True Love
Written by Mike Sproul on Jul 26, 2018
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor. Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. (Song of Solomon 8:4-7 ESV)
- Look here in verse 6, what are some of the images that indicate the intensity
of true love in these verses?
1) True love is strong as death. Just as death’s hold cannot be broken
except by God who created life, God inspired marriage vows cannot be
broken honorably except by death.
2) True love is unrelenting in its fervor as the grave is in swallowing up the
dead. The Hebrew word for the grave is Sheol; often it referred
specifically to the place of the unrighteous dead but sometimes to the
place where all the dead went.
3) True love is like a blazing flame of fire. The flame of true love is the most
intense imaginable-like a flame bursting from the Lord himself. It refers to
the strong, exclusive claims love demands of the one loved. It allows no
rivals and tolerates no interference. True love is love that only the Lord
gives, and only to those who know Him through faith in Jesus Christ can
express love to one another in its purest, most selfless form.