Where is Love?

Few passages of scripture conjure more passion and vivid depictions of true love between two people than those found in Song of Songs. Though scholars debate it’s origin, most attribute this eloquently composed collection of love poems to King Solomon. The text not only expresses a divine understanding of the union of human hearts but amazingly the unbreakable bond between almighty God and His people. To truly understand the hidden treasures of this often misunderstood book of the Bible, we must experience its beauty firsthand. Each chapter expresses much more than the physical attraction between a man and a woman. Through poetic imagery and passionate narrative, this timeless book seeks to describe the magnificent sonnet of our own holy betrothal as the bride of Christ.  

In a day and age where love is cheapened to little more than a few pennies shy of a good time, finding a holy compass for true love often proves highly evasive. Our world lost its way to divine love long ago. Even those of relatively moral standing in our society, who seek to describe the hidden aspects of love, fall way short in the attempt. Why is this? How is it that the most earnest biblical and cultural scholars of our day fail to adequately characterize this thing called love? The answer is simple. Too few of them know God so they do not know love. God is love and apart from Him anything resembling love remains merely a sullied mirage. (1 John 4:7)

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1 John 4:7-8 (ESV)

The attributes of true love are often described as a series of actions, characterizations, or motivations of human existence. But these do little more than add to the clanging monotony of endless attempts to describe what love might look like (1 Corinthians 13:1).  So how can we presume to utter the phrase “I’m in love” without first knowing what we are talking about? There are all kinds of love. Family, friendships, romantic, infatuation, and even self love. Romantic love, for example, remains the most celebrated human expression of emotion in all of history. From Shakespeare to Keats, from Jane Austin to classic Hollywood, love continues to be idolized in ignorance.

If we want to sincerely experience love in all its majesty, we must encounter God Himself. Love is not cheap and does not come free. True love requires the ultimate sacrifice. Our modern culture has journeyed headlong down the path of Sodom with all its depravities and despicable snares. Society is now comfortable with labeling its satanic rituals as nothing less than love itself. However, more than two thousand years ago Christ demonstrated the purest form of love by sacrificing His life for yours on the cross (John 15:13). Anything less than this is not love. To honestly experience the overwhelming, all-consuming strength of the most powerful force in the universe, we must die to ourselves and rise again with Christ. Any other form of religion, sacrifice, heroism, practice, experience, or devotion, rots in comparison. To die with Christ means to surrender everything that makes up who you are with the goal of becoming like Him in every way (Galatians 2:20). To be raised again with Jesus means to be transformed into His likeness and character. The life, death, and resurrection of God’s only begotten Son demonstrates who we should be. If God is love and to know God is to die to who we are, then it stands to reason that to know God is to know love. Sounds simple enough but only those who truly give up their lives for Christ have the right to say, “I’m in love.”

Israel’s third king narrated the passion of this love when he wrote, “I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking.” Christ is knocking at the door of our hearts. Those of us awake enough to hear Him, must rise from our slumber and flee the torments of our age until we fall into His arms. This world will beat us down, entice with lust, enchant with romance, and stain us with its demented compromise all in the name of this ever elusive love. Yet, for those who abandon everything for the sake of finding Jesus, Love Himself will be our reward.

“I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”

Song of Solomon 5:2 (ESV)

A thousand lifetimes would not be sufficient to understand even a minute portion of God’s love for us. Yet, in His mercy, He reaches down and allows our little brains to experience His love firsthand. Many years ago, the Holy Spirit began to reveal the mysteries of this secret love to my heart. Through the push and pull of life’s tremors, the tare of suffering mingled with the joy of daily living, and the concealed pleasure of walking with Jesus, He has taught me (at least in part) what this love means. The beautiful love I share with my wife of more than twenty years and the joy our children bring to our lives, serve to instruct my heart in the ways of Christ’s love. I find it in the quiet movement of the Holy Spirit and the changes He imparts to my character which draw me ever closer to this understanding. In contrast, the selfishness, ignorance, and greed of this world demonstrate the shackles that could easily be mine if I did not have Christ’s love. Nothing expresses this better than the fifth chapter of Song of Solomon. I recall reading these words decades ago and being floored by the sheer beauty of God’s love for His chosen ones. There’s a track on my third album reflecting this wonderful poem from scripture, expressed from the perspective of the bride longing for her lover. Appropriately, my wife sang solo on this recording and to this day, it remains one of my favorites. The anticipation of love, horror of loss, and exhausted release expressed in this passage of scripture outdoes any contemporary poet. May all those longing for love find it sublimely in the arms of Jesus.

Asleep but my heart is still awake
I heard a knock at the door, He calls my name
It is Love, it’s my Love 

So I rose from my bed when I heard His song
But when I opened the door He was gone
Where is Love, Where’s my Love

Chorus
Where has my lover gone                     
I will not rest until I’m safe within His arms
Where has my lover gone         
Most beautiful of loves of lover of my heart 

I go to the watchmen in the street
And ask them were my Love could be?
Where is Love, where’s my Love

But to my surprise they throw me down
And punish and curse me on the ground
Who is Love, whose your Love

So I enter a garden with weeps and cries
And ask the keeper has he seen any sign 
Of my Love, where’s my Love
                              
With a gentle voice and warm strong hands
He lifts me up so I might stand
I am Love, I’m your Love