The Great Romance

As I was rounding out our last session for our Life Steps class we ended up in 1 Corinthians 13 the chapter on love. It got me to thinking about my relationship with God. All too often in evangelical circles when we talk about love we address it in the realm of the mind and the will. We tend to divorce it from the realm of emotions. I understand this and there is validity to the notion that emotions ebb and flow and just because we don’t “feel” God’s love it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. Valid point.
On the other hand, I am a hot-blooded Puerto Rican. I feel deeply. To ask me to divorce my feelings of love from my will and mind is like asking an Italian to talk with their hands tied behind their backs, or more to the point, for a Puerto Rican to eat a meal without a piece of bread in one hand. Just not happening.
So, what does the Bible say about our love relationship with God?
Deut 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Although this is stated in the form of a command, it seems to double dip in the area of emotion as it talks about loving Him with all our heart and soul. The heart and the soul are both repositories for our emotions. To be fair, the soul is also the center of our mind and our will. To this point it would seem to be a tie.
Deut 30:16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws
John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
Again love is commanded of us, but in this context it is a love that is walked out through an act of obedience so the mind and will are at the forefront of this command. If we look at the many verses in the Old and New Testament the echo this passage it becomes clear that there is a love that is required of us that has its foundation in the mind and the will and that is walked out by obedience to His Word. Advantage will and mind.
But to stop here is to do a disservice to God’s love and the relationship that He desires with us. As we continue our Biblical survey and we find our way into the Psalms the tone begins to change.
Ps 63:3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
Ps 89:1-2  I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
This love that David expressed is a love born out of something more than obedience; it is born out of relationship. Where Saul communicated to the “Lord your God” with Samuel, David had a relationship with the “Lord my God”. Still, this love is a love that is a result of God’s faithfulness and His actions in David’s life.
It is not until we get into the Song of Solomon that the more intimate aspects of the kind of relationship that God wants with us, or more specifically that Christ wants with His bride, is given voice.
Song 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth — for your love is more delightful than wine.
Song 2:4-5 He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love
Song 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.
This kind of language can be very uncomfortable. To think in these terms of our relationship with the Lord is something that makes us blush.
I think that the most telling passage in the Bible about love is this:
Eph 5:31-33 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."   This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
If this is our model then yes, our love must start with a decision of the mind and the will to be obedient in love, but it should not end there. Our love should not be dependent on feelings but cannot be divorced from it. Our loves involves all three parts of our soul; the mind, will and emotions.

The Bible invites us to be a part of the Great Romance and invites us not only to the banqueting table, but into the bridal chamber where we can become as one. That is as intimate as it gets. I want to drink deeply from that fountain.

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