Philippians 1 verses 7 and 8. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart. Since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we again are just a thankful people. We recognize that the affection that the Apostle Paul had for the church in Philippi is an exemplar for all of us of the love we have, are to have for one another. We thank you for the community that you have made here at Sojourn and we ask that as we attend to your word together this morning that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear, hearts that would receive the truth, and that we would have our wills changed and transformed, and even our very emotions trained by your word. We're thankful that your word does this. It not only trains our mind, but trains our affections. And I pray that that happens this morning, in Jesus' name, amen. You be seated. Well, even though today marks the beginning of Advent season, we're going to just continue our study of Philippians this morning, and then next week we're going to begin a study through some prophetic texts in the book of Isaiah throughout the rest of December. We've been looking at the incredible joy and thanksgiving and love that the Apostle Paul has for the church in Philippi in these introductory verses to this letter. And this morning we look at verses seven and eight with an opportunity to learn from Paul's intense affections for this church. In a sermon entitled Christian Affections, I want us to see together three habits, three habits that are found in those who will grow in the right sort of affection. In this thing we're calling Christian affection. We see this being exemplified in the Apostle Paul's life both by a fitting mindset as well as in an encouraging partnership and an affectionate longing. But if we're going to follow Paul's example, we're going to have to adopt these three habits. So the first is this, adopt the proper mindset. Verse seven begins here, just as it is right for me to think this. Just as it is right for me to think this. Paul's encouraging us to come to the only rightful conclusion here. Last week, we looked at the recipe for Thanksgiving. We looked at how it involved relishing a thankful remembrance, and practicing joyful prayer, and prizing gospel partnerships, and cultivating biblical convictions. And in here, verses 7 and 8, we start to see this recipe play itself out in real time. We're going to see how Paul thinks about the Philippians, how he prizes their partnership, and how he communicates his appreciation and love for them. And then after our Advent series, we'll see when we get to January, we come back to Philippians in verses 9 through 11, we'll see the Apostle Paul pray. So here we're going to note how his affections played out in relationship with the church, and then we'll see how his prayers played out for the church in verses 9 through 11. In verse seven, we have a connection with what Paul has just finished by saying this phrase, just as it is right for me, the NES here has, to feel this way, to feel this. The word translated feel there in both the NAS, if you have an English standard ESV, it's also that, the NIV, the New Living, all have here feel. If you have a King James or a New King James or the Holman Christian, you'll see that the word there is think. Think this. So you have feel this or think this. The word in Greek is phreno, and it's a word that comes up some 10 times in the book of Philippians. It's a very, very important word. And this is the first time we come to it. It happens twice in chapter two, verse two, where we're told to being of the same mind, Intent on the same purpose. Both of those words are freneo. Same mind, one purpose. In 2.5, have this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus. That's the same word. Happens twice in 3.15. Have this attitude. And if anything, you have a different There it is twice translated as attitude. In 3.19, who set their minds on earth three things. Again, setting your mind is the same word. In 4.2, it's live in harmony. live in harmony. Again, same Greek word behind that translation. And then two times in 410, you have revived your concern for me. That word concern is the same word. Indeed, you were concerned before. Again, the same word, they're translated concern. So this is an interesting case. One of the reasons why I personally prefer the New American Standard in general, whenever I'm teaching or preaching, is because it takes quite a literalistic translation of the Greek. And usually, if you have the same word happening multiple times, it has a tendency to try to translate them the exact same way. It's very different than the King James, for example. A good example could be like, in one text, the King James might translate the same Greek word, clothing, and then raiment, and then garment, and it's the same Greek word, but it's using different language, which is one of the reasons why it's beautiful. It's beautiful to read, but if you're studying and you're wanting to see where that same word happens multiple times, and you're looking at an English translation, you don't quite get the feeling of it as if it said clothing, clothing, clothing, clothing, clothing. Oh, he's talking about clothing. So here's an interesting case where the NAS, translating the same Greek word, uses multiple different English words throughout the book of Philippians to describe it. We have here feel, mind, purpose, attitude, harmony, and concern. Six different ways in which this same Greek word is being translated contextually. Now, Paul uses the word 13 times in the rest of his letters. So 10 times right here in Philippians, 13 times somewhere else in the rest of his letters. And nine of those 13 happened in the book of Romans, a book that we've just come out of. Romans 8.5, set their minds. Romans 11.20, be not high-minded. Romans 12.3, how you ought to think, but to think. It happens twice there. Romans 12.16, of the same mind, not high-minded. Again, it's twice in that same verse. Twice again in Romans 14.6, he who observes the day, observes the day. That's the same word, observes. 15.5, be of the same mind. And then we have these couple of other examples in other texts. 1 Corinthians 13.11, when I used to speak like a child and think like a child, there's the word phreno. 2 Corinthians 13.11, be like-minded. Galatians 5.10, if you adopt no other view, so the adopting of a view is the word phreno. And then Colossians 3.2, set your mind on things above. There it is again, phreno. So I don't often go to that kind of length to provide an exhaustive lexical study of a Greek word. We don't do this very often, but I've made an exception here because this word is quite significant in Philippians. And I think if we understand the word here, we'll understand its use throughout the rest of the letter just a little bit better. Summarizing everything that we've just seen and all of these references in which Paul uses the word, if we're going to select a single word by which I might consistently translate for an O, I actually lean towards the word think a little bit more than the word feel. I think think is pretty good here, but think not in the sense of just like a cursory thought or an offhanded idea, but more in the sense of think in the sense of an established pattern of thinking. Maybe we could use the word mindset or even use the word mind in the verb sense to mind something or to mind someone. If a child minds their mother or father, it's not that they just have a fleeting thought of mom and dad, it's that they tend to mom and dad's instruction. They care about what they have to say. What mom and dad's values are matter to the child. The child follows in the footsteps of mom and dad. You see how the word mind there has more than just like, oh, I know who my mom and dad are. It's, I know them. I'm related to them. I care about what they say. I want to follow them in what they do. And my values are similar to theirs. We might use the word here, worldview. to translate this, or mindset. So here in Philippians 1.7, Paul is explaining that his mind is rightly settled. I have come to a rightful position. I have come to a rightful view of the world. His perspective in particular here on the church, he is saying, is fitting. It is correct because of what he's already established regarding their relationship. He's already said in the previous verses, he's talked about their relationship. From the first day in their venture into the gospel, the Philippians had been there for the Apostle Paul. Paul was sure that God had begun a good work in them, and therefore he was also certain that the God who had begun a work in them would complete that work, because God doesn't fail to complete what he starts. Joy filled the Apostle Paul's heart, as we are called them, and he was led to pray. So the words of affection that we find in these couple of verses, Paul is setting up with by saying, this is the rightful response to the truth about our relationship. Why am I belaboring this? The truth of the gospel has an impact on people. And that impact is not just intellectual. It also involves our emotions. The Apostle Paul here is establishing that his feelings about the church are the only proper, rightful response to the truth that's been communicated. It's a self-evident truth that God made us not only as thinking creatures, but as feeling creatures. We might have varying degrees of feelings, and we all might have differing ways of expressing our feelings. Some of us are more highly emotional, some of us are a little bit less emotional, but all of us have emotions. We all have them. And while feelings are a dangerous thing to be led around by, Contra, Disney's classic, follow your heart. No, don't, that's dangerous territory, just following your heart wherever that might go. The heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked. Who can understand it, Jeremiah would say. So while emotions are a dangerous thing to be led around by, when emotions are directed by the truth, they are a fantastic and wonderful component of life and community. As a matter of fact, so much so that if absence, if they are not there, their absence is glaringly obvious and everything becomes very odd, right? I mean, feelings have to be led by truth, but if truth leaves your feelings unchanged, it causes you to question whether you actually believe the truth you say you hold to. So we have to maintain a biblical church view. I'm sure you've heard about people talking about having a biblical worldview. Well, I would argue that in every worldview, there is a view of the church. If you have a biblical worldview, then you have a biblical church view as well. You have to have a view of the church, a perspective on the church, a mindset regarding the church. And so he says, it's only rightful verse seven for me to think this concerning all of you. Why? Because I have you in my heart. The rightful mindset that Paul has here concerns the church. Within a biblical worldview is your view of the church, and what is right for the Apostle Paul and for us is for us to have an affection, a care, a love for the church. He says that the Philippians are in my heart. There's the word cardia. In my heart. Paul is not disinterestedly connected to the Philippians. Oh yeah, I know about you guys over there. He says, I hold you near and dear to myself. You are in my very heart. Notice, Paul is emotionally involved. He's emotionally invested. A biblical church view necessarily includes affections for the church. I've said this before, I'll say it again. If you love Jesus, then you will love what Jesus loves. And dear friends, Jesus loves his bride, the church. Jesus loves the church. And so if you love Jesus, you'll love what He loves. You'll also hate what He hates. But you'll love what He loves. And He, there's no doubt about it, He loves His bride, the church. To say that you love Jesus but hate the church is a blatant contradiction. Those who love Jesus will have affection for that body that He is the head of. He's the head of the church. You can't hate, you can't say you love the head and hate the body. Those who love Jesus have affection for the body that he's the head of. You'll have affection for the people that Jesus laid his life down for. You'll have affection for that great company of people that were given by God the Father and regenerated by God the Spirit and redeemed by God the Son. The Trinity is involved in redeeming this people, the church. God loves the church. Those who love God will also love the church. And this affection ought to be experienced in relationship with the church universal. So whenever we come in contact with a brother or sister and hear of their joys and sorrows, their blessings and sufferings, our hearts ought to be moved with compassion. If you're on a plane flight and you come across a brother from Taiwan, and after hearing about his joys and his struggles and all of that, if you're a Christian brother, you should have, there's an instant kinship with this individual. There's a love for this person. And if that's the case, then it ought to certainly show itself in connection with our brothers and sisters who are near to us, with whom we have the privilege of doing life together within the same congregation. It's right for us to carry one another within our hearts. It's right for us to care deeply, to feel intensely, to invest deeply in one another. It's right for us to open our hearts to brothers and allow them to open their hearts to us. If you find upon examining your own heart that this is lacking, Can I challenge you to make this a matter of prayer and purposeful action? Can I challenge you to reach out to others even within this fellowship and seek to know them and to be known, to open your heart and be willing to receive them and care for them and to help shoulder their burdens and care about what's going on in their life? The standard here is not toleration for Christians. It's not that I tolerate brothers and sisters. It's that we love them, that we carry them in our hearts, that there is warm affection in us towards them. Now, we might struggle with this for a number of reasons, but perhaps the reason that comes to my mind first and foremost is you might struggle with this if you have been hurt by other Christians in the past. If you have opened your heart, if you have shared deep struggles, if you have walked with someone for some period of time and then felt like as if they slammed the door in your face or felt like they gossiped about what you shared with them or they used what you did against you, there's going to be a tendency in us when hurt like in those ways to try to then draw back. And not just draw back from that person, but just draw back from community in general. Community hurt me, therefore I'm gonna separate myself. It'll just be me and Jesus. Can I encourage you, if you're there even this morning, to make this a matter of prayer, to give those hurts to Jesus, to forgive that brother or sister, to let it go, to be willing to forgive such that if they were to come to you and ask for forgiveness, you could do it. Don't allow past sins, the sins of others, or your own sins, to stop you from obeying the Lord's design for you today. We've all come through tough things. All of us have had, we live in a sinful world, we ourselves are sinners, and we're interacting with other sinners. Even if they're redeemed by the blood of Jesus, we're still struggling sinners. And guess what? We're gonna step on each other's toes, we're gonna hurt each other, and some of those hurts and pains are gonna be inadvertent, and some of those hurts and pains will be purposeful. And we're gonna have to learn how to forgive, how to move forward, and how to not allow those pains and difficulties to cause us to stop adopting this mindset. We must purpose to adopt the mindset of the Apostle Paul. If we are brothers and sisters in the Lord, it is right. It is the rightful mindset to hold each other in our hearts. Point two, habit two. After you've adopted that mindset, here's the second thing. Pursue camaraderie in the gospel. Pursue camaraderie in the gospel. Embrace partners in grace. At the end of verse 7, Paul says to the whole church at Philippi that they all share in this title, in this privilege. You are partners with me in grace. All of you are partners with me in grace. The word there, partner, is an intensified form of a word that we looked at last week, the word koinonia. Word translated, fellowship or partnership. We talked about that quite a bit last week, so I won't go through all that again. What's interesting here is that it's the same word there, koinonia, but it has a little Greek prefix that's jammed onto the front of it, which means with or together. And what that does is it just kind of intensifies this word. The word koinonia already means kind of like together. So here it's like together togetherness, you know, that kind of idea. This fellowship together, partners together, partakers alongside each other. The word only happens three other times in the New Testament, and in each of those cases, it's translated by NAS here consistently as partaker. Romans 11, 17, partaker with them. 1 Corinthians 9, fellow partaker. Revelation 1, 9, fellow partaker. Interesting there, in the Revelation 1, 9 one, it's fellow partaker in the tribulation. Fellow partner in suffering. Fellow partner in pressing. And the kingdom. Whenever we find points of difference within church community, here is a truth that we can cling to. We are partners in grace. We are fellow partakers of the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. In what sense does he mean here, we're partakers of grace? I think there's probably two ways we could understand it. The first is that this could be a reference to God saving grace. the unmerited favor that rescued us from our sin and rebellion and depravity and drew us unto salvation. This could be about the redemption that Christian brothers and sisters hold in common. the saving work of God, which caused us to be born again to a living hope, and brought us into his family, and clothed us with Christ's righteousness, and guaranteed us a forever home with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are fellow partakers in that saving grace. We are here, not by what we have done, but by what Christ has done on our behalf. Or this could be a reference to God's empowering grace. What I mean by that is God's power that undergirds all of the work we do within his kingdom. Paul will say later in Philippians 2.13, it is God who's at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So God is the one undergirding both our desire to do work and the work itself, the ability to do work for his kingdom. to work for his good pleasure. And given the context of these words, I might lean in that direction. Paul is expressing camaraderie with the Philippians in Christian service. You guys know what it is to be empowered by the grace of God to stand against a hostile world. You're bringing them the news of Jesus Christ by which they can be saved and have eternal life. And oddly, what you're receiving is the hatred of the world. the enmity of the world. But Paul's point here is that you are joint partners with me in this. We're in a joint venture together. It's God's work working through us, empowering us to live the way that we have. However, I might just argue that we don't really necessarily have to choose here. If you're someone who is experiencing the empowering grace of God, that is all predicated upon the fact that you have first been saved. And so Paul, if he's intending the second, which is what I probably lean towards, certainly implies the first. If you're someone who's being empowered by the grace of God to do work for his kingdom, then you are also one who's already been saved by his grace and brought into his kingdom. In other words, all those who serve by grace have first been saved by grace. In this sense, you could say that we're all doubly partakers of the grace of God, both His saving and His empowering grace. How does it show itself, though, in Paul's relationship with the Philippians? How it encouraged us all to be foul-weather friends. Be a foul-weather friend. Look at verse 7 in the middle there. I skipped over this. "...in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel." Paul is describing what his partnership with the Philippians entailed. And what we see immediately is that it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. The Philippians were partners with Paul in any and every circumstance that the gospel brought them into. Whether people loved them for telling them about Jesus or hated them, they remained steadfast. And rather than deserting Paul in his hour of need, the Philippians were present. They were willing to provide material resources to Paul. They were extending friendship to Paul. They were praying for Paul. They were willing to identify and commiserate and suffer alongside of Paul. Paul ascribes his circumstances, how hard they were with these phrases. In my chains, certainly a reference to Paul's imprisonment. And remember, up to this point in Philippians, he's talking about thanksgiving and joy, and we'll have a lot more of that through the rest of the letter, but it's not until this point you're like, oh, where's Paul right now? Oh, we know, because we've done an overview of the whole book, that Paul's in prison while he's writing this, but here's where it happens. In my... imprisonment or in my chains." Robert Mellick reminds us, being a prisoner could have been an obstacle to the Philippians' wholehearted support, but they took an attitude that it was their imprisonment too. No church was in a more patriotic setting than the Philippian church. Remember that from our introduction? The place in Philippi was also called like an outpost or a colony of Rome, and as a result of that had a lot of Roman influence and a lot of Roman architecture and a lot of Roman culture. This is a place where worship of the emperor was absolutely going on. No church was in a more patriotic setting, maybe besides Rome itself, than the Philippian church, but the chains that Paul had were no obstacle to their caring for him. And again, we might be disconnected from this reality, so let me help explain this further, or we'll let Phillips help explain it further. It was no light thing to be charged with proclaiming the advent of a kingdom other than Rome and a king greater than Caesar. You imagine in that time during the Roman Empire, you're going around as an ambassador for King Jesus, talking about a king greater than Caesar, talking about a kingdom better than Rome. How do you think Caesar takes that? Especially in a culture that worshiped him as a God. How do you think he took that? You see, it's not only Paul that's suffering in prison, but anyone, Phillips goes on, who showed friendship and sympathy for such an insurrectionist might soon share his chains. Doesn't take much investigative reporting to just, who's come by to visit Paul lately? Where'd that guy come from? Oh, Philippi, huh? Meanwhile, the Philippians paid no heed to that danger. See how this is very meaningful? It's one thing to go visit somebody in jail because you care about them. It's another thing to go visit them in jail knowing that you might get jailed by going to visit them in jail. Paul knew the depth of this friendship. He knew the reality of the gospel at work within the Philippian believers. He says, in my chains, and the other phrase here is in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. There's two ways to understand that. One is in the more general sense, what Paul always was doing was confirming and defending the gospel. The other sense is in his literal court trial. He's using legal terminology here. And so what this could be is a reference to Paul actually going before governors and rulers and eventually Caesar with this case. Ralph Martin says, defending the gospel means disarming prejudice and overcoming objections to the truth. And confirming means the positive declaration of truth. Defense and confirmation. Defense is overcoming objections to truth. Confirming is positively declaring truth. Handling objections and declaring truth. The word behind defense here is the word apologia or speech in defense from which we get the word apologetics. When we say the word apologetics in theological circles, we're talking about defending our faith, giving a reason for the hope that's within us. That comes from 1 Peter 3.15. You'll see a little bit, look down at Philippians 1.16, where Paul's describing about some of these people who are actually against him in his ministry, but he's describing, he says, the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. Apologia is right there too. We have the same word there, defense of the gospel. So certainly there in verse 16, Paul is talking about his stance of defending the truth claims of Jesus Christ. Here earlier, it's possible that Paul's actually describing his own legal defenses. You've been with me even in the hardest of times while I have been chained and while I am being brought before courts of law. And again, if you're trying to give a defense and to provide confirmation of the truth of what you have been doing, you could see how important an exhibit A, Church in Philippi, would be to such a man. Here is a man saying that the Lord Jesus Christ rose triumphant from the grave. A dead man rose from the dead. And this dead man who rose again from the dead changed everything. Changes people. Forgives sin. Gives new hearts. Gives new motivation for living. Sets entirely new purpose. You can see how the Philippians would be such an encouragement to Paul in this regard because they were living proof of the impact of the gospel. Jesus saved these people. He transformed these people. We see this in the early apologists of the church. You can actually read this in Justin Martyr, for example. It's a really interesting thing to see that like when Justin Martyr is defending the Christian faith before the world, one of the classic things he does is he says, look at how the Christians live. All these things are being said about us, I'm just asking you, look how they live. Look at their chaste behavior. Look at their love for one another. These negative things are being said about them, but if you meet one of these people, you realize they're nothing like the way they've been demonized. They don't talk the way they're being said they talk. They don't act the way that they're being said they act. Spurgeon said, the Philippians' lives proved the truth of the word of grace. When Paul was preaching, if he wanted to show that the gospel is the power of God, he pointed to what had been accomplished in Philippi, and none could gainsay the argument. I love this. A living argument is invincible. Reasoning is very well, but fact is overwhelming. It's one thing to say, the gospel changes people. It's another to say, and here's those people. Look at how they live their lives. Look at the circumspect way in which they walk out their days. Look at the way they care for other people. Look at their generosity. Look at their hospitality. Look at their love. Look at their integrity. Spurgeon says, oh, that every Christian would so live as to prove the power of the gospel. MacArthur rightly explains, in either case, Paul affirmed that the Philippian church selflessly and sacrificially stood by him to give encouragement, to help alleviate his suffering and to meet his needs in every way that they could. They were spiritual partners. They were partakers of grace with him in the fullest sense. We really do find out who our real friends are when we encounter hardship and persecution. especially when their efforts to help us might bring them into harm. Right? Again, if their efforts to help me cause them discomfort, even further proof of their love and care. Those who are willing to stick out their necks for us and endure the same hardships. These are true partners in the gospel. These two partners in the gospel are willing to identify with those who suffer for Jesus. I'm sure you've heard this old British tongue twister, probably dating from the 19th century. It goes like this. Whether the weather be fine or whether the weather be not. Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot. Well, whether the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not. Almost got through it all the way. Now, set in a secular context, this little tongue twister might only advocate some sort of like stoicism. It just praises the one who just resolves to be unaffected by anything outward that happens to them. They're just going to be unfeeling and unmoved. As Christians, we know that that's not what we are to become. We're not supposed to become numb to all outward stimuli, but rather that something deeper within us is a spring of joy from which a deeper spiritual reality roots us in God and His grace and allows us to have a resolve through hard things. And from that position, we're given the gift of community. And that's why one of my favorite aspects of that little tongue twister is that when you get to the concluding part of it, we see what's prominent is the second person plural pronoun, we. Do you see it there? Whether the weather be fine, whether the weather be hot, not, whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot, we'll weather the weather, no sir, we'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not. What's implied here is there's a we. Misery loves company. Misery needs company. And there's some of us who are a little bit more alone, and some of us are a little more individualistic than others. But there is a sense here, and understand from a Christian context, there's an absolute reality here that when God saved you, he wrapped you up together with others that he saved. He has saved you to live for him, to testify to his grace, and to serve with joy in community. We do this together. We weather the weather together. We encourage each other, we love one another, and we do this in fair weather and in foul weather. But there's something about foul weather that really puts that to the test. Maybe one of the things that you can thank the Lord for as we come to the right after Thanksgiving is to thank the Lord for foul-weather friends. Maybe you need to call up a couple of those people this week. And let me encourage you, if you've experienced what it is to be loved by a foul-weather friend, be a foul-weather friend. Commit to being a person who will walk through hard things with other people. Third and last point. Third habit to cultivate. Communicate compassionate love. Communicate compassionate love. Look how this works in verse eight. I'm gonna start with the end part of it. We start with experiencing the compassion of Christ. experience the compassion of Christ. Again, here's the same order. You don't know the empowering grace of God until you've experienced his saving grace. Neither will you be able to express the compassion of Christ until you first experienced the compassion of Christ. Verse 8 at the end says, with the affection of Christ Jesus. Paul speaks of longing for the Philippians with the affection of Jesus. In order to communicate compassionate love, you have to first experience compassionate love. You need to come to personally know the love of Jesus. Now, nearly every English translation, when you get to this Greek word, splanchnon, it's translated affection, in just about every translation. But the words more strictly literal translation is found in the King James. Translated there, bowels. Bowels. Now, whereas before I said maybe where he says, it's right for me to feel this way. I said, I'd rather put think there. It's right for me to think this way in the sense of minding you in this way, considering you in this way. Here's where we get to all the feelings. It's right, Paul says, it's right for me to have an established mindset like this. And what is the established mindset? It involves the bowels of Jesus. This established mindset involves what? That it's right for him to feel a certain way about them. What is that thing? To express the affection of Jesus. The word there is used metaphorically in nearly every case that the word comes up in the New Testament, except for one. There's one place where the word splachnon is used to talk about the physical part of your body, which is your entrails, your intestines and guts. And where does it happen? It happens in Acts 1.18, when we get this little parenthetical describing what happened to Judas after he hung himself. He hung himself out there on that field. Remember, he threw the money that he had betrayed Jesus with into the temple. Later on, the priest will actually buy that field that he died in, and they call it the field of blood. Acts 1 picks up on that, says this field of blood that Judas hung himself in. After he did that, his insides spilled out. And there's the word splanchnon. Everywhere else this word is used, it's used in contexts in which deep compassion, tender mercy, affection, heart, feelings are being described. It happens one other time in the book of Philippians in chapter two, verse one, where it says, therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection, there it is again, Splanchnon, and compassion. In the other places where you see it prop up, it's usually translated, interestingly, heart. Now, there's another word for heart in Greek, kardia. We saw it earlier in this text. He says he has them in his heart. So the idea of holding someone with affection in your heart was not unknown to the Greek world. They used it, just like we do. That's often what we'll say today, right? I have you in my heart. Valentine's Day usually has lots of hearts. You don't see many stomachs on Valentine's Day card. Maybe we could start a new trend, guys. You don't see many intestines wrapping around the card. You don't see much of that, right? But so in that culture, they had the idea of the cardia being like having a sense of emotion and feeling to it. But cardia also could have the tendency of like talking about the wholeness of a person, all that they are. Some of it would even involve like their thinking and all of that. So cardia is a little bit more like general because it kind of can relate to a lot within the person, depending on the context. Again, you can do a word study on cardia and you'll find that it's used in a lot of different places. But here, whenever you see splanchnon, it's almost always with intense emotion. Like in Luke 178, because of the tender mercy of God, that's the word described there, tender mercy. Or in 1 John 3.17, where it says, we had this read this morning, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart, that word is not cardia, it's splanchnon. closes his bowels to him. It doesn't sound so good in English, does it? Yeah, please keep your bowels closed, please. It seems strange, right, to us. But I don't think it's that strange, honestly. When you feel intense emotions, where do you feel them? I mean, it's possible we speak of things like, you know, my heart skipped a beat or something of that nature, we might say that. But I would probably argue that when we feel deep, intense sorrow and joy, it's hard for our gastrointestinal system not to be affected. We feel things in our guts. And the Greeks really understood this. That word was often reserved for the deepest gutturalist stuff. We also had Colossians 3, 12 read, so as those who have been chosen by God, holy and blameless, put on a heart of compassion. That word heart is splanchnon, put on guts of compassion, and kindness, and humility, and gentleness, and patience. One other really great use of this is in Philemon. Remember, Paul also writes Philemon from jail, probably from the same Roman prison that he's in when he writes Philippians. But Philemon, he writes this, he says, I have sent him, speaking of Onesimus, I have sent him back to you in person. Remember, Philemon is the slave's, he was the master and Onesimus is a runaway slave. who had ministered to Paul while he was in prison, so he's sending Onesimus back to Philemon, pretty much encouraging Philemon to count him as a brother and set him free, pretty much is what he's doing. But he says, I'm sending him back to you, that is, sending my very heart, splanchnon, I'm sending my guts back to you. The point that Paul is making here is that he had tender mercy, affection, deep feelings for them. Have you experienced this? Have you had deep feelings for others in Christ? You cared for them this way. The only way you can care for them this way is if you first have experienced this love, experienced this unmerited favor, this love that wasn't based upon you being lovely, this love that loved you while you were ugly and dirty and shameful, this love that reached to you while you were in the gutter, while you were in rebellion, while you might have even blaspheming the one who loved you. Have you experienced this love? This is the love that was behind the entire plan of redemption. What we celebrate at Advent season when the Son of God took on flesh and dwelt among us. God so loved the world that he gave his Son. And that Jesus manifested the compassion of God in his earthly ministry. He manifested the Splachnon of God. Think about how he related to people, healing the sick, freeing the demon-possessed, enabling the disabled, even bringing the dead back to life. But best of all, Jesus came to free us from our worst enemy, sin. He laid down his life as a ransom for many. He took upon Himself all the sins of all those who would ever trust in Him, and He paid the price in full, and He died upon a cross, and He was buried, and then on the third day He rose triumphant from the grave, because death couldn't hold Him, and He arose the victor over sin, death, and Satan. And in all of this, in obedience to God the Father, to bring God glory, and to display, in that display of God's glory, being seen in the wondrous deep compassion of God for rebels who deserve hell. Have you experienced that compassion? Have you experienced this Splanchnon of Christ? An affection that led God the Father to send His Son, and an affection that led that Son to die in the stead of rebels. Well, we who have come to experience the compassion of Christ, then, are called to express that compassion. And that's what happens in verse 8. Notice how it starts. Verse 8 starts, For God is my witness, how I long for you all. Paul here calls God to testify. He calls God to the witness stand and says, I want God to testify about the condition of my heart. Why? Because he knows that nobody else can do it. What other proof can you appeal to? God knows our hearts. There is no escaping his gaze. You might fool the entire world. God knows the truth. There is no escaping his judgment. There is no escaping his gaze. Paul does this a few times where he calls God to testify to something. He does it in Romans 1.9 when he says God can testify regarding our unceasing prayer for you, Romans. In 2 Corinthians 1.23, he calls God as a witness of his soul that he had not come to Corinth earlier in sorrow in order to spare them. He says in 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 5 and 10, he calls God to witness that he hadn't brought to them flattering speech in a pretext for greed. He says, God is my witness. I didn't come with the gospel trying to make money from you. And here he says, God is my witness how I long for you. How I think about you day in and day out. He's wanting to assure his brothers and sisters in Philippi that he really longs for their company, that he misses them deeply. Notice what he's doing here. He's expressing feelings to them. He's not emotionally distanced from the congregation. He's emotionally invested. He's emotionally involved. He cares. And certainly this is a pattern for all of us to follow. Certainly there's some added responsibility on elders of any church to follow this. Certainly you won't find any perfect example of this, this side of heaven. Jesus is the perfect example. But at least this has to be the aim of our lives. To not only feel things, but express those feelings. Tell people how you think about them. Tell them that you care. Tell them that you miss them when you don't see them. The point is, it's not that we stop having feelings upon salvation, but that our feelings, just like our thoughts and wills, are submitted to Jesus. And His affections direct our affections, just like His thoughts direct our thoughts. His will directs our will, so His affections direct our affections. Notice what he's saying here. I long for you with the bowels of Christ. I have longings for you because of what Jesus has done in me and what Jesus has done in you. I love what he loves. I love as he loves. And we ought to go to great lengths to express those feelings. Notice what great length he goes to. God is my witness how I feel about you. He really, really, really wants them to know. Dear friends, don't miss opportunities to do this. Don't miss opportunities to do this. There are so many ways to do it, aren't there? I mean, you could say something in person today to someone. Don't put it off. You could call someone on the phone this afternoon. You could send a letter to someone. You know, letters are really cool things. We don't get many of them anymore, you know? So what is it like to get, anybody ask, you know, if you get a handwritten letter in the mail, please tell me. Do you just throw that thing right away? No. There's something precious about that. But you can also email, you can text message. You can just be present. Be there for someone. Just be willing to sit down with them in a time of need. And certainly there's all kinds of actions you can take to communicate love. Practical helps and giving gifts and financial assistance and counsel. On and on the list can go. There's always room to grow in giving and receiving Christian affection. But my encouragement to you is don't just feel it, express it. Tell people. Let them know. So let me encourage you to follow the example of the Apostle Paul. Adopt the proper mindset. Pursue camaraderie in the gospel. Communicate compassionate love. I really am convinced that as those habits become more and more your life, your life will manifest this Christian affection more and more. When you allow the truth of the gospel to cement in your mind a proper mindset that says, not only are we theologically and rationally the children of God and joined together, but this has an implication on my heart, on my guts, that I'm in a position to say to the Lord, please direct my affections properly Help me to be a foul weather friend, to step into hard places with people who are struggling and weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. And then as a result, I'm going to want to communicate that compassion to them in a variety of ways. You see, not only is this a matter of obedience unto our Lord, but it's also the glorious means of giving a testimony before a watching world. It's not for no reason that Jesus said in John 13, 34 and 35, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Let's pray together. We are so grateful for the way in which your word instructs us in all matters of life. We are certainly in need of our reasoning and our logical faculties to be trained and discipled and refined by your grace. And we're thankful for that work. But Lord, we know the work doesn't stop there. It doesn't end with the training of our minds. It continues into our affections, our affections being trained and discipled and nurtured and corrected and redirected. Because there are ungodly affections which we must repent of. And then there are godly affections that we need to make sure are in place. We understand that affections are a place where we can be sinning by commission or omission. We can have wrongful affections and repent of those or we could be failing to display the affections that ought to be there and we need to repent of that inactivity. Help us to be a people who are being refined and transformed even in our affections for you and for one another. And help us to make use of the opportunities you give us to express that compassion and to care for others well. I know as we come into this kind of whole holiday season, the advent season, and right out of Thanksgiving into Christmas, I'm sure at this time of year there can be a whole host of different feelings and emotions that attend to the holiday. Some of those are intensely joyful. Some of those might be very sad. Some of those sad due to losses this last year in a variety of different forms and fashions. Give us a sensitivity and a wisdom to care about people enough, to know those who are struggling and to try to help. Help us, if we are struggling, to be a person who opens up our heart to others and shares those struggles and looks for prayer and further community. Help us not to isolate ourselves, but instead to reach in for further relationship and benefit that comes from that. Thank you, Lord, that you don't save us in an isolated fashion, but you bring us into a family. Help us to do all of the one another's will. We pray this in Jesus' name.