Affection

For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:8 ESV)

As Paul writes to the Philippians he remembers their faithfulness to him and to Christ in the midst of his great trial and his heart bursts forth in emotion for them. He loves them deeply, so deeply that he invokes God as his witness.

There is a love that is commanded of us by Jesus, a love that is supposed to tell the world that we are his disciples.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 ESV)

The inevitable fruit of being a follower of Christ is a love for the other followers of Christ. Jesus commanded us to love one another. But (have you ever thought of this?) how can affection be commanded? How can emotion, genuine emotion, be worked up just through force of will? 

It can't.

Have you ever struggled with that? We are commanded to love, but how can we love when, well, we just don't feel it? How are we to obey such a command?

It gets worse. Not only are we commanded to love one another, but we are commanded to love one another with the same love with which Christ has loved us. That's a lot of love. That's the love that sent Christ to the cross to save us, to give himself up for us, to die for us. That kind of sacrificial love does not come naturally. In fact, it is against our nature. Yet, not only are we commanded to love in this way, but that is also the love that Paul has just expressed for the church at Philippi in the verse we read above:

For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:8 ESV)

Paul loves them with the love of Christ Jesus. The Greek language is even more vivid. Paul yearned for them with the very bowels of Christ, with a deep inward yearning, the same love that sent Christ to the cross for us.

So it is possible. 

But how?

As with all spiritual things we need grace. We need the power of Christ. We need the working of the Spirit of God within us. Without this, we are doomed to fail. And here, again, the gospel carries us through. 

So what do we do? The gospel teaches us what to do. We bow our heads and confess our sin of selfishness and heartlessness. Then we ask God for mercy and grace and to change us. Then we go out and do what Jesus said, we love in action. We ask, 'What would love do?' and then we do it. Then we step back and witness how the miracle of love and grace changes people. As we witness that change in others, we will notice it in ourselves. Then, we may be able to say with Paul about our fellow believers "For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus."