A Little Experiment

Hello everyone! I want to highlight something that I’ve seen regularly among the people in Christ’s church. We don’t really know the difference between living in Christ and Him living in us. We think that one is a consequence of the other, no order necessary; which is proven wrong by the Bible. On Acts 5, we see several examples of what can happen when we walk on Christ. Acts 5:17-19, we see a miraculous example of the fact that we can do all through Christ who strengthens us. Then again, we see a physical manifestation of the same concept on 5:34-39.

What does it mean to walk in Christ? What does it mean to be with Him? It’s not just accepting Him, although it is a very important part of the process. On John 15:14, it states that to be His friend, we must obey Him. Obey what? We all know of the law mentioned in Deuteronomy. “You shall not kill, you shall not have any other god before me, etc.” When Jesus Christ comes to the rescue, He brings a new law into action. He says that only one commandment stands strongest from the others: “love others how He has loved them (John 15:12).

Although there are many steps to living in Christ and His perfect walk, I want us to meditate on this aspect first. Jesus wants us to love others, by loving others, we obey Him and as a consequence we are His friend. If we are His friend, we walk in Him and all is possible through Him, who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13), as opposed to Him living in us and us being completely unaware of His presence in our lives. Now I encourage you to think of a way to show Christ’s love this week. Feel free to post responses to this little experiment. =]

Love: the good kind

Many people claim to love. “I get butterflies in my tummy when I see him,” or “She’s so beautiful I stammer when I see her.” These are little examples of what is called puppy love, the beginning stages of what could become an unending love. In the Bible, we see a gorgeous example of how love between a man and a woman is established and grows. We have a living example of what love is in Song of Songs, one of the Poetic books written by Solomon. As my first blog in a really long time, all glory to God, I will be discussing the first chapter of Song of Solomon.

As any important piece of information, a proper introduction is necessary, ergo, we see that in the first verse. “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s” just so that there’s no confusion. Then we go into what is the female’s perspective from verses 1:2- 1:8. She goes on to speak about her beloved, how she wants him to kiss her, because his love is better than wine. Kiss, on the original context is nâshaq which means to fasten. This word is also closely related to nâśaq, or to catch fire. First thing we see is that this woman is completely in love with this man. She wants to be fastened and thus burned with his love. We move on to the next few verses, where she’s explaining who this man is to her and what she desires to do with him. Already, by the time we get to verse 1:3, we see two types of love mentioned. “Your love is sweeter than wine” and “therefore do the virgins love thee.” The first type of love mentioned is dôd which properly means to boil, figuratively to love. The second love mentioned is 'âhab- sexual affection. His love is a noble love often associated with that of a kinsman while the virgins desire him. We now understand that this man is desired- and has reason to be desired.

“I am black, but comely…” This is how the woman continues on the next few verses. My first reaction was “OMAGUH they are racist!” But as we keep on reading, we realize why it is that she makes emphasis on the tone of her skin. We see on verses like Job 30:30, Jeremiah 8:21 and Lamentations 4:6 that they refer to their skin being black as a sign of decay. The best example of this is on Mark 4:6: “But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.” This passage is in reference to the tree that didn't bear fruit. Jesus cursed it and it withered, gaining a dark color- black. Now, we can proceed to make a connection between the sun withering and dark skin: the woman was a working woman tanned by the sun. She explains the reason she’s tanned and makes sure that it’s understood that she’s still a pleasant woman regardless of her working status. In verse 1:7, she says “O thou whom my soul loveth”  that “loveth” is âhab. Soul in that context  is nephesh which means animalistic instinct. For the first time, we see that she has obvious sexual desires towards him. She expresses that even if it means to work, she’s willing to do anything to be close to her beloved.

Her friends speak next. In verse 1:8, they advice her, tell her where to go and how to go about to get to where his flock is. And in comes the man. From verses 1:9-1:12, we see how the man feels for the woman. He mentions how her beauty is accented by her jewelry and because of this, he wants to give her more to accent her beauty. In 1:12, we go back to the girl, where she speaks about her love being like a bundle of myrrh in between her breasts. She speaks about her beloved being a “cluster of camphire (Cedar like trees) in the vineyards of Engedi.” Engedi is an area very close to the Dead Sea, but ironically enough, it’s an oasis. She means to say that this man is like a relief from the sun in an oasis in her eyes. Talk about convenient. The man speaks again, telling her that she has “doves eyes.” One might think this is a silly thing to tell a girl, but here’s the story behind it: doves don’t have peripheral vision; what they focus on is just that and they see nothing else. What he meant to say is that she had complete focus on him. The girl answers him, and includes the comment “our bed is green,” as in fertility. The man answers in the final verse of the chapter, as a confirmation. The bed’s not the only green thing!

Here comes the cool part: Song of Songs is a lot more than just the story of a man and a woman in love. It’s the story of Jesus and the church. From the start we see that the bride- the church is absolutely passionate about the groom- Jesus. She knows who he is, she seeks him despite that fact that she’s a working woman and he’s a king. The church’s friend (pastors, ministers, music ministry leaders, etc.) counsel the bride on how to get to Him. He sees her, loves her and blesses her beyond what she already has. And it ends on their fertility together… The promise of more to come. Isn’t that lovely? The best example of love is that of Christ and the Church. I leave you with this: remember how the woman said that her beloved was like a bag of myrrh in between her breasts? This is a direct analogy to Christ living in our hearts. We should be passionate about what this implies… instead of taking it for granted.

  

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