligence can read behavior. Spiritual intelligence reads the heart, the soul, and whatâs beneath the performance.
People scientists like Jesus can do both. And thatâs why they make the greatest impactânot by managing relationships, but by ministering to the soul.
Jesus didnât just react to what people did. He understood who they were. This deeper understanding allowed him to see the patterns that no one spoke out loud and feel the brokenness that no one dared admit.
4. Live and lead with love
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
John 15:9 NIV
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
1 Thessalonians 4:9 NIV
The greatest people scientists are taught by God. They love from the deepest source of allâGod himself.
This is how Jesus lived his life.
People scientists who follow his example donât rely on tools or techniques to manage or manipulate relationships. Theyâre not motivated by performance or pressure, but by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who lives in them. He shapes their hearts and teaches them how to love with patience, power, and purpose.
Thatâs what makes their love real and their leadership transformational.
Field Notes
Key takeaways and final thoughts to carry with us into the week ahead.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Romans 8:11 NIV
Jesus didnât just model love; he made love possible through the Holy Spirit. Becoming a Christian isnât adopting a moral code; itâs entering a relationship with God that rewires our hearts from the inside out.
The truth we must come to terms with this week is this: Emotional intelligence helps us manage behavior. Spiritual intelligence transforms who we are.
This is the spiritual chemistry we were made for: Godâs Spirit connecting with our spirit to unlock our fullest potentialâemotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physicallyâacross all four dimensions of life.
Not everyone will believe thisâbut if youâve ever sensed thereâs more to you than self-help can reach, more to love than technique can teach, then youâve already begun the search for what Jesus came to give.
And thatâs what makes you a people scientist.
You donât work harder to love people.
You notice them with open eyes.
You care for them with loving action.
You understand them beneath the surface.
You love Godâand he teaches you how to love others.