The thought is not original with me. Others have written or spoken on the subject. Perhaps one of the more notable is Jonathan Edwards. In his great book Religious Affections he reflected on the place of right and proper “affections” (emotions or feelings) that are to characterize this life we have with Jesus. And it seems to me that contemporary friends and followers of Jesus may not place as great a weight on such “holy affections” as is appropriate.
I was reading and reflecting on Peter’s first epistle and was caught up in thought by a passage that I had read before, but which came to me with some fresh impact. Writing to fellow-followers of Jesus, Peter comments:
And though you have not seen [Jesus], you love him, and though you do not see him now, be believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9)
Peter is writing to those who are facing hardship, struggling under persecution and difficulty. And he is clarifying just what it is to live a Gospel-shaped life (see 1:3-12). It is in thinking about what it means to live a Gospel-shaped life and to let the salvation offered in the Gospel permeate our living that Peter speaks this way. And what he is writing about seems to embrace some amazing affections.
Put simply, Peter is insisting that the Christian life, salvation, is a matter of loving Jesus, having faith in Jesus, and rejoicing in Jesus. And that is pretty startling . . . particularly given the way so many followers and friends of Jesus describe their life.
It’s so easy to reduce life with Jesus to “doing stuff”–like having devotions, sharing the “good news,” going to church. Not that any of those things are bad in and of themselves. It’s just that such things aren’t the essence; they are the expression of the essence and Peter has captured the essence. He focuses on holy affections, things that flow from the heart, passions that shape our lives–believing and loving and rejoicing.
Peter is not saying “act like you believe” or “do loving kinds of things” or “pretend you are happy in Jesus.” To give into what Peter describes here is going to require a genuine turn of affections in my soul so that my believing is not mere “credence” and my loving is more than being nice and my rejoicing is genuine delight and gladness and not merely affirmation that in some theoretical way Jesus is pretty good.
There is a great deal more to reflect on in these few verses, but this morning my mind and heart are captured by this simple idea: For Peter, salvation is the outcome of having right and holy affections for Jesus. And that would mean that what God is most interested in is creating in us such right and holy affections . . . much more than he is interested in just getting us to “do right.”
At the heart of the matter for a follower of Jesus is a heart filled with amazing affections overflowing in a loving, dependent, joy.
