Together in Affection

The Lord is not making His people nice. He makes some pagans nice. He crucified His Son to make us new. That may include transforming angry, rude men into men with kindness who know how to pursue peace when appropriate, but it’s more. We may not all be John Knox flame-throwers, but we all are the light of the world, and light makes darkness edgy.

You have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). In baptism you’ve been united to the Son, buried/dead and raised/made alive (Romans 6:5). You are in Christ (Colossians 1:2), and the life you now live you live to God because Christ lives in you (Galatians 2:20). Christ is the hope of glory, and Christ is in you (Colossians 1:27).

He has also give you His Spirit. The Spirit caused you to be born again (John 3:6). The Spirit testifies of God’s truth directly (1 John 5:6). The Spirit pours God’s love in your heart (Romans 5:5). The Spirit seals you for eternal inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14).

I’m reminding you of these realities because in them we rejoice even if now, for a little while, we are in heaviness through manifold trials (1 Peter 1:6). We are, to varying degrees, afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair (2 Corinthians 4:8). We do not lose heart, we live on unseen things (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

We sing and celebrate our communion with God and with Christ’s body not as a denial of or distraction from our problems and pains, but because we have been given hope that our sufferings are God-appointed to make us salty, to make us sharp, to make us ready for His return, to make us one in love.

“why doth the Lord bring his people together in affliction, but to bring them together in affection.”

—Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture