8 Bible Verses about Affection For God's People
Most Relevant Verses
In your love for your brothers, show tender affection toward one another. Try to outdo one another in showing respect [for each other].
So, we have been encouraged, and in addition to [our] encouragement, we were very glad that Titus was so happy [also], because you had refreshed his spirit. For if there is anything I have boasted to him about you, you did not cause me to be ashamed of it. But as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus [about you] proved to be true also. And he has great affection for you when he remembers how obedient all of you were [i.e., obedient to his or Paul's instructions to the church], and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling [i.e., with a respectful, submissive spirit].
And so, since we have such deep affection for you, we were very pleased to share with you, not only the Gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.
For God is my witness that I long to see you with the [same] affection that Christ Jesus has [for you].
My little children [i.e., dear ones], I am again deeply pained [as a woman in childbirth] over your [spiritual] condition, until [the life of] Christ becomes formed in your character.
Besides these [kinds of] things [or, "besides these outward things"], there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother caring for her children. And so, since we have such deep affection for you, we were very pleased to share with you, not only the Gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.
