You have ravashed my heart, My sister, my spouse; You have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace. How fair is your love, My sister, my spouse! How much better than wine is your love, and the scent of your perfumes than all spices! Your lips, O my spouse, drip as the honeycomb; Honey and milk are under your tongue; and frangrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Song of Solomon 4:9-12
These words were from a husband Solomon, to his Shulamite bride and contain a ancient Near Eastern term of endearment by a husband for his wife, which expresses closeness and permanence of relationship. Solomon testifies that whereas she was closed to his physical love before marriage (v.12) she is appropriately open to it now. Alot can be learned by us today by what God’s Word says about marriage and commitment. The marriage covenant was created by God to freely express unconditional love for your spouse both intimately as well as for their companionship. Men today are often tongued tied when it comes to expressing their love for their wives, in fact it’s easier for them to say why they love objects like the style of a car, or a sports team, than to open up to their depths of feelings of love for their wives. The few sentences in a birthday or Valentine’s card is about all the practice they get. Well, far be it from me to show judgment, as I fit right in with these men. But one thing I do know, is that the expression “My sister, my spouse,” is the proper order for all Christian marriages. We must first be reconciled to God and become born-again into the family of God, where now all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17) the believer’s new spiritual perception of everything is a constant reality for them. For they now live for eternal purposes of glorifying God, and not just temporal things of this earth. Ideally, a Christian marriage, is a picture of both husband and wife having been reconciled to God, now living together as one, glorifying God the Father, through the relationship in Jesus Christ, and living in His righteousness. Though not perfect, yet being perfected in the sanctifying process of which we are growing into Christ-likeness in the reading and studying of His Word, which we live out its biblical meaning of marital love to lost world that is living apart from Christ.
Beloved friend, every Christian marriage already has what it takes to sculpt a glorious image of Christ’s relationship to the church, a masterpiece so lovely it will draw men and women to Christ simply by their looking at the two of you together. When Michelangelo was lauded for his famous sculptural masterpiece David, he refused the praise, replying that he had really done nothing at all. He said that the image of David was in that rock from the time of creation—that his hands were merely the tools to chip away the excess stone that revealed the beauty placed their by God eons ago. For the Christian whose married, you/we must chip away the stony “flesh” of attitudes that overlay your marriage and block the beauty God placed there when you first said “I do” on the day when you were married.
May the Lord bless your walk with Him!
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