23–29 August 2015.

Song of Songs 3:1–5 (click to read).

You can’t turn on the radio today without hearing love songs. So many pop songs describe the search for love, the joys of love, the feelings of excitement that come from falling in love, and even the sadness of love that fails.

Sometimes Christians fall into the trap of thinking that physical love has no place in the church. Some people prefer to push away all feelings and desires of the body, and just concentrate on the spirit. But that would be a sad thing to do. The early church rejected those groups who tried to deny the importance of the body, and rightly told us that that is a road that leads to heresies. God created this physical world, gave us physical bodies, and encouraged us to be in intimate relationships with each other. All of this God called good. And in the church we celebrate this physical love in wedding ceremonies.

We have lost the music for these biblical love songs, but we can still appreciate their beauty. And we see that our modern songs still share many themes with these ancient love songs!

In today’s song, a girl describes how she goes out searching for the boy she loves. We listen to her describe a familiar experience: being distracted, constantly thinking of her lover, being unable to sleep, wanting to go searching for him even in the night. What a great description of young love, and the way it distracts us from everything!

Love has this power to overwhelm us, to push us beyond our self-centeredness and make us seek a connection with others. This power pushes at us constantly, wanting to be fulfilled, and not stopping until it finds its love. That’s why the girl ends with a warning in verse 6: be careful about waking up the power of love!

Those of us who are older know that this power of love can make us to do many stupid things. This isn’t a reason to reject love, but it’s a good reminder that we should be there to offer good advice to our children and friends when they fall under the great power of love.

Pastor Stephen Lakkis