“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” Song of Solomon 2:4
The rose of Sharon experienced such great love that by comparison other love was like thorns. “As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters” Song of Solomon 2:2. The world has no taste for the fruit God offers, however His love changes the tastes of His people, “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste” S o S 2:3.
The banqueting house of God is to partake of His holiness, and that which sets Him apart from His creation is offered to His beloved. “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” Romans 6:22.
Christ is the Banner over His people, and that Banner is love. When God ordained that He should make a people who would partake of His holiness, He set a plan in motion that would cost Him everything. In order for God to create He only had to speak, but to redeem He had to bleed.
Concerning the greatness of His love Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13. The love of Jesus is for the purpose of partaking of His holiness and bearing His fruit. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain” John 15:16.
The Christian life is a shared life! The mind, will, purpose, and character of Christ become woven into the Christian identity, so that no one knows the Christian from Christ. “He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me.” John 6:56-57
The Christian is on a path that leads to Christ likeness, or else he is not a Christian at all!
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