June 16 – Love (Song of Solomon 2:1-4)

“His banner over me is love.” (Song of Solomon 2:4)

IN WORD:
The Song of Solomon is an amorous book because our God. Is an amorous God. Does. It seem irreverent to say so? It can’t be, not when we realize the most passionate kind of love could not have originated anywhere but in the passionate heart of God. It is certainly not Satan’s invention, nor that of a depraved human condition. It is experienced by emotional beings made in the image of an emotional God. Our love reflects His.
Like the bridegroom in the Song of Solomon, our Bridegroom, Jesus, has set His love over us as His declaration of victory. It is our identity. We know that He loves us, and because of that, we love Him (1 John 4:19). Not only do we love Him, we love each other. It is the identifying feature of a Spirit-filled Christian. Where love is absent, so is the Spirit. Where the Spirit is absent, so is love.
So important is this characteristic that Jesus spent the major part of His last words to His disciples on the subject. In John 13-16, He first demonstrates love and then preaches on it: love and obedience, love and the Spirit, love and prayer, love and His friendship, love and joy. Then in His parting prayer, He asks this of the Father: “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23). It is an intimate love — “I in them and you in me” — between a loving God, the beloved Son, and a love-hungry people. If there is any single mark of belief, it is love.

IN DEED:
Does your life bear the banner of love? Are you aware of God’s great love for you? Do you have great love for Him and for others? Do not be deceived: No matter how spiritually mature a believer is, it is a false spirituality if he or she is not thoroughly saturated in love. “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). There is no way around it. The Christian life is a loving life. An un-loving life is not Christian. Let love, above all else, define you.

“Love of man necessarily arises out of love of God.”
-John Hooper-