Love’s Endless Journey
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth – for your love is more delightful than wine. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear. (Song 1:2, 1John 4:18)
The gospel was well summarized in a verse that has been memorized by numerous children and adults across the Christian history: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Those who evangelize door to door or town to town use the punchline ‘Jesus loves you’ as a summary of their message. God’s love for His people is at the core of the gospel message. One would then wonder how such a seemingly simple message would culminate in so many books – sixty-six – by so many authors, making up the Bible, yet preachers have to endlessly expound and relay to masses with additional words this same message! There is a reason – the love of the Lover will be restless until it finds a home in the Beloved.
The Bible starts with the relationship forming and ends with a relationship consummated; in between are various experiences, stories, conversations, poems and songs about this love. It sometimes exhibits burning jealousy, while other times it sounds blissful. In the Song of Songs, more explicit love conversations happen in public to give this subject a feel of reality for us people in whom God has engrained this concept that should facilitate marriage and continuity of the human race. In the second verse, we find a thirsty Beloved longing for a fill of her Lover’s love; she speaks to the friends around: ‘let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth’, only for her Lover to appear quickly where she is – almost by surprise; and she can’t hold back her praise: ‘for your love is more delightful than wine’. This opening is given more detail in the eight chapters of the Song.
John the Apostle brings clearly the theme of love in both the gospel that bears his name and the three epistles. It is from him that we get the most famous verse – God so loved the world…, and it is from him that we get the opening line for the common Order of Service for weddings – God is love… Again it is from him that we get pictures of the climax of this love, described as the wedding of the Lamb in the Book of Revelation. There are two senses in which I see love’s endless journey: First, for whoever has not received the Lord Jesus Christ, God is pursuing you endlessly until you either give in or are permanently lost. The second sense is for those who have accepted this love, those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ will not only enjoy His love here today but even more in eternity – growing ever sweeter, a blissful and wonderful journey of God’s love upon his Beloved. I wonder if you are in Love with Jesus?
God bless you all.