Read Song of Solomon 8.
This chapter is a rich conclusion to the book. It recounts how she was protected by her brothers growing up (v.8). When she matured, she had resisted sexual temptation (v.10). Then, she met Solomon in one of his vineyards (v.11).
The middle verses contain some of the most powerful statements of human love in all the Bible.
1. True love is persistent. (v.6a)
The signet seal is an official stamp. Once done, it is not to be tampered with or altered. The marriage vows state that regardless of any change in circumstances-for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health-the couple is to love and to cherish each other. Her request was that such a seal be upon all his thoughts and his actions. True love never gives up.
2. True love is passionate. (v.6b-7a)
There is someone for everyone. Like death, true love is no respecter of persons, stage of life, or status. It happens to all of us. Love is a burning desire to give oneself and to be with that one person. This is very different from lust, whose only goal is to get. The phrase may be translated "the very flame of the LORD" as in the ESV and the NIV notation. Not only is this kind of love acceptable to God, He is the Creator of such emotions. With that literal translation, it is the only reference to God in the book.
3. True love is priceless. (v.7b)
No amount of money can buy love. Trying to do so will only result in that one being despised. True love is given. It is gift that one freely offers to another.
In Ephesians 5, we learn that marriage pictures to an unbelieving world our relationship with Christ. How a wife shows respect to her husband and the manner in which a husband demonstrates love to his wife, tells everyone around them, "This is how Jesus loves me!"
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