For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.After the EI (Emotional Intelligence) boom, should we crave emotional intelligence? Is there something that we've missed.
Yearn - an intense desire with the implication of need. The word Peter uses to describe a baby's craving for its mother's milk.
Phi 1:8 is an expression that, despite being secure in being loved, Richard says he doesn't hear people say to him too often. Very expressive.
"with the viscera of Christ Jesus" - the heart, the entrails, the bowels (not as good on a birthday card). Paul's emotions are shaped by Christ Jesus. The phrase is instrumental, describing by what means Paul yearns for them.
Not just for the Philippians
- 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:10 - Such great joy and feeling for those who had stuck with him through thick and thin
- 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11 - Such is his feeling of grief over those with whom his relationship is difficult and whose faith is troubled.
- 2 Corinthians 11:28-29 - Not just to those with whom he's shared the extremes of emotion, good and bad, but he has a similar emotional burden for all the churches.
- Romans 9:1-5 - similarly, for his national brothers, Israel.
Paul expresses this publicly as a model for his hearers
Philippians 2:1-2 - Paul appeals to us to be transformed by the reality of the affections of Christ. Should thus Philippians 2 be thought of as a hymn to Jesus' splagkna? Humility, sure, but would Jesus
So, do we need EI? (many say the Sydney diocese does!)
Seems a bit like a fad. Can't deal with things like anguish and other similar emotions.
But I know I want to be like Paul. The affections of Christ brought to him the afflictions of Christ. Paul was content to have death working in him, and life working in those he worked for.
Want to be more like Paul in the way he genuinely loved and longed for people, burdened to pray for them. I want his tender heart. To genuinely love deeply and so also genuinely serve.
I want to be conformed to the image of His Son. The tender-hearted mercies of the father and the compassion of the Son came up with the incarnation, not sure EI could do so. The deep longing, in the gut, the entrails, of God spilled out in the gospel of the cross of Christ.
The garden of gethsemane shows that you can't have Christ's affections, without Christ's afflictions.