Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave. (Song of Solomon 8:6)
Love is the one thing that is not physical and still universally needed by all people. In fact, the more advanced a living thing is (even plants), the more it benefits from being loved and cared for. If you read the Bible you will notice that the further you get into the scriptures, the more obvious it is that God and love are somehow deeply connected. And by the time you get near the end of the New Testament you will read, “God is love” in the book of 1 John.
The passage above is from the book Song of Solomon. Most scholars agree that it was not written primarily as a theological book. It is a love letter from Solomon to one of his wives, probably written early in his reign. It shows the depth of the love, the commitment that it takes and moves toward a deep and mature love that can withstand even the struggles of life.
Many people believe the letter was included in the scriptures because the love in the book is a paradigm of the love between God and God’s people. Some even see a foreshadowing of Christ’s love for the church and the deeper love that was shown at the cross to be “strong as death” and to be fueled with “passion fierce as the grave.” The death of Jesus is the deepest sign of God’s love being as strong as death. The resurrection the clearest sign that this love is able to even transcend the grave.
The power of love is an amazing thing. A theologian named Pierre Tielhard de Chardin said, “Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them to what is deepest in themselves.
Love lies at the heart of God. It is at the center of who we see God to be in Jesus. Is it any wonder that when we love and when we are loved that we thrive and find ourselves living life abundantly!
