The Song of Solomon . . .

expresses the true nature of Christianity perfectly. If you do not have the mind of the bride in the Song of Solomon, you have not laid hold of the essence of Christianity.

True Christianity is a love relationship. When a person speaks about bondage or that it costs so and so much in connection with keeping God’s commandments and doing His will, he betrays his own state and announces that he is, unfortunately, way off the mark.

People who are in love do not speak about how much it costs and how difficult it is, and even less that it is bondage. It is not hard for them to forsake family and friends or their possessions. There is nothing that stands in their way or is a hindrance to them. On the contrary, their constant refrain is:

“My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Song of Sol. 2:16.

—Or—

“If I have you, then I have all I need!”

On account of this love relationship, a person despises everything else, just as we read in Chapter 8, verse 7: “Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.”

Oh, how pitiful and earthbound, how cold and barren is all this religious talk about bondage and how much it costs!!!

But isn’t it also written that it costs all our possessions? Yes, of course! And what is this “all”? What is it actually? “All our own”—spiritually speaking it is nothing but junk! Yea and Amen!

Some years ago the king of England said good-bye to the entire royal throne together with all its corresponding dignity and glory for the sake of love, leaving everything behind. And this is what many a prince and sovereign have done over the years. We have many examples of people who, for the sake of love, have left everything in this world for a sinful person. Shouldn’t a true Christian then joyfully and thankfully forsake everything for the sake of his Beloved, seeing that this Beloved is Jesus Christ, the One who is perfect in essence and in deed, and additionally, who possesses all authority and riches!?

Read the Song of Solomon, transposing everything that you read about beauty and love to virtue and keeping His commandments.

If you give yourself entirely to it, all thought and talk about what it costs, and all talk about bondage when it is a question of you keeping His commandments, will fall away.

If you want to taste the Bridegroom’s love to its fullest extent, then go out in fields of labor, into the vineyards: “There I will give you my love.” Song of Sol. 7:11-12.

Elias Aslaksen

First published in «Hidden Treasures” in September 1941 (editorial notice).