Songs 5:9-16 What is your beloved more than another beloved, O you fairest among women? what is your beloved more than another beloved… I. ALL HAVE SOME BELOVED. By a beloved I mean any person or anything that more than any other occupies the thoughts — entwines about itself the affections and constitutes the mainspring of the person's actions. The beloved of many is money. Their thoughts can only run on golden rails. But there are others of lighter, gayer dispositions who laugh to scorn the miser's treasure and cast their offerings at the feet of pleasure. For it they live, in it they revel. The world and the things of the world constitute their beloved, and they woo it with a blind devotion. No, my desire is to show and feel, and make you feel, that Jesus is infinitely more than any other, and that no other beloved can possibly be compared to Him. II. CHRIST SURPASSES ALL BELOVEDS. 1. He does so first in beauty. How magnificent is the description that flows from the lips of the spouse, when she is challenged to show the superiority of her Beloved. "My Beloved," she exclaims, "is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand." Here you have the perfection of loveliness — not merely ruddy, nor only pale, though there may be beauty in both, but white and ruddy, the rose and the lily united, the fairest contrasts meeting in the same person. Oh, is it not so with our Beloved? Your Beloved is white and ruddy now. 2. Our Beloved is more than others in that He reciprocates my love. For every drop of love I have towards Him, there is in His heart an ocean full for me. 3. He is more than any other beloved also, because He is never a cause of sorrow. Can you point me to any other love that never gives a pang or brings a tear? Earthly honey is always mixed with gall, and this world's fairest rose is ever accompanied with thorns. But Jesus is a beloved who is all joy. His friendship is sweeter than honey, and the rose of Sharon has no thorns. 4. Other beloveds may be loved too well, but Jesus never. Love to Him can never become a snare — love to Him need not and should never have any restraint. Love Him to a passion, and you will not love Him half enough. 5. Our Beloved is more than others in that death robs us not of Him. 6. No other beloved died for me, but Jesus did. Great and wonderful are the sacrifices that have been made through love. Remember our Beloved loved us unto the death, not because we loved Him, but because He would love us. So you will perceive that we here have love beyond that ever shown by friend to friend displayed to enemies. 7. Our Beloved is more than any other beloved in our estimation. Whatever others may think of Him, to me He is the chiefest among ten thousand. (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us? |
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