God's kind of love

What is love?

Love is very patient, very kind.   Love knows no jealousy: love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful; love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, always hopeful, always patient.  Love never fails.  (1 Corinthians 13)

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth. (1.John 3.18)

A friend loves at all times.  (Proverbs.17.17)

God is love

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him…We love because he first loved us.  (1.John 4)

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die. But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (Romans.5.8)

Place me like a seal over your heart,
   like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
   its ardour unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
   like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
   rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give
   all the wealth of his house for love,
   it would be utterly scorned.    (Song of Songs.8.6-7)

Christ the husband

For your Maker is your husband - the Lord Almighty is his name… "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken…" says the Lord, who has compassion on you.     (Isaiah.54.5,10)

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.      (2.Corinthians.11.2)

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.  (1.Peter.1.22)

Marriage

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he bought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis.2.23-4)

Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel." Laban said, "It's better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me." So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. (Genesis.29.18-20)

[Elkanah] had two wives; one was Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none… Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. (1.Samuel.1.2,4)

If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.  (Deuteronomy.24.5)

May you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer - may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.    (Proverbs.5.18-9)

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.      (Ephesians.5.25-9)

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect.     (1.Peter.3.7)

The Lord said to me, "Go, show you love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." (Hosea.3.1)

Song of Songs

All beautiful you are, my darling;
    there is no flaw in you.
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
    come with me from Lebanon.
Descend from the crest of Amana,
    from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon,
    from the lions' dens
    and the mountain haunts of leopards.
You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
   you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
   with one jewel of your necklace.
How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
    and the fragrance of your love than any spice!
Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;
    milk and honey are under your tongue.
The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon.
You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride;
    you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates
    with choice fruits,
    with henna and nard,
    nard and saffron,
    calamus and cinnamon,
    with every kind of incense tree,
    with myrrh and aloes,
    and all the finest spices.
You are a garden fountain,
    a well of flowing water
    streaming down from Lebanon.    (Song of Songs.4.7-15)

The Song of Songs (sometimes called the Song of Solomon) is one of the strangest and most beautiful books in the Bible. People might at first be a little surprised to find it included in the scriptures, however its eroticism and sensuality are essential parts of the biblical treatment of love and marriage. At the Council of Jamnia in 90AD, Rabbi Aquiba extravagantly defended the place of the Song in the Jewish Canon, "In the entire world, there is nothing to equal the day on which the Song of Solomon was given to Israel. All the writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is most Holy". We are all to familiar with the self-serving eroticism of this fallen world, but this should not discourage us from seeking after the wonderful and wholesome original, of which the fallen version is a pale shadow, and the Song is a helpful tool to rediscover the original. A good commentary, to help study the Song is 'The Message of the Song of Songs" by Tom Gledhill, published by Inter-Varsity Press (1994).