It is very unusual for me to read in a service from the AV but I really want to focus on one word which is commonly used in the AV, more so than in the modern translations. ‘Beloved’
Song of Solomon 2:8-17 AV
8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.
10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.
Identifying this love.
Harold Horton, (who lived in Poole) wrote in a preface to his book “Chords from Solomon’s Song” “The simple theme of this heavenly Song is “Jesus and his love.” The true believer who reads it is quite at ease in its seeming mysteries. He is not perplexed by the glowing imagery. It is not an image he sees, but a Lover - not a simile, but a Saviour.”
I have to admit that this is not always the easiest poetry to understand, not so much for the poetry, but for the reason it was placed in the Canon of scripture. For one not being noted for his poetic qualities or romantics, the difficulties of understanding some of this is considerable. I am not alone, One of my colleagues rose to the height of his public display one day when he said, “You know I love you, I bought you chips - didn’t I!”
Here in this classic though, we come to this beautiful and easily understood statement. In chapter 2:16 we have this incredible assured statement from the young woman to her beloved. “My beloved is mine, and I am his...” Contained in those eight words is a note of absolute assurance. Horton wrote, “Many contingencies change the course of love for us. No contingencies change Him we love. Our grandest assurances of mutual possession is not in our holiness or faithfulness but His.” We can claim the same words, “My beloved is mine, and I am his...” and our assurance is not because of what we can bring into the bond, into the marriage. We cannot claim some sort of victory through what we have achieved, but we can claim to know and have experienced His great love!
James Small wrote a lovely old hymn, that Horton quotes:-
I’ve found a Friend, O such a friend! He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love, and thus He bound me to Him;
And round my heart still closely twine those ties which naught can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine, forever and forever.
(Hosea 11:4) ‘I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.’ This was the message of God to his unfaithful people, it was a message which said I love you even when you had no time for me.
There has been many a climber/explorer, who at one time or another have been only too glad to be tied to their companion when the road has been rough and the way uncertain. This is perhaps the main part of the message I want to bring this morning. You and I have in Jesus Christ, more than a friend, but one who is beloved and is mine and we are His!
How much He loves us!
(Ephesians 1:5-7 AV) ‘Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;’
Jesus, the beloved of God, came so that we who were hopelessly lost in sin, would be brought back into a loving relationship with the Father. - Phrases such as ‘adopted as children’ - ‘no longer aliens’ are precious statements. Jesus the beloved of God came for us! (Philippians 2:8) ‘And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!’
The Life Application Commentary on Ephesians 1:6 ‘...now that we belong to his dearly loved Son. God’s favour to us is realized by our union with Christ. We could say that God’s love for his only Son motivated him to have many more sons.’ The bond of love which exists between us and God is not reliant on us and the love we can produce it is love from God which brought us back to the place we should be, in Christ Jesus! (2 Thessalonians 2:13 NLT) ‘As for us, we always thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved [AV beloved of the Lord] by the Lord. We are thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation, a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and by your belief in the truth.’
So here in Paul’s writings is the fact that — the beloved of God came to our world to claim back, transform, bring the sinner who God had always loved, to the place where we know and understand once again that we are God’s beloved. I read a story in a paper this week of Mark Baylis who through quite amazing circumstances was reunited with his birth mother. Adopted at birth and brought up by wonderful parents, yet there was still the longing to know what had happened, was he really loved. The came the moment of reunion, suddenly the knowledge which changed his life. Despite being far away, separated, he was always the beloved. That story breaks down as an illustration in the context of what we are looking at, it served to highlight the fact that despite separation through sin, we are and always have been God’s beloved.
Lavished Love.
(1 John 3:1-2)
‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!...
We are told that in the 60s when the hippies were about, ‘flower power and free love’, many young people distorted those beautiful words, "God is love" to "Love is God" -- By that they meant, anything they called "love" had to be "god." (Something which they saw as supreme in their life. But love by any of man’s definitions is not God. God IS love!
Lennon and McCartney wrote, “No one you can save that can’t be saved... It’s easy. All you need is love, all you need is love,” The trouble was that they were looking to the god ‘Love’ and not to the God of love.
John as he wrote his majestic letter asked, “Behold, what manner of love” John himself answers that It was the most tender and beautiful that love could be. He adopts us into His family, and we are taught to address Him in the same way that Jesus His Son speaks to Him. ‘Our Father’! If we can measure His love, it has to be in the way of humans. We are adopted into His family. Can there be a higher measure of human love that can be shown when a family adopts a child, brings that child into the family with all the rights of a blood child? 2 [Beloved AV] Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ (Romans 14:8) ‘If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.’
Living in Love.
(1 John 4:7-8 AV)
‘Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.’ John addresses them as beloved or in the modern translations, Dear Friends. That was his name for them, but it is spoken in the knowledge that they were ‘dear friends’ because they were one in Christ Jesus.
Let me read you an e-mail from Gordon McKillop in Zambia. “What an unintentional ’curse’ has been thrust on some parts of the African Church, certainly in Zambia, by missionaries not only preaching the Gospel but importing with it their own denomination and a Western way of worship. The result is, sadly, a type of ’Christian Tribalism’ where one group feel justified even in showing agression to all others who are not of their denomination.... We have been so grateful for opportunities in Zambia over recent years to arrange to meet with various groups together and to preach & teach on the ’The Church’ as one body... It has been precious to see God’s Spirit doing amazing things in people’s hearts bringing healing and reconciliation between factions who once thought that aggression towards other Christian groups was justified!!”
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: May we live in the certain knowledge that He is our Loving Father that we are His beloved! May that wonderful knowledge be the foundation for life. We need our Beloved Friends. We must be together in Christ, that His name be glorified in us and through us.
