God’s Word for You
Song of Solomon 7:6 The marks of the church
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, August 4, 2024
6 How beautiful you are
and how pleasing, O love,
with all your delights!
The idea of being beautiful is no stranger to a reader; the same term appears in Esther 1:11 (about Vashti the queen) and in Proverbs 6:24 about a wayward and adulterous woman. Here the husband delights in his wife’s beauty, knowing that she will display her beauty only for him. I have performed a great many weddings in my years as a pastor, and I have never understood the mindset of a woman who thinks that the wedding ceremony is the time to put her body on display. It always makes me think of a slave at a slave auction, except that she is free to do what she wants. “Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke a slavery” (Galatians 5:1). Why not cover yourself up for the ceremony and uncover yourself for your husband in private? “Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature” (Galatians 5:13).
“Pleasing” is from the word na’em. As a noun in Psalm 90:17, this is the “favor” of the Lord (see especially Zechariah 11:8 and 10). In Proverbs 3:17, this is the “pleasant way” of wisdom. As a verb, David says that Jonathan was “very dear” to him (2 Samuel 1:26), and the “favored” idea returns in Ezekiel 32:19.
He calls her “love” with an address (the vocative) “O love.” Endearments like this are easy to pass by in the Song, but we might just notice that the Latin translation falls to carissima here, and this is the word Paul uses for his “dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord” (Romans 16:12). And this is also the word (in the Latin masculine) that God the Father uses when he says: “This is my Son, whom I love (carissimus), listen to him!” (Mark 9:7). For the church to be brought into that affectionate relationship with the Father through the Son is one of God great gifts; it is how Luther was able to explain the joy and privilege of prayer: “With these words (“Our Father in heaven”) God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are his true children, so that we may pray to him as boldly and confidently as dear children ask their dear father” (Small Catechism).
The last phrase, “with all your delights,” is plural. Here we can summarize all of the compliments of the verse, since the husband praises his wife for her beauty and her many, many delights. In the mystic union of Christ and the church, our Lord praises the Christian church for things that he himself has given. For example, we can consider the marks of the church, those things that identify the Christian church as the true church, the orthodox and not the heterodox.
The marks of the true Church are these: (1) The pure teaching of God’s Word, and (2) the legitimate administration of the sacraments. The first mark (the pure teaching) includes many things, like the protection of the Gospel (1 Timothy 4:16).
There is also the summary of doctrine, the catechism. Notice that Paul uses this in a simple way before the Areopagus with a five-point summary of Christianity: (i) Who God is (Acts 17:24), (ii) who God is not (Acts 17:24-25), (iii) What God has done (Acts 17:26-28), (iv) What this proves about God and his nature (Acts 17:29), and (v) What God wants and what God offers (Acts 17:30-31).
Also coming under the pure teaching is the way ministers are chosen for ministry (Titus 1:5; Acts 15:2,22) and the invocation of the Lord’s name in worship, in teaching, and in conferring the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 18:20; Mark 16:17; John 14:13).
These marks of the church both establish and preserve the holy Christian Church, because the established church is now preaching the word, commending it to others to preach (training pastors and teachers for the future), administering the sacraments, as well as defending, declaring and propagating (spreading and promoting) its doctrine.
Returning to our verse, Christ praises this work of the church, whether it is done with supreme excellence or with the meager efforts of those of us who accomplish ministry only with struggles and great difficulty (Matthew 25:16-17; Luke 19:16,18). If it is beautiful, pleasing, favorable, and delightful to Christ our Lord, should we look down on any of our poor efforts in his service? The cross is proclaimed. God’s people know their Savior. The children learn. The body of Christ serves one another in love. Do not be shy about a compliment. “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.