"Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love." (Romans 12:10)
The word "affection" is used in at least three different contexts in scripture. One sense clearly relates to sexual immorality or wrong passions. For example, "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections" (Romans 1:26). Or "mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection" (Colossians 3:5).
A second way that affection is used is things we set our mind on or things we enjoy thinking about or paying attention to. For example, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).
A third use of affection, and what we will concentrate on in this column, is natural affection. This generally stems from a Greek word, "storge." It is translated as natural affection, like that felt by parents for their children, and generally describes relationships within a family. For example, in Romans 12:10, kindly affection is the translation for the Greek word "philostorgos" and clearly put in the context of brotherly love. In the book of Moses, though we don't know the word the Prophet Joseph Smith was translating, and it certainly was not a Greek word, we still get the sense that it is this type of affection being written of. "And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood" (Moses 7:33). This clearly links a kind of love that should prevail in our families. This verse also reminds us of another family relation. "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage … but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" because we are the children of God (Romans 8:15).
Abba is an Aramaic word that is used almost like a personal and familiar name in the New Testament. "Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants, (and) expresses an intelligent apprehension of the relationship. (It) expresses the love and intelligent confidence of a child" (Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words).
Sometimes there may be confusion between the uses of affection. As noted in Romans 1, Paul refers to "vile affections." Later in the same chapter, Paul refers to those who are "without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection" (Romans 1:31). Similarly, in 2 Timothy, Paul speaks of conditions in the last days when men shall be "disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection" (2 Timothy 3:2-3). In each of these cases the word "affection" means without "storge," or the natural affection felt between parents and their children. It is important to understand that the absence of natural affection is not the same as unnatural affection, which denotes sexual immorality.
Joseph A. Cannon is editor of the Deseret News.
e-mail: cannon@desnews.com