Tag: love for god

The Beauty of Love (Song of Songs 1:1-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Song of Songs I, by Marc Chagall, 1960

The Song of Songs, which is for Solomon.

[Woman]

If only he would give me some of his kisses . . .

Oh, your loving is sweeter than wine!
Your fragrance is sweet;
        your very name is perfume.
        That’s why the young women love you.
Take me along with you; let’s run!

My king has brought me into his chambers, saying,
“Let’s exult and rejoice in you.
Let’s savor your loving more than wine.
        No wonder they all love you!”

Dark am I, and lovely, daughters of Jerusalem—
        like the black tents of the Kedar nomads,
        like the curtains of Solomon’s palace.
Don’t stare at me because I’m darkened
        by the sun’s gaze.
My own brothers were angry with me.
        They made me a caretaker of the vineyards—
        but I couldn’t care for my own vineyard.

Tell me, you whom I love with all my heart—
        where do you pasture your flock,
        where do you rest them at noon?—
            so I don’t wander around with the flocks of your companions.

[Man]

If you don’t know your way,
    most beautiful of women,
        then follow the tracks of the herds
            and graze your little goats
            by the tents of the shepherds.

I picture you, my dearest,
        as a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots!
Lovely are your cheeks, adorned with ear hoops;
        your neck, with beads.
Let’s make hoops of gold beaded with silver for you!

[Woman]

With my king close by,
        my perfume filled the air.
A sachet of myrrh is my love to me,
        lying all night between my breasts.
A cluster of henna flowers is my love to me
        in the desert gardens of En-gedi.

[Man]

Look at you—so beautiful, my dearest!
        Look at you—so beautiful! Your eyes are doves!

[Woman]

Look at you—so beautiful, my love!
        Yes, delightful! Yes, our bed is lush and green!
The ceilings of our chambers are cedars;
        our rafters, cypresses. (Common English Bible)

The Song of Songs is an unabashedly sensuous biblical book. It is, throughout its contents, an erotic paean to love. In eight chapters, a man and a woman pursue each other through verdant fields and lush valleys. The excitement they have, being together, is palpable.

Literal and Allegorical

For most of church history, the Song of Songs has been viewed as an allegory, a love poem between Christ and the Church. And in the case of Hebrew Scripture, the covenant love which exists between God and Israel, has been the predominant interpretive lens.

Seen from this perspective, the Song of Songs reflects that we ought to love the Lord with overpowering commitment, as if we were love-sick for our Beloved. Our thoughts are constantly on the object of our love – how we can please our beloved one.

And yet, there still seems to be room to read the Song in the very down-to-earth realness of physical love between two lovers. Since we are embodied people, such love ought to be celebrated, and is anything but base or to be refused. Sex is a gift from the Creator, and encouraged by God.

I think that the Song of Songs is not an either/or; it is a both/and; it’s both literal and allegorical. That’s not a weird thing. On the allegorical level, the Song is a beautiful poem describing the Divine Eros for God’s people, and the faithful’s heartfelt love for the God whose very name is Love.

Concerning a literal view, the Song celebrates the sanctity of human love, seeing within it the symbol of God’s love for us. Our very real bodies are themselves sacred, just as much as our souls.

Yet, however one chooses to look at the Song of Songs, it remains a statement of mutual admiration, of committed love and affection. It is indeed a poetic lifting of love above all else.

Indeed, if love isn’t the answer, we are not asking the right question.

Christ and the Church

Believe it or not, the Song of Songs was once viewed as an important key, capable of unlocking the entirety of Holy Scripture.

In fact, C.H. Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, in the nineteenth century, preached 59 sermons from this book; in Victorian England, no less. Spurgeon discerned the Song as central to the whole of the Bible. Reflecting on Song of Songs 1:7, he said:

“These words express the desire of the believer after Christ, and his longing for present communion with Him…. Tell me where Thou feeds, for wherever Thou stands as the Shepherd, there will I lie down as a sheep; for none but Thyself can supply my need. I cannot be satisfied to be apart from Thee. My soul hungers and thirsts for the refreshment of Thy presence….

“Satan tells me I am unworthy; but I always was unworthy, and yet Thou hast long loved me; and wherefore my unworthiness cannot be a bar to my having fellowship with Thee now. It is true I am weak in faith, and prone to fall, but my very feebleness is the reason why I should always be where Thou feeds Thy flock, that I may be strengthened, and preserved in safety beside the still waters.

“Why should I turn aside? There is no reason why I should, but there are a thousand reasons why I should not, for Jesus beckons me to come. If He withdraw Himself a little, it is but to make me prize His presence more. Now that I am grieved and distressed at being away from Him, He will lead me yet again to that sheltered nook where the lambs of His fold are sheltered from the burning sun.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The Song, in history past, once functioned as a beautiful path to deep intimacy with God. Methinks it behooves us to recover this.

Beauty Everywhere

The two lovers in the Song see beauty everywhere. They see it in each other, in the fields where the sheep are pastured, in the orchards where love is consummated, in the seasons, in the animals, trees, and hills. Beauty is all around them, and it is they themselves.

All things which God has created are lovely. Nothing is too small or too insignificant when the eyes of love look upon them. Beauty is designed to be noticed, celebrated, and praised. Love is meant to be expressed out loud, with flavor.

Each time love is stated, every exhalation of adoration, and all of the instances when beauty is acknowledged and affirmed, the ones who speak bind themselves more deeply to God and God’s big world. Together, they call all of it good.

Love Will Have Its Way

Today’s Old Testament lesson is a wondrous reminder that beauty and love will have its way. Regardless of class, race, family, or societal norms, lovers will continue to seek and find one another and claim their relationship.

While the daughters may stare, and the brothers may be angry, the lovers will yet affirm the beauty of their love. And they will find contentment with each other.

You and I are no accident on this earth; we were created by a loving Creator who has an eye for beauty. And no matter how separated we may get from our divine source, God will seek us out; and if we seek the Lord, he will be found.

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, so that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire. Amen.

The Compelling Love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:6-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

So we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive due recompense for actions done in the body, whether good or evil.

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people, but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!(New Revised Standard Version)

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the supreme authority over all things; and that we are ruled by Christ. Yet, the sort of rule Christians submit to is without any belligerence from us. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

We are ruled by Christ’s love for us. Believers are convinced that since Christ died for all, then all of us have died. Jesus died so we would no longer live for ourselves, but for the one who died and was raised to life for us. Since love is our guide and rule in life, we are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be. Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The guilt and shame of our past is forgotten; everything is made new.

Love is the distinguishing mark of the believer in Jesus Christ. A person filled and ruled by Christ’s love sees all of life in a new and different way: 

  • Positive confidence and optimism replaces negative skepticism and pessimism
  • Grace overwhelms and overrules the old judgmental spirit
  • Being attentive and mindful of others erases holding onto old hurts and animosities

The person who does not change, refuses transformation of heart, and forsakes renovation of the mind, is not being ruled by Christ’s love. 

Conversely, the person who allows the love of God in Christ through the cross to thaw their cold heart to a new white hot passionate life in the Spirit, is experiencing the resurrected existence to which we have been called.

Here is a little exercise to try today: Monitor your words and actions. And at the end of the day, ask yourself a series of questions:

  1. Were my words and actions done in love?
  2. What percentage of those words and actions were loving and unloving?
  3. Was I compelled by Christ’s love, or by some other love? 
  4. How can I bring the value of love to be more operative in my behavior and speech? 
  5. Who will I share my plan with?

The reality is this: Everything comes down to God, to the Father, Son, and Spirit. 

The distinctive manner we live is to be an expression of the triune God who exists in perfect unity, harmony, love, and mission. Whether in our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, or churches, God wants to exercise and express divine love in us and through us. God’s love compels us.

Holy Scripture says that the triune God is love (1 John 4:16). God’s nature and purpose is love itself. The reason we love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength is that God is love. 

As people created in the image and likeness of God, there is within us a deep desire to know and love God. Yet, it’s possible to lose touch with this primal instinct to love God. We may become so familiar with hearing about God that we go about our days not really know God, and the love of God in Christ.

Without knowing the God who is Love (with a capital L) people might go through the motions of living, even worshiping, without any love behind it. Like spiritual zombies, we may walk about the earth, but are really dead to what is going on in God’s wonderfully big world.

For the Christian, our first love is Jesus. We may live moral lives, operate with sound ethical principles at our jobs, and diligently serve family and church, yet miss the heart and soul of loving God. 

Jesus himself said to the church at Ephesus, who had performed good deeds, that they had forsaken their first love (Revelation 2:4). The Apostle Paul put it this way to the church at Corinth: “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3)

A new robust life of love is possible because the Father first loved us, sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and gave us the Spirit in order to display God’s love toward one another. (1 John 4:10-13) 

Jesus reminded us that all of Scripture hangs on the dual command to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). This has been understood throughout church history as The Great Commandment. 

Christ also told us that the supreme task of the Church is to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). This has been rightly discerned through Christian history as The Great Commission. 

In order to live into The Great Commandment and The Great Commission, we are to wholeheartedly embody the community of love which exists within the triune God. This is a single-minded loyalty to do what is right, just, and good for our neighbor; we might describe this as The Great Commitment.

Finally, here is yet another few questions for both committed believers and church leaders to ask themselves:

  1. In what ways might we, in this contemporary world, faithfully and obediently live into the calling we have been given by our Lord? 
  2. How do we effectively engage this primal quest of loving God, loving one another, and loving our neighbor?

Loving God, you demonstrated your love for us through the cross of Jesus. May my life be so filled with grace that what comes out of my mouth and what is done in my behavior is consistently characterized by the sort of divine love which is always true of you. Amen.

Abide In Love (John 15:9-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. (New Revised Standard Version)

We Need Love

The world, in truth, spins on the axis of love. Without love, there is no beauty. Apart from love, we would all be living in a dystopian world of mere survival. But with love, there is life, hope, purpose, and meaning; there is fulfillment, satisfaction, and security. With love, our most basic needs as people are met.

So, love is a word that must be intentionally pursued and valued; because we cannot live without it.

The very word “love” gets used in various and different ways in our world. Jesus used the word in a sacrificial sense – that love willingly gives up one’s life for the benefit of another.

Love is large. It involves the whole person – body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Love in today’s Gospel lesson is used by Jesus as an action. And it’s even more than that. Christ defined love in the Upper Room to his disciples as a willingness to die – not necessarily for a spouse or a child – but for a friend, a fellow follower of Jesus.

It seems that for most Christians, giving up one’s life for another is not at the forefront of our idea of loving another. Yet, to love our neighbor as ourselves does involve the willingness to die so that another may live. To know precisely what this is like, we need look no further than the love which exists within God.

God is Love

Love is seen above all in the love of God the Father shown forth in God the Son. Because God so loves the people of this world, the Father sent the Son, Jesus, to give his life for us. And Jesus, embodying the very love of God, willingly gave himself on our behalf. It hearkens us to Christ’s earlier words about this:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Jesus (John 3:16, NRSV)

Just as the Father loved the Son, and the Son loved us, so we are to love others with the same sort of sacrificial love which was graciously shown to us. The Apostle John made this plain in his first epistle:

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:9-11, NRSV)

Therefore, it is our privilege and responsibility to abide in this divine love and let it fill us to the full, so that God’s love moves powerfully in us and through us, for the life of the world.

Remain in Love

Love is the end result of an abiding relationship and close connection between Christ and his followers. We are to remain in the love of Christ, just as Christ remains in the love of God. Jesus asks nothing of us that he has not already modeled for us in his sacrificial service to the world. Living in union with Christ, loving Jesus, and keeping God’s commands are all a single package, bound up together in a mutual relationship.

We don’t need to wonder what God wants for us and from us: Love. The commands of Jesus are not general; they are focused and specific. Christ commands that we love one another. Our continuing work on this earth is to keep on loving people as Christ has loved us and gave himself for us.

No Greater Love

There is no greater love than that shown in the giving of one’s life for one’s friends. The power of God’s love is focused in Christ. It is confirmed in Christ’s resurrection from death. And it flows from Christ giving his life on the cross for us.

Yes, Christians are servants who are committed to serving others with sacrificial love. Yet, the disciples and all those who follow Christ are much more than servants; they are considered primarily as friends of Jesus.

Through the cross and resurrection of Christ, believers have discovered the divine power of love. There is no greater love than this. And it is this sort of love that binds Christians together as united in their mission to love as Jesus loved them.

We have been called, chosen, and appointed by Jesus to embody love’s mission and purpose. What’s more, we are equipped for the active work of love.

Whatever You Ask in Love

The very name of Jesus is love itself. So, whatever you ask, “in my name,” said Jesus, “the Father will give you.”

Because Christians are united to Christ, they are to remain in and abide with Christ. This relational connection opens up the power of prayer. And the content of those prayers – if we are truly in Christ – will always come from a place of love, be directed to love, and go to great lengths to accomplish love.

Prayer is an activity which is grounded in the abiding relationship of Father, Son, Spirit, and the Christian community. Love directs our prayers. And prayers are directed toward the action of love.

A confidence in the power of prayer is an abiding trust in the power of Love. With love animating our prayers and infusing our service, we are bold to ask God for what is right, just, and good in this world. Indeed, we pray that we will give love to each other with the love we have received from God.

Love and Joy

Being called and appointed by God to love is a privilege and a joy. There isn’t any begrudging service when love is involved. Perhaps one of the greatest prayers we can pray is to pray that our hearts be filled with love. If you don’t feel love for others, then pray for it. And be assured that you will receive it.

Love and joy go together like mashed potatoes and gravy, peanut butter and jelly, grits and honey. We know we are loving others if our joy is complete in doing so.

Jesus came to this earth so that we might experience an overflowing life of abundant love and joy. Christ longs for his joy to be in us, and for us to abide in his love. Our joy comes from knowing that we have been loved by God – chosen, called, and sent out into the world with love and for the purpose of love.

And it is this divine love that has the power to renew and transform everything – even the most troubling and stubborn of people and problems that you are presently facing. Indeed, if love is not the answer, then you are not asking the right question.

Creator God, by the mercies of your son, our Lord, Jesus, compel us to turn our hearts to his way of Love, so that we might follow Christ together as your faithful people. Dear Jesus, guide us in your way. Amen.

The Way of Love (Song of Songs 3:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Song of Songs III, by Marc Chagall, 1960

Night after night on my bed
I looked for the one I love.
I looked for him but did not find him.
I will get up now and roam around the city,
in the streets, and in the squares.
I will look for the one I love.
I looked for him but did not find him.
The watchmen making their rounds in the city found me.
I asked, “Have you seen the one I love?”
I had just left them when I found the one I love.
I held on to him and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
into the bedroom of the one who conceived me.

Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me
by the gazelles
or by the does in the field,
that you will not awaken love
or arouse love before its proper time.

Who is this young woman coming up from the wilderness
like clouds of smoke?
She is perfumed with myrrh and incense
made from the merchants’ scented powders.
Look! Solomon’s sedan chair!
Sixty soldiers from the army of Israel surround it.
All of them are skilled in using swords,
experienced in combat.
Each one has his sword at his side
and guards against the terrors of the night.
King Solomon had a carriage made for himself
from the wood of Lebanon.
He had its posts made out of silver,
its top out of gold,
its seat out of purple fabric.
Its inside—with inlaid scenes of love—
was made by the young women of Jerusalem.
Young women of Zion, come out and look at King Solomon!
Look at his crown,
the crown his mother placed on him on his wedding day,
his day of joyful delight. (God’s Word Translation)

Song of Songs III, by Marc Chagall, 1960

Eastertide is a celebration of new life through exploring the implications of living a resurrected life. A significant dimension to that life is a new awakening and awareness of love. Being raised to a new life of love means that we can dispense with old ways of looking at love that were unhealthy for us.

King Solomon’s Song of Songs has been viewed throughout the history of biblical interpretation in various ways. It’s been seen as a celebration of sexual love between a man and a woman. Others view the Song as a description of the mutual love between God and Israel or Christ and the Church.

With whatever approach we examine this unique book of Holy Scripture, I believe it’s helpful for us to avoid looking at it too literally, as if it were a sex manual for spiritually minded newlyweds.

For most of church history, the book has been viewed allegorically and metaphorically, not literally. So, it seems to me, this warrants the interpreter to walk mindfully and wisely through its wonderful prose, and not like some arrogant and supposed Romeo who believes they are God’s gift to scripture interpretation.

The Song of Songs, at its heart, is really an ode to Love itself. Love is the force that binds us together as humans, and comes from the One who is pure Love. As such, Love is perhaps the most potent strength in the universe. Thus, Love needs to be respected. Love must be handled with care, because its power can harm us if we are careless with it.

Longing for love is a universally understood feeling. The need for love is so great that the woman in today’s Old Testament lesson will put herself at considerable risk in order to seek and find her beloved in the middle of the night on the city streets.

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”

Rumi, 13th century Persian poet

Love, however, is not to be awakened before its proper time. Certainly, to love is to risk, for we choose to put ourselves out there for the sake of giving and receiving love. Yet, there are to be limits on that pursuit. Seeking love can put one in a hazardous situation. It’s best, therefore, to allow some patience with love, to not rouse love with blind desire.

Love will have its way; we need not force it before its true readiness.

The woman longs for her beloved. The pain of separation is almost too much for her to bear. Love hurts. There is, however, good pain and bad pain. The pain of waiting and wondering has a purpose which we need to submit to, and follow. It is an opportunity for careful reflection, mindful contemplation, and healthy introspection.

Without these spiritual disciplines, the problem of fear arises – not love – and begins to gnaw at us, that perhaps we are unloved. Thoughts and feelings of insecurity can creep in and dog us with incessant and obnoxious barking.

But we must trust in Love. Love cannot be domesticated, nor fully defined, and that is a good thing – because Love is much bigger than any of us. And it’s also good that we cannot precisely interpret nor explain all of the contents within the Song of Songs. The book is a good reminder that Holy Scripture stands above us, and not the other way around.

God is Love. And Love is God. True human love serves as a symbol of divine love. We not so much come to understand the ways of God and Love, as we discover it, describe it, and then determine to live it.

People never fully connect to God, at least this side of heaven, in much the same way as the desired rendezvous of the lovers in the Song never explicitly occurs. The God we seek is the God who corresponds to our needs and desires, our loves and our fears.

And yet, God is also wholly other than us; God is revealed to humanity by means of Scripture. God issues decrees and commands that may not seem as if they sync with our perceived needs. From this perspective, people must obey, regardless of any feeling.

God is, therefore, both approachable to us and completely apart from us, at the same time, all the time. God engages with us in intimate personal spiritual experiences; and God also reaches out through Scripture in human/divine encounters. Both ways are approaches of love, initiated by the One who loves us.

No matter what the question is, Love is always the answer. This is the way.

Creator God, by the mercies of your son, our Lord, Jesus, compel us to turn our hearts to the way of Love, so that we may follow Christ as your faithful people. Guide us, we pray, to Love. Amen.