The Kiss of God and the Bride’s Life Passion (1:2-4)

I. THE SUPERIOR PLEASURES IN THE GRACE OF GOD (1:2-3)

A. The Motivation for Wanting the Kisses of God's Mouth

1. provides us with the reason why the Bride so desperately wants the kisses of God's Word. She sums up the desires of her heart in the phrase "...for your love is better than wine." She even uses the word "for" to signify the purpose of the kisses.

2. The revelation of His enjoyment of her life awakens in her the ability to enjoy Him. We also can enjoy God when we know He enjoys us even in our weakness. When we enjoy God, it's much easier to obey Him. It's what I call "affection-based obedience."

3. To better experience the impact of the divine romantic language of this book, it would be good to periodically exchange the word "love" in the Song with words like "affection," "pleasure," or "embrace."

B. The Use of Wine as a Metaphor

1. Wine is used as a metaphor in verse two because it exhilarates the heart.

2. Wine in this context also speaks of other issues

a. It speaks of the best that earthly experience has to offer, as well as God's blessings in this age.

b. It also speaks of the wine of sin's inferior pleasures.

3. The Bride is comparing the Bridegroom (Jesus) to the most exhilarating experiences in life. While there are many different categories of pleasure known to man, there is only one pleasure that is greater than all - it's the pleasure of experiencing God's affection.

C. Affection-Based Obedience

1. Affection-based obedience is obedience that flows out of experiencing Jesus' love and affection for us. His affection is much better than any of the wine of this world's pleasures. The revelation of His love is what breaks the power of sin more than anything else.

2. Obedience by faith, without feelings, is required regularly in the Word of God. However, the strongest kind of obedience is based on the understanding and experience of God's affection. A lovesick Bride embraces and endures anything for love ().

D. The Perfume of God (v. 3)

1. The anointing oil of God speaks of Jesus' lovely personality, especially His passion and pleasure for His people – even in their weakness.

2. His fragrance isn't speaking of His actions. It's speaking of who He is, His thought life, and His emotional beauty.

3. Throughout the Song, perfume is pictured as thoughts and feelings. It expresses the beauty of what's on the inside of one's personality.

4. talks about the fragrance of Jesus Christ. God literally has fragrance; it's not just a metaphor.

5. We are further introduced to the sweet perfume of God's personality through the five verbs used in the story of the Prodigal Son ().

a. The father "saw" his son.

b. He "felt" compassion.

c. He "ran" toward his son.

d. He "embraced" his son.

e. He "kissed" his son.

6. We can rest in the running, embracing, kissing heart of God. We should begin to see the Christian life as a life of being loved! He wants us to be His eternal companion.

7. God doesn't just enjoy us after we mature spiritually. He enjoys us throughout the process. The understanding of this principle is essential for our spiritual growth. (Notice the way Jesus lovingly dealt with His disciples just prior to the Crucifixion. He knew they would fail Him; and yet, in , He spoke of His Father's incredible love for them - , ).

E. The Pouring Forth of His Name (v. 3c)

1. 'The phrase "your name is oil poured out" speaks of His attributes being openly revealed.

2. This phrase also speaks of Jesus' lovely and wise acts in redemption, as well as in human history The Bride now begins to see how wise and good His dealings are in her own personal life, as well as throughout history.

II. THE BRIDE MATURING IN LOVE (1:3c)

A. Seeing the Potential in Others

1. The virgins speak of the daughters of Jerusalem. They represent genuine, yet immature, believers.

2. The revelation of God's love as described in produces a loving response back to God even from the weak daughters of Jerusalem. To see Him is to love Him.

3. The Bride saw love in these immature maidens instead of only seeing their shortcomings.

III. THE BRIDE'S TWO-FOLD LIFE VISION (1:4)

A. The Expression of Her Fervency

1. Her life vision is expressed in the prayer, "Draw me after you; let us run.” (, ).

2. "Draw me after you." This is her heart's cry for deeper intimacy.

a. She is also acknowledging that it takes God to love God, so she's asking Him to draw her ().

3. "Let us run.” - “We will run after You." (NKJ) This is her heart's cry for partnership in ministry with Jesus. She wants to be a lover of God and a servant of people.

4. Our life vision should contain both aspects of "drawing" and "running." But our "running" must come out of a growing intimacy with our Bridegroom.

B. The Growth of Her Fervency (v. 4c)

1. "The king has brought me into his chambers." The chamber experiences describe the ways that God carries us by granting us special experiences in His grace. The King's chamber is a bridal chamber. It's her private place in the Lord. The Bride's personal testimony with God (secret history) develops through these various "chamber experiences," i.e. personal revelations, personal encounters, and special impartations of the Spirit.

2. The King's chamber is also a preparation place for the Bride's future radical obedience to Jesus. Our initial experiences of being drawn near to God are His gifts to strengthen our faith. The Lord is preparing us in the chamber to live in deep love for Him and to run with Him in active service.

3. The two-fold life vision of the Bride speaks of the two Great Commandments () and the Great Commission ().

4. Four Types of Christians (these are very general categories)

a. Mary of Bethany - in a general way, she represents one with a single pursuit of passion for Jesus while lacking the public ministry and servanthood that characterized Martha's life.

b. Martha - in a general way, she represents one with compassionate service while lacking the pursuit of passion for Jesus that characterized Mary's life.

c. Paul - in a general way, he represents one who combines passion (intimacy) with compassion (servanthood).

d. Laodiceans - in a general way, these believers represent selfish, "consumer-Christians" that neither pursue passion or compassion.

C. The Certainty of Fervency (v. 4e)

1. “We will be exult (be glad) and rejoice in you. We will extol (remember) your love more than wine." This is a prophetic encouragement given by the Bride to the virgin daughters of Jerusalem that they would eventually experience the delight of His love.

2. She also commits to recalling His love as a primary source of strength and cleansing for her soul.

3. "Rightly do they love you." She affirms the impact of God's fragrance on other believers who are referred to as virgins. She declares that even when the devil lies to them, they will remember that it's right and just to be lovers of God.