God’s Invitation to Love Him Entirely
I. LEADING UP TO GOD’S CHALLENGING INVITATION
A. The Bride has responded to the tender affections of God and is in a divine place of drinking deeply of the superior
pleasures found in Him. She is in the right place at the right time and God has her right where He wants her. So much so,
that He tells the other maidens to leave her alone and not awaken her right now (Song Sol. 2:7).
B. Enjoying the presence of the Lord and basking in this wonderful experience, she has no idea that the Lord is about
to come and disrupt her little spiritual haven. She is still in spiritual infancy and the Lord has every intention to bring her
into spiritual maturity.
C. God wants to bring us through a transition of motivations. In the beginning we will pursue Him for our own benefit,
our own inheritance and our own reward. This is not a wrong motivation and we must begin here. Yet as we mature in love,
the place He wants to bring our hearts to is where our driving purpose is that He would have His full inheritance and His
full reward in us.
II. GOD CHALLENGES THE COMFORT ZONE AND AREAS OF FEAR
“The voice of my Beloved! Behold He comes leaping upon the mountains…my Beloved spoke…“Rise up, my love, my fair
one, and come away.” (2:8-10)
A. It is essential that we first become secure in God’s enjoyment even in the midst of our weakness. As we become
established in this confidence, God desires to further strengthen our love by rooting out areas of fear and compromise.
B. In this part of the Song we see Jesus as the Sovereign King and the Jealous Lover who effortlessly conquers all
the enemies of love, running swiftly upon the high places. Up until this time the Bride has known His tender affections yet
not the sobering severity of His jealousy over her.
C. The same Jesus who desired the Bride to become secure in His love and to know that there is nothing she can do
to earn it, the same Jesus who was determined to bring her out of shame and into confidence, now comes to her with zeal
to deliver her from areas of compromise and fear.
D. With this invitation to arise, He is challenging her comfort zone, her fears and her areas of compromise and inviting
her to bridal partnership.
E. Jesus’ wants all of us and not just a part. He is jealous that we would not remain in the place of immaturity but move
into the fullness of love. Love is not love if it remains stagnant.
F. Here in this passage we see a great crossroads on the expedition of love. It is the point on love’s journey where
sincerity must meet severity and be converted into entirety.
III. A STRENGTHENING WORD OF DIVINE AFFECTION
“O My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let Me see your face, let Me hear your voice; For your
voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” (2:14)
A. One of the key points to recognize about this portion of the Song is this verse that follows Jesus’ invitation to arise
from the comfort zone, from fear and from compromise. It is a statement of the Lord’s delight in us even when we are stuck
in compromise.
B. Ensnared in fear and feeling the Lord’s invasive strong jealousy over her, the Bride’s proneness might be to shrink
away and distance her heart from God. Yet Jesus, fully knowing that she is about to turn Him away in compromise, speaks
these words to her fearful heart.
C. Once again, it is knowing His enjoyment even in the places of our weakness and stumbling that eventually
empowers us to flee that which ensnares us.
D. Before she has even responded to His invitation, Jesus says in essence, “Before you say yes or no to My invitation
to arise, I want to tell you yet again how much I love you. Your voice in prayer is sweet to Me and I love to see your face
when you lift it up toward Me.”
E. When we find ourselves in this position, recognizing our clingings yet feeling their power over us and our inability
to make the “leap” in God, it is the tenderness and deeply personal affections of Jesus that will empower us to finally aris
In as much as we drink deeply of this fountain will we lovingly offer our lives unto Him freely and entirely.
IV. A CRY FOR HELP AND A HEART BOUND IN FEAR
“Catch us the foxes… that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes” (2:15)
A. Strengthened by Jesus’ words of affection, the Bride does lift her voice to God and cries out for help to overcome
the small areas of compromise in her life. “Our vines” speak of areas in our life that relate to our spiritual life flow. She
cries in essence, “Lord, we are in this together. I cannot do it alone. Catch these subtle destroyers of my vineyard, the
little compromises and fears that are hindering me. Conquer them in my heart.”
B. The little foxes that spoil the tender growth of our love for God are small in size yet capable of greatly wounding our
love for God.
C. After giving this cry for help, the Bride gives her regretful response to Jesus’ initial invitation. Without fully knowing
the consequences of her choice, she sends Him away to go leap upon the mountains without her. Her painful compromise
is due to her immaturity and is rooted in fear.
“Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle…upon the mountains of Bether.”
(2:17)
D. She feels that wholehearted obedience might cause her to lose something and she fears losing her comfort in the
earth. She loves Him but does not have the courage and the strength to obey Him.
E. She tells Him to go alone upon the mountain and that she cannot go with Him until the shadows flee away. This
portrays the classic response that we have when we are faced with our fears. We want God to take our fears away before
we arise and God has designed the process in such a way that it is in the actual arising that we overcome our fears.
F. The next time the Bride says this statement, she is giving her commitment to arise to the mountain even while
the shadows are still present.
“Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.”
(4:6)
V. GOD HAS LOVED US ENTIRELY
A. As Jesus comes to us in His jealousy as a conquering King, inviting us to leave our fears and compromises and to
join Him in a greater partnering, we must remember who it is that is giving this invitation. He is the God of all love who has
shown us love unimaginable, love unreserved. As we remember His sacrificial love for us we will be strengthened to love
Him in the same way.
We love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19
B. What is the nature of love? Its beauty lies in the giving of all and withholding of nothing. Greater love has no one
than the one who lays down his life utterly—pours out his possessions entirely, offers himself wholly to the one he loves.
Greater love has no one than in the laying down of the whole of his life for another John 15:13
C. It is not quantity or quality that measures so great a love but rather entirety. If everything is given and nothing
withheld than the love is great and of highest purity.
D. The Father gave all to the Son: God the Father, Love eternal, gave all of Himself to the Son, filling Him with all of
His fullness and finding great pleasure in such an extravagance (Colossians 1:19). He withheld nothing, giving all things
into the hands of the Son and putting all things under His feet, dwelling with all the fullness of the Godhead in Him bodily
(Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 2:9). This is love.
E. The Son gave all to the Father: Jesus, Beloved Son of the Father, Love Incarnate, loved and does love His Father
in so great an extravagance. He withheld utterly nothing from His Father as He gave the whole of Himself, delighting to do
His Father’s will as His sustaining motivation and desire even unto death on a cross as He entrusted Himself into His
Father’s hands (Psalm 40:7,8; John 4:34; Luke 23:46).
F. Father and Son have given all to us: This same love, the love of entirety, has been given and poured out by God
unto me. The love, with which the Father has loved the Son, wholly and freely without restraint, is the love that has
pursued me wholly (John 15:9, 17:23).
As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. John 15:9
G. The Father gave everything to us in His only Son: The Father gave of His only, the Son of His love, the only
begotten. He drew out of the bowels of His eternal being and spared not that which He held most precious, most costly,
most beloved. In the giving of His only Son, He gave all without reserve (Romans 8:32; John 3:16).
H. The Son gave everything to us in His own life, death and resurrection: Christ, the Son, poured Himself out in love
unto me, giving Himself up for me utterly, not just in the giving of His physical life unto death, but in the free offering of all
of His excellencies, His beauties, His preciousness and His own righteousness, indeed the essence of all that He is, He
has entrusted to me, pouring into me the Holy Spirit of God (Galatians 1:4, 2:20; Ephesians 5:25; Titus 2:14).
VI. GOD WILLS THAT WE WOULD LOVE HIM ENTIRELY
A. The widow who gave her two mites exemplifies this spiritual principle beautifully. As Jesus sat facing the treasury
and watching the people come and bring their money, He watched as many who were rich put in much. Yet what moved
His heart was this poor widow who offered only two mites. She gave her whole livelihood and this was the greatest gift
offered of all.
“Assuredly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put
in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” Mark 12:43, 44
B. Bernard of Clairvaux stated, “It is true that the creature loves less because she is less. But if she loves with her
whole being, nothing is lacking where everything is given.”
C. The Father desires that we would love the Son the same way that He does—entirely. Love Himself has requested
of me no less than what He Himself has already done—to love Him with the whole of all that I am, to spare nothing, to pour
out everything, with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. This is love—love not of fractions but of fullness. It is the only
face of love and the only way we can recognize it.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37
D. Paul the apostle so beautifully revealed this inner working of love in his heart when he wrote at the end of his
days, “I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand” (2 Timothy 4:6). His life
could be summarized wholly as a gift unto God, poured out without reservation, emptied without restraint.
VII. LOVING GOD ENTIRELY: A DAILY INVITATION
A. Wholehearted living does not occur somewhere far ahead in the future when we are finally godly and
circumstances are such as to bring about our greatest display of meekness. Nor does it happen in only the “spiritual”
parts of our lives as we would often divide it.
B. The only window we know we have is right now and that window encompasses both the “spiritual” and the
“common” parts of life—for all are holy to the Lord if offered in love.
C. We can love Him fully and give Him everything in this very moment, in these current set of circumstances and in
this present season of life. When this moment meets the next moment and we again give Him all that we are in entirety,
in words, thoughts, time, finances, etc., then we begin to cultivate true wholehearted living.
VIII. JOY UNSPEAKABLE IS FOUND IN LOVE UNRESTRAINED
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full...Greater love has no
one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:11- 13
A. This is where all the joy is found—the secret of the kingdom, the treasure of the saint. When one is wholly given to
God, emptied of all, withholding nothing, truly and entirely, then begins the grandness of joy unspeakable, then begins
the entrance of eternal pleasures.
B. It is the final fraction that holds the fullness of enjoyment, the last portion that imparts the brightness of living in the
light. And this fullness is found, this brightness is experienced, not in general seasons of life but in moments, not in years
but in seconds—small snatches and flashes of wholehearted living.
C. In loving Him entirely, in this single moment of this specific hour of our existence, we taste the glory of living in the
light, the wonder of walking in the realm of the “wholly other than.”
D. As we come to this great crossroads, the point on love’s journey where sincerity must meet severity and be
converted into entirety, may we embrace this conversion. May we receive wholly the tender affections of God that fuel
and empower the heart to make the leap from fear and compromise into pure love and holiness.