We want to cultivate the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, and we want to display the fruit of the Spirit that is self-control.  Stop offering excuses.  There is no behaviour so compulsive that Christ doesn’t offer the power to overcome.  he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, and he will provide you a way out of temptation (! Cor. 10:13). Song of songs is a call to intimacy.  It is a call to safe, pure and godly relationships with people.   It is a call to passionate intimacy with Jesus, the lover of our souls.  

Was Jesus beautiful?  If you were take Hollywood as your guide you would assume he was.  It seems that when any film is made about him he is portrayed with beautiful eyes and a winsome smile.  Yet we read in Isaiah that ‘he had no majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him’ (53:2).  He had no physical beauty.

Yet the Bible highlights the importance of a different type of beauty.  The apostle Paul talks about the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit (1 Pet. 3:4).  Jesus described himself as gentle and lowly.

The Reverend George Good was known to me as ‘uncle George’.  He was not actually my uncle but a close family friend.  He died many years ago.  He had been a Methodist missionary in Sri Lanka for some time and had a profound influence on a teenager called Ajith Fernando.  Ajith grew up to become a well known Christian author.  In a number of his books Ajith spoke of the influence of uncle George on him.  Ajith wrote: ‘to the pastor of my teenage years, who influenced me in the beauty of godliness.’

Which matters more to us, the beauty of appearance or the beauty of godliness?  Which do we spend more time cultivating?

This morning we continue our look at the Song of songs, and we see the young woman longing for her man.  We are going to think about desire, character and intimacy.

Desire (1:2)

I have suggested that this song was written by Solomon, who was a great failure in love, who is writing about a fictional young couple.  As with all of the Old Testament these words point us ahead to Jesus and his work on the cross.  So we will look at these verses both as a reflection of human love and the love we want to pour out on Jesus.

The Song begins with with an expression of desire.  ‘Kiss me’.  ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.’

It is not wrong to want to be loved.  In fact, it is a sign of emotional sickness when we push everyone away and erect a protective wall around ourself.  It is not wrong to want romantic love.  Although we must remember that the most complete human who ever lived, Jesus Christ, lived and died a virgin.  The love that we need most of all is the love that can be experienced in Jesus Christ.

We grow our love for Jesus by looking at him in the face and meditating about the sacrifice he made so that we can be his.  George Muller wrote, ‘Happiness in God comes from seeing God revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ through the Scriptures.’

So do we read the Bible simply as a text book trying to acquire knowledge or as a love letter where we can learn about someone we deeply care about and see how to live in the light of his love?

Character (1:3)

This young woman loves everything about her man.

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