Affections

Affection in Scripture is the directional weight of the inner life — what the heart loves, longs for, delights in, hates, fears, or grows cold toward. AFFECTIONS is treated as a single moral axis: the affections may be set supremely upon God, set instead upon the flesh, captured by false teachers, or twisted to what is unnatural. The Bible's vocabulary keeps returning to the same locus: heart, soul, mind, flesh. This page traces that movement from the renewed heart that is "fixed" (Ps 57:7) to the perverted heart that is "without natural affection" (Ro 1:31).

The Heart as the Seat of Affection

The heart is the place where affection lives, and Scripture speaks of two kinds. There is an unrenewed heart — "deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt" (Je 17:9), the heart out of which "evil thoughts proceed, whoring, thefts, murders, adulteries" (Mr 7:21), the heart "fully set in them to do evil" (Ec 8:11), and the heart that becomes "exercised in greed" (2Pe 2:14). Sirach repeats the warning: "A hardened heart grows bad at its end, but he who loves good things is guided in them" (Sir 3:26); "Do not go after your heart and your eyes, to walk in the pleasures of evil" (Sir 5:2). And there is a renewed heart — "I will give them another heart, and I will put a new spirit inside you⁺; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh" (Eze 11:19; cf. Eze 36:26; Je 24:7). Of this heart David says, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed" (Ps 57:7), and of King Josiah it is said that "he gave his heart wholly to God" (Sir 49:3).

The same axis runs through the mind. There is a "carnal mind" set on the flesh, and a "spiritual mind" set on the things of the Spirit (Ro 8:5-7; cf. Ep 4:17; Cl 1:21; Cl 2:18). The remedy is not the suppression of thought but its reorientation: "Have this mind in you⁺, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Php 2:5), and "we have the mind of Christ" (1Co 2:16). Where the carnal mind dwells in vanity, and the imagination of the heart is "only evil continually" (Ge 6:5; cf. Ge 8:21), the spiritual mind delights and meditates: "But rather in the law of Yahweh, does he delight; and in his law does he meditate, day and night" (Ps 1:2).

Affection Set Supremely on God

The first and great direction of the affections is Godward. "And you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (De 6:5), restated in Christ's own words: "And you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mr 12:30). The saints know the answer they would give Yahweh: "Whom have I in heaven [but you] And there is none on earth whom I desire besides you" (Ps 73:25), and "I love you, O Yahweh, my strength" (Ps 18:1). This is the affection that hides nothing back: "And all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them" (2Ch 15:15).

The corresponding promise is intimate. "Because [by my Speech] he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him: I will set him on high, because he has known my name" (Ps 91:14). The surrender is total because the giver is total: Christ "loved me, and delivered himself up for me" (Ga 2:20), and Paul therefore counts "all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Php 3:8). The same wholeheartedness shapes Christian sacrifice: "I urge you⁺ therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your⁺ bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your⁺ spiritual service" (Ro 12:1).

The Word and the House of God

Affection set on Yahweh is not abstract; it fastens on what he has said and where he has placed his name. "The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart… More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb" (Ps 19:8, 10). The whole 119th Psalm is the love-letter of the obedient heart: "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Ps 119:97); "How sweet are your [Speech] to my taste! [Yes, sweeter] than honey to my mouth!" (Ps 119:103); "My soul has observed your testimonies; and I love them exceedingly" (Ps 119:167); "With my whole heart I have sought you: oh don't let me wander from your commandments" (Ps 119:10).

The same affection fixes on the house and worship of Yahweh. David declares, "Moreover also, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, seeing that I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, I give it to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house" (1Ch 29:3). "Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, and the place where your glory dwells" (Ps 26:8). "One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, to see the beauty of Yahweh, and to inquire in his temple" (Ps 27:4). And the famous longing: "How amiable are your tabernacles, O Yahweh of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of Yahweh; my heart and my flesh cry out to the living God" (Ps 84:1-2).

Longing After God

Beyond admiration of Yahweh's word and house, the affections of the saints reach for God himself. "As a doe pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and see the face of God?" (Ps 42:1-2). "With my soul I have desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit inside me I will seek you earnestly" (Is 26:9). "Lord, all my desire is before you; and my groaning is not hid from you" (Ps 38:9).

This thirst is met where Christ stands. "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of living water forever" (Jn 4:14). "I am the bread of life: he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes on me will never thirst" (Jn 6:35). The promise to such longing is plain: "He has filled the hungry [soul] with good things" — "they will be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house; and you will make them drink of the river of your pleasures" (Ps 36:8). "Therefore with joy you⁺ will draw water out of the wells of salvation" (Is 12:3). The end-state is a thirst forever quenched: "They will hunger no more, neither thirst anymore" (Re 7:16; cf. Re 21:6; Re 22:17).

Affection for the People of God

Affection for Yahweh runs out at once into affection for those who are his. "As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight" (Ps 16:3). The apostle's command uses the very word: "In love of the brothers be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another" (Ro 12:10). "Above all things being fervent in your⁺ love among yourselves; for love covers a multitude of sins" (1Pe 4:8); "let the love for the brothers stay" (He 13:1); "by this will all men know that you⁺ are my disciples, if you⁺ have love one to another" (Jn 13:35).

The same affection marks Christian ministry. "Even so, being affectionately desirous of you⁺, we were well pleased to impart to you⁺, not the good news of God only, but also our own souls, because you⁺ became very dear to us" (1Th 2:8). "I don't say it to condemn [you⁺]: for I have said before, that you⁺ are in our hearts to die together and live together" (2Co 7:3). "And his affection is more abundantly toward you⁺, while he remembers the obedience of all of you⁺, how with fear and trembling you⁺ received him" (2Co 7:15). "Therefore, my brothers beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved" (Php 4:1).

The Epistle to Diognetus describes this same outward-loving stance: "They love all, and are persecuted by all" (Gr 5:11); "Though the flesh hates the soul, the soul loves the flesh and all its members; and Christians love those who hate them" (Gr 6:6).

Christ's Claim to the First Place

Christ does not allow even the most natural affections to outrank him. "If any man comes to me, and does not hate his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own soul also, he can't be my disciple" (Lu 14:26). The framing is comparative — the disciple's affection for Christ is to be of such a different order that every other tie ranks below. Diognetus puts the responding wonder this way: "And when you have known him, with what joy do you think you will be filled? Or how will you love him who first so loved you?" (Gr 10:3).

Zeal for God

Where affection is hot, it shows itself as zeal. "For the zeal of your house has eaten me up; and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me" (Ps 69:9). "My zeal has consumed me, because my adversaries have forgotten your words" (Ps 119:139). Paul commends this disposition where it is rightly aimed: "It is good to be zealously sought in a good matter at all times, and not only when I am present with you⁺" (Ga 4:18).

Affection That Cools

Scripture speaks frankly of affection that is real and then fades. To the church at Ephesus: "But I have [this] against you, that you left your first love" (Re 2:4). To Israel under Hosea: "Their heart is divided; now they will be found guilty" (Ho 10:2). And of Israel in the wilderness: "Then they believed [the name of his Speech]; they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel" (Ps 106:12-13). Paul probes the Galatians for that same loss: "Where then is that blessedness of yours? For I bear you⁺ witness, that, if possible, you⁺ would have plucked out your⁺ eyes and given them to me" (Ga 4:15).

There is also affection that was never sincere. The form is there, the heart is elsewhere. "Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God" (Is 58:2) — yet the prophet is told to lift his voice "like a trumpet, and declare to my people their transgression" (Is 58:1). Ezekiel hears a worse diagnosis: "They sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don't do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain" (Eze 33:31-32). The Sower sets the same case alongside the rooted heart: "Those on the rock [are] they who, when they have heard, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who for awhile believe, and in time of trial fall away" (Lu 8:13).

The contrast with the saints is sharp. Sirach: "Do not disobey the fear of the Lord, and do not come near thereto with a double heart" (Sir 1:28).

The Carnal Mind and the Flesh

The same heart and mind, unrenewed, runs the other direction. "For those who are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but those who are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit" (Ro 8:5). "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be" (Ro 8:7). "But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and capturing me in the law of sin which is in my members" (Ro 7:23). Paul's confession is unambiguous: "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing" (Ro 7:18); "those who are in the flesh can't please God" (Ro 8:8). Galatians sets the war in terms of contrary appetites: "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that you⁺ may not do the things that you⁺ want" (Ga 5:17). "All that is in the world, the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1Jn 2:16).

The carnal mind is also a mind enslaved to the eyes and the appetite. The wilderness generation is the type: "And the mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the sons of Israel also wept again, and said, Who will give us flesh to eat?" (Nu 11:4). "And they tried God in their heart by asking food according to their soul" (Ps 78:18). Christ lays the same charge at his hearers' feet: "Truly, truly, I say to you⁺, you⁺ seek me, not because you⁺ saw signs, but because you⁺ ate of the loaves, and were filled" (Jn 6:26). Diognetus diagnoses the same antithesis between Christian and surrounding world: "The flesh hates the soul, and without having been wronged wars against it, because the flesh is prevented from enjoying pleasures" (Gr 6:5); the Christians "are in the flesh, but do not live after the flesh" (Gr 5:8).

Mortification — Putting Carnal Affection to Death

Carnal affection is to be mortified, not negotiated with. "If you⁺ live after the flesh, you⁺ must die; but if by the Spirit you⁺ put to death the activities of the body, you⁺ will live" (Ro 8:13). "But put⁺ on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don't make provision for the flesh, to [fulfill] the desires [of it]" (Ro 13:14). "Put to death therefore your⁺ members which are on the earth: whoring, impurity, immoral sexual passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry" (Cl 3:5). "Not by immoral sexual passion, even as the Gentiles who don't know God" (1Th 4:5). Paul's own discipline: "But I buffet my body, and bring it into slavery: lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disapproved" (1Co 9:27).

This mortification is, for the saint, a thing already accomplished in Christ and to be lived out in obedience. "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be done away" (Ro 6:6). "And those who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Ga 5:24). "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me: and that [life] which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, [the faith] which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself up for me" (Ga 2:20). The whole arc is the surrendered life of Romans 6: "We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live in it?" (Ro 6:2); "for he who has died is justified from sin" (Ro 6:7); "even so reckon⁺ also yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Ro 6:11).

Worldliness and Heavenly-Mindedness

Affection for the world is, in this same vocabulary, affection in the wrong direction. "Don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1Jn 2:15). "You⁺ adulteresses, don't you⁺ know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (Jas 4:4). The example for the contrary: "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season" (He 11:24-25). And Paul: "Far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Ga 6:14). Demas the foil: "Demas forsook me, having loved this present age, and went to Thessalonica" (2Ti 4:10).

The positive command is to set the affections above. "If then you⁺ were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your⁺ mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth" (Cl 3:1-2). "And don't be fashioned according to this age: but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that you⁺ may prove what the will of God is" (Ro 12:2). "No soldier on service entangles himself in the affairs of [this] life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier" (2Ti 2:4). Diognetus describes the same posture: "The soul dwells indeed in the body, but is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world" (Gr 6:3).

Disordered Desire

The wicked affections are not merely worldly; they are disordered in their object. "The soul of the wicked desires evil: his fellow man finds no favor in his eyes" (Pr 21:10). "We also all once lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest" (Ep 2:3). "Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted" (1Co 10:6). Sirach gives the warning in image after image: "Do not fall into the hand of your desire; or it will smother your strength over you. It will eat your leaves and root out your fruit; and leave you like a dry tree. For excessive desire destroys its owners; and the gladness of an enemy will overtake them" (Sir 6:2-4); "Do not go after your desires, and refrain yourself from your appetites" (Sir 18:30). Habakkuk's haughty oppressor "enlarges his soul as Sheol, and he is as death, and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations" (Hab 2:5). And the New Testament names the result: "You⁺ lust and don't have; so you⁺ kill. And you⁺ covet and cannot obtain; so you⁺ fight and war" (Jas 4:2). The same carnal mechanism produces "immoral sexual passions of shame" (Ro 1:26) and "the sinful passions, which were through the law, [that] worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death" (Ro 7:5).

Affections Captivated by False Teachers

A theme that recurs in the apostolic letters is that false teachers go for the affections. "They zealously seek you⁺ in no good way; no, they desire to shut you⁺ out, that you⁺ may seek them" (Ga 4:17). Paul's contrast: "For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God?… If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a slave of Christ" (Ga 1:10). The pattern is described in detail: "For of these are those who creep into houses, and take captive silly women laden with sins, led away by diverse desires" (2Ti 3:6); "in greed they will with feigned words make merchandise of you⁺" (2Pe 2:3); "for, uttering great swelling [words] of vanity, they entice in the desires of the flesh, by sexual depravity, those who are truly escaping from the ones who live in error" (2Pe 2:18). The risen Christ rebukes the same captivation in the seven letters: "you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to go whoring" (Re 2:14); "you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess; and she teaches and seduces my slaves to go whoring, and to eat things sacrificed to idols" (Re 2:20).

Unnatural and Perverted Affection

The end of disordered affection, in the apostolic catalogues, is affection so warped that it has come loose from its created shape. The Gentile catalog of Romans 1 ends "without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful" (Ro 1:31). The last-days catalog of 2 Timothy uses the same phrase: "without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good" (2Ti 3:3). Peter names the same posture: "but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the desire of defilement, and despise dominion. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble to rail at dignities" (2Pe 2:10). The progression is the dark mirror of the saints' progression with which this page began: where the renewed heart is "fixed" on God and the saints' affections rise toward "the things that are above," the unrenewed heart, fed and not mortified, ends in defilement that has lost the natural shape of love itself.