The First Love
“How beautiful your love, dear, dear friend— far more pleasing than a fine, rare wine, your fragrance more exotic than select spices.” Living Bible
“How satisfying to me, my equal, my bride. Your love is my finest wine—intoxicating and thrilling. And your sweet, perfumed praises—so exotic, so pleasing.” The Passion (TPT)
I have been reading through the Passion Translation of the Song of Songs and find that it really brings out what the Lord thinks about His Church, His Bride. Here is a portion by the author, explaining the above verse.
“Your life of devotion pleases Him more than any other beautiful thing He's created.”
It intoxicates Him! Jesus is essentially saying that your love for Him is more valuable than anything else in the universe. Your love thrills His heart. He values your love more than any other pleasure there is. He measures it, not by its strength, but by its sincerity. He knows you love Him although you may fail and sin at times. You are desired just the way you are. Never let these words go in one ear and out the other. Take a moment and meditate on this truth. It will make your heart soar and cause you to live differently. Knowing how much He loves you will ignite passion that becomes an unquenchable fire.
How could this possibly be? How could God want and appreciate our fickle love so much? We see in John chapter 4 when Jesus was talking to the woman at the well that God is actively looking for worshippers.
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24
He didn’t say that He was looking for tithers, preachers or prayers even though they are important. He specifically says He is seeking for ‘worshippers’, those who see and appreciate His worth. Loving God affectionately is highly prized by our God. It delights Him.
It says in S/S 4:10 that He ‘delights’ in our love. The word delight here is to be beautiful, and bright in Hebrew. Our love is beautiful to Him.
You have to go back to why God created man in the first place to fully understand how much He appreciates our love towards Him, even more than that of Angels. When God made man He gave him a free will so as to be able to choose to love Him. He knew He took a risk in doing this and that there was the possibility man could blow it. He put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden and told Adam not to eat the fruit of that tree. He could have stuck an electric fence around the tree but that would have been forcing Adam to do only what He wanted Him to do. He wanted him to choose to love Him and not be forced to.
We have all read fairy stories of evil witches or wizards who put a spell on someone so that they loved them against their will. We have read of those who were hypnotised to do the same type of thing or given a magic potion – love potion number 9. We have all read of those who married someone for their money and not their person. In the Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Blade Runner’ which took place in the future, there were beautiful Android women who men had as their lovers. You couldn’t tell the difference between them and the real thing but they were programmed to love their masters. It was not the same as having a real woman who loved you because she chose to. You would know deep in your heart that it was not true love. In all these cases if they had the choice they would most likely leave those who had influenced them in such a way.
The difference between us and Angels is that these heavenly being have always lived in God’s presence from the day they were first made and they know nothing else but love. They have always lived in and known the presence of God. They don’t have to make a choice. We know that God is love and loves all of His creation. He loves the worship of His Angels but there is something amazing to Him about those who make that choice to love Him. We live in a fallen world and are quite blind to spiritual realities. God has given us His word that tells us all the truths about Him and the heavenly realms. He says that blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Blessed are those who believe that God is all He says He is and worship Him accordingly. The Angels were amazed when Job fell down and worshipped God in the midst of His great loss. He had nothing to show of God’s existence or love except his personal belief in who God was. Angels must have been amazed to see such an act of love, for they live in His presence all the time and know that He is so wonderful, but Job had nothing to go by – yet he loved God.
There is something special about someone choosing to love you for who you are and not what they can get out of you. We see that in some of the Bible characters. Ruth loved Naomi because of who she was and for her God and not for what she could get out of Naomi. Sometimes we are convicted because we realise that we love God for what we can get out of Him instead of for who He is. Naomi and Ruth show this kind of love. Ruth wanted to stay with Naomi and it wasn’t to get something from her.
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.” Ruth 1:15-18
We read of this type of love for God in the life of Moses. Moses chose to serve God even though it was hard and not stay in the luxuries of Egypt.
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.” Hebrew 11:24-27
God could have created you to love Him only, but He wanted you to choose to do so. Your love for Him is something you have to choose to do, it’s something that you create. God cannot and will not do it for you as He has given you free choice. He gives you the seed and it’s up to you to plant and cultivate it in your heart. It’s like an orchid, it’s very hard to grow and needs exactly the right conditions. It doesn’t like competition either and can be easily killed off. This doesn’t mean you will lose your salvation, that is received by faith but how you use the platform to cultivate love is up to you. As I said before some Christians get to heaven just by the ‘skin of their teeth’ and others like Paul are ushered in abundantly. I believe this precious love is called the 1st love. It’s like a flame that can be kindled on the altar of our hearts and can also be lost. Revelation 2:4
We need to realise that this devotion we have for Him is more beautiful than anything else He has created. God can’t create it, only we can as creatures of free choice. Its more beautiful than a butterfly, a new born baby, a sunset, a beautiful woman, flowers or planets. It’s our freewill offering of love.
Our love may seem so imperfect and insignificant to us but in the eyes of God its delightful. Of course it can be worked on by us to become even a more beautiful and an even better sacrifice. When you know what someone loves then if you loved them you would make sure that they got that thing from you. Husbands who love their wives will not give them a fishing rod for their birthday. If they love jewelry that is what they will give and not just anything. God wants us to find out what He wants and act appropriately.
Can you imagine a Master Artist who had an only son whom he loved very much, doing a finger painting for his dad as a 3-year-old? It was the best he could do and came from the child’s heart. What would be the more precious to that dad? His painting worth thousands of $$ or the picture painted by his beloved son?
This love we have for Him is very valuable in His eyes. More valuable than anything else in the world or the universe for that matter. What’s the most valuable thing you can think of in the world? Gold, diamonds, paintings, treasure in the ocean or the riches of Tutankhamun’s tomb? In the eyes of God nothing compares to the love a Christian has towards Him. It’s measured by our sincerity and not by its strength. We often sing songs to God about how much we love Him. “More than anything else,” but we know deep in our hearts that is not true. There is always room for improvement.
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” Psalm 73:25
We sing a song about Psalm 73:25, that there is nothing we desire on earth more than Him. David said this too and I believe He meant it. It’s all to do with one’s attitude. David was a rich man but he loved God more than all His riches. Abraham loved God too, more than his only begotten son and was willing to sacrifice Him on an altar. He could say from his heart that there was nothing on earth He desired more than the Lord’s will. That sort of love is beyond our comprehension. God loves us all and values all of His children, but He wants us to be even more beautiful and valuable in that we cast aside all our idols and love Him unconditionally. More than anything else in this world.
He values our love more than the pleasures of this life. Man has many pleasures like golf, fishing, gardening or rugby. Can we say that He is our greatest pleasure? God would rather spend time with you than do anything else in this world and what about us? There is nothing wrong with these things but when you love Him more than them it’s an excellent sacrifice. Have you as a rugby fanatic put aside a match on TV in obedience to the Spirit and spent that time alone with Jesus? It would be really hard and if we heard a voice say that we should do that, we would most likely say “Get ye behind me Satan.” You need to prove to yourself and God that you do love Him with all your heart. He gave His all for you. He wants to give you much more than you have. He’s not a kill joy. It’s like you offering a child $100 in exchange for their plastic toy. They will not exchange it as they don’t know the worth of the money that could buy them heaps of toys. Often we will not give up what we love for Christ because we don’t see His worth. If God ever asks you to stop something its only for your good. You have all seen the Antiques Road Show and are envious of those who had a valuable antique in their attic for years and brought it out and had it valued at the show and found it was worth thousands of dollars. They had this treasure in their possession all that time and never knew its worth. We can be like that too. We have something that God loves and wants from us but we don’t see how valuable it is to Him. Because we don’t understand the value of God and the value of our love for Him we end up withholding it.
The souls of men are the most valuable items on the planet, of more worth than the whole world. Many of those souls will perish because they don’t know their own worth and how much God loves them. God’s children are even more valuable to Him and can increase their worth with a loving devotion towards God.
The story about Martha and Mary in Luke 10:41 illustrates my point. Both these sisters were Christians and I’m sure we will see them both in heaven one day, but Mary chose to sit at Jesus’ feet and worship Him. Martha was busy in the kitchen and didn’t realise that Jesus would have preferred her to join them there. Mary saw the worth of the Lord and gave Him all her love. When Martha complained, Jesus said to her that “There was only one thing worth being concerned about and Mary had discovered it and it wouldn’t be taken away from her.” She had discovered the overwhelming never ending reckless love of God and Jesus so enjoyed her response to it. It was like wine to Him. Have you discovered His wonder yet? Have you given Him your all? He’s longing for you to do it while you still have a chance.
“How beautiful your love, dear, dear friend— far more pleasing than a fine, rare wine, your fragrance more exotic than select spices.” Living Bible
“How satisfying to me, my equal, my bride. Your love is my finest wine—intoxicating and thrilling. And your sweet, perfumed praises—so exotic, so pleasing.” The Passion (TPT)
I have been reading through the Passion Translation of the Song of Songs and find that it really brings out what the Lord thinks about His Church, His Bride. Here is a portion by the author, explaining the above verse.
“Your life of devotion pleases Him more than any other beautiful thing He's created. It intoxicates Him! Jesus is essentially saying that your love for Him is more valuable than anything else in the universe. Your love thrills His heart. He values your love more than any other pleasure there is. He measures it, not by its strength, but by its sincerity. He knows you love Him although you may fail and sin at times. You are desired just the way you are. Never let these words go in one ear and out the other. Take a moment and meditate on this truth. It will make your heart soar and cause you to live differently. Knowing how much He loves you will ignite passion that becomes an unquenchable fire.”
How could this possibly be? How could God want and appreciate our fickle love so much? We see in John chapter 4 when Jesus was talking to the woman at the well that God is actively looking for worshippers.
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24
He didn’t say that He was looking for tithers, preachers or prayers even though they are important. He specifically says He is seeking for ‘worshippers’, those who see and appreciate His worth. Loving God affectionately is highly prized by our God. It delights Him. It says in S/S 4:10 that He ‘delights’ in our love. The word delight here is to be beautiful, and bright in Hebrew. Our love is beautiful to Him.
You have to go back to why God created man in the first place to fully understand how much He appreciates our love towards Him, even more than that of Angels. When God made man He gave him a free will so as to be able to choose to love Him. He knew He took a risk in doing this and that there was the possibility man could blow it. He put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden and told Adam not to eat the fruit of that tree. He could have stuck an electric fence around the tree but that would have been forcing Adam to do only what He wanted Him to do. He wanted him to choose to love Him and not be forced to.
We have all read fairy stories of evil witches or wizards who put a spell on someone so that they loved them against their will. We have read of those who were hypnotised to do the same type of thing or given a magic potion – love potion number 9. We have all read of those who married someone for their money and not their person. In the Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Blade Runner’ which took place in the future, there were beautiful Android women who men had as their lovers. You couldn’t tell the difference between them and the real thing but they were programmed to love their masters. It was not the same as having a real woman who loved you because she chose to. You would know deep in your heart that it was not true love. In all these cases if they had the choice they would most likely leave those who had influenced them in such a way.
The difference between us and Angels is that these heavenly being have always lived in God’s presence from the day they were first made and they know nothing else but love. They have always lived in and known the presence of God. They don’t have to make a choice. We know that God is love and loves all of His creation. He loves the worship of His Angels but there is something amazing to Him about those who make that choice to love Him. We live in a fallen world and are quite blind to spiritual realities. God has given us His word that tells us all the truths about Him and the heavenly realms. He says that blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Blessed are those who believe that God is all He says He is and worship Him accordingly. The Angels were amazed when Job fell down and worshipped God in the midst of His great loss. He had nothing to show of God’s existence or love except his personal belief in who God was. Angels must have been amazed to see such an act of love, for they live in His presence all the time and know that He is so wonderful, but Job had nothing to go by – yet he loved God.
There is something special about someone choosing to love you for who you are and not what they can get out of you. We see that in some of the Bible characters. Ruth loved Naomi because of who she was and for her God and not for what she could get out of Naomi. Sometimes we are convicted because we realise that we love God for what we can get out of Him instead of for who He is. Naomi and Ruth show this kind of love. Ruth wanted to stay with Naomi and it wasn’t to get something .
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.” Ruth 1:15-18
We read of this type of love for God in the life of Moses. Moses chose to serve God even though it was hard and not stay in the luxuries of Egypt.
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.” Hebrew 11:24-27
God could have created you to love Him only, but He wanted you to choose to do so. Your love for Him is something you have to choose to do, it’s something that you create. God cannot and will not do it for you as He has given you free choice. He gives you the seed and it’s up to you to plant and cultivate it in your heart. It’s like an orchid, it’s very hard to grow and needs exactly the right conditions. It doesn’t like competition either and can be easily killed off. This doesn’t mean you will lose your salvation, that is received by faith but how you use the platform to cultivate love is up to you. As I said before some Christians get to heaven just by the ‘skin of their teeth’ and others like Paul are ushered in abundantly. I believe this precious love is called the 1st love. It’s like a flame that can be kindled on the altar of our hearts and can also be lost. Revelation 2:4
We need to realise that this devotion we have for Him is more beautiful than anything else He has created. God can’t create it, only we can as creatures of free choice. Its more beautiful than a butterfly, a new born baby, a sunset, a beautiful woman, flowers or planets. It’s our freewill offering of love.
Our love may seem so imperfect and insignificant to us but in the eyes of God its delightful. Of course it can be worked on by us to become even a more beautiful and an even better sacrifice. When you know what someone loves then if you loved them you would make sure that they got that thing from you. Husbands who love their wives will not give them a fishing rod for their birthday. If they love jewelry that is what they will give and not just anything. God wants us to find out what He wants and act appropriately.
Can you imagine a Master Artist who had an only son whom he loved very much, doing a finger painting for his dad as a 3-year-old? It was the best he could do and came from the child’s heart. What would be the more precious to that dad? His painting worth thousands of $$ or the picture painted by his beloved son?
This love we have for Him is very valuable in His eyes. More valuable than anything else in the world or the universe for that matter. What’s the most valuable thing you can think of in the world? Gold, diamonds, paintings, treasure in the ocean or the riches of Tutankhamun’s tomb? In the eyes of God nothing compares to the love a Christian has towards Him. It’s measured by our sincerity and not by its strength. We often sing songs to God about how much we love Him. “More than anything else,” but we know deep in our hearts that is not true. There is always room for improvement.
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” Psalm 73:25
We sing a song about Psalm 73:25, that there is nothing we desire on earth more than Him. David said this too and I believe He meant it. It’s all to do with one’s attitude. David was a rich man but he loved God more than all His riches. Abraham loved God too, more than his only begotten son and was willing to sacrifice Him on an altar. He could say fom his heart that there was nothing on earth He desired more than the Lord’s will. That sort of love is beyond our comprehension. God loves us all and values all of His children, but He wants us to be even more beautiful and valuable in that we cast aside all our idols and love Him unconditionally. More than anything else in this world.
He values our love more than the pleasures of this life. Man has many pleasures like golf, fishing, gardening or rugby. Can we say that He is our greatest pleasure? God would rather spend time with you than do anything else in this world and what about us? There is nothing wrong with these things but when you love Him more than them it’s an excellent sacrifice. Have you as a rugby fanatic put aside a match on TV in obedience to the Spirit and spent that time alone with Jesus? It would be really hard and if we heard a voice say that we should do that, we would most likely say “Get ye behind me satan.” You need to prove to yourself and God that you do love Him with all your heart. He gave His all for you. He wants to give you much more than you have. He’s not a kill joy. It’s like you offering a child $100 in exchange for their plastic toy. They will not exchange it as they don’t know the worth of the money that could buy them heaps of toys. Often we will not give up what we love for Christ because we don’t see His worth. If God ever asks you to stop something its only for your good. You have all seen the Antiques Road Show and are envious of those who had a valuable antique in their attic for years and brought it out and had it valued at the show and found it was worth thousands of dollars. They had this treasure in their possession all that time and never knew its worth. We can be like that too. We have something that God loves and wants from us but we don’t see how valuable it is to Him. Because we don’t understand the value of God and the value of our love for Him we end up withholding it.
The souls of men are the most valuable items on the planet, of more worth than the whole world. Many of those souls will perish because they don’t know their own worth and how much God loves them. God’s children are even more valuable to Him and can increase their worth with a loving devotion towards God.
The story about Martha and Mary in Luke 10:41 illustrates my point. Both these sisters were Christians and I’m sure we will see them both in heaven one day, but Mary chose to sit at Jesus’ feet and worship Him. Martha was busy in the kitchen and didn’t realise that Jesus would have preferred her to join them there. Mary saw the worth of the Lord and gave Him all her love. When Martha complained, Jesus said to her that “There was only one thing worth being concerned about and Mary had discovered it and it wouldn’t be taken away from her.” She had discovered the overwhelming never ending reckless love of God and Jesus so enjoyed her response to it. It was like wine to Him. Have you discovered His wonder yet? Have you given Him your all? He’s longing for you to do it while you still have a chance.