Reimar A. C. Schultze
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, That you tell him I am sick with love (Song 5:8). I do not wish any sickness upon anyone of you except for this: that you be sick at heart whenever your relationship with Jesus is broken. When you are so sick and do not know it, you are in a dangerous place. You need a merciful healer. You need to feel sick if the One who shed His lifeblood for you is not “number one” in your life. If He is not your first love, God is grieving over you. Yes, Paul actually pleads with all of us not to grieve the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19). Unfortunately, what makes us heartsick is often not a broken relationship with Jesus, but rather it is when we do not get what we want in this world: the house, the car, the furniture or the vacation. No, there is nothing that can compensate the true believer for the loss of Christ’s comforting, encouraging and uplifting presence. It is there that we find our joy. There are many people who have practically nothing of this world’s goods and yet, they are happier than kings of this world who have an abundance of possessions. Yes, of course, when God gives us an earthly thing, we are thankful because it is often an extension of His love towards us, but it is nothing compared to the gift of Himself.
Beware of False Prophets
The Shulamite woman was lovesick for her bridegroom. We need to pray that lovesickness will come upon the millions of born-again Christians who have lost their first love, for heaven will be closed to them. They need salvation! They need eternal joy that will last through the storms of life. Instead, their souls are being fed cheese and crackers by scholars of the Word who fine-tune their twisting of Scripture to support lukewarm souls who seek an easy way to heaven. These preachers do this for personal gain and popularity. They preach: “Jesus paid it all.” That is true because He did. But that means nothing unless we realize that from now on, all to Him we owe. Christ’s call is also a call to prayer, a call to confess and witness for Jesus (Rom. 10:9), a call to care for the widows and the fatherless, and a call to keep His commandments (John 14:21). There is no such thing as a Christianity that consists only in believing. The devil also believes and trembles, but he is the father of all who hold to the “all you have to do is believe” doctrine. Christ is calling us to a new lifestyle altogether, to the cross and to a new divine love, all loves excelling (John 14:15). Let us be cautious with those who preach a counterfeit gospel.
A true prophet will abide by the following words of Paul: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word: be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth, and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing (2 Tim. 4:1-8).
Bridal Love Is the Standard
We must maintain our first love with Jesus in order to have a perpetual bridal relationship with Him. So, the real issue is this: do we or do we not need to go all out for Jesus in order to spend eternity with Him? Why would we risk doing anything less? The Revelation says in its very first message to the churches: But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent (Rev. 2:4-5). The bottom line is that there is no eternity for us in heaven without loving Jesus as a bride loves her husband.
We need first love now in order to spend eternity with Jesus later. In Jesus’ message to the Laodicean church, He said: I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth (Rev. 3:15-16). In eternity, there is no space between heaven and hell for the lukewarm. In fact, the lukewarm fare worse than those who have never been saved because the lukewarm have lost their first love. It is the most dangerous sin for you as a Christian to possibly commit: to lose your first love, your bridal love.
Mary Magdalene was another example of this love. Like the Shulamite, Mary could not live without her Lord. Her history was: she was with Him, she was with Him, she was with Him—in life and even in death. After she found the tomb was empty, she frantically ran all over, around the tomb, saying: ...they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him (John 20:13). When the disciples gave up on Jesus, Mary still hung on to Him. She still called Him her Lord. She called Him Lord in both life and in death. She begged the gardener to let her have His body. In essence she was saying: He belongs to me! JESUS BELONGS TO ME! He belongs to me forever! With such love, is it any wonder that the risen Christ revealed Himself to her first? Oh, what all will Jesus reveal to you when you have this kind of love for Him?
Then Jesus said to her: ...go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God (John 20:17). Jesus did not just say to Mary: “I go to My God and My Father.” No—He said: “I go to My Father and your Father; and to My God and your God.” Jesus included her. Think of it! All of a sudden, Jesus’ God and Father was her God and her Father! She found herself in the spiritual embrace of a “first love” relationship. Was there any question about her going to heaven? I should say not!
Friend, here in this deep love relationship is your safety. Anyone who tells you anything else is a false prophet. Again, “Jesus paid it all” is only half of what needs to be preached. “All to Him I owe” is the other half. This should be preached from every pulpit and be part of every Bible study. This is why Jesus came—to find His bride among men. This will help you to reach the climax of all eternity: the wedding feast of the Lamb. The Shulamite woman said: I am sick with love. Are you lovesick, too?
A Loving God Is a Jealous God
God is a jealous God. Much has been done to advertise the Ten Commandments, but many have fallen short in explaining the whole basis of the laws of God: God is jealous and He does not want to share you with anything or anyone! He said: You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God... (Ex. 20:5). God gave the commandments because He cannot stand for you to love anything else besides Him. Following is what the prince of modern preachers, Charles Spurgeon, had to say:
“Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. …He would sooner die than you should perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart’s love and Himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend—worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself. He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would fain have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that He will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!” (Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, reading for Morning, Sept. 12.)
Oh my friend, let Jesus be the One whom your soul loves, even as He loves you, and be lovesick when you fall short of loving Him.