Intimate Relationship With Christ

[Dr. Shane]

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In the Gospels discipleship is pictured as a kind of training program by which the followers of Jesus learn from their Master---who is their teacher, leader mentor, example, and guide. We might describe the New Testament as giving us thorough (logos-style) instruction in the "externals" of discipleship. How do we walk with God? How do we re-orient our behavior, our lifestyles and our thinking so as to line up with God's plans for the coming kingdom? Discipleship in the New Testament is usually thought of as "discipline"---we learn and are trained by those more experienced and more mature than we are, we sharpen one another ("as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another"), and we hold one another accountable. There is less emphasis of motives and emotions than on behavior.

In contrast, we can think of the Song of Solomon as giving us an "interior," experiential, view of discipleship. Here we have the story of an intimate relationship between two lovers. Love is all important of course (1 Corinthians 13)---dead orthodoxy is common everywhere in our day. The Church at Ephesus was warned by the Lord to return to the first principles of love. (Rev. 2:1-7) In the Song emotions are very important, motives are of prime concern, absence of guile, and purity of heart means everything. There is also a progression in Canticles as the story moves forward. At every step in the narrative our "sanctified imagination" allows us to bring to mind various scriptures that reflect the growth of the relationship between a believer and the Lord.

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Keys to the Song of Solomon

How can the Song Of Solomon teach us more about having an intimate relationship with Christ?