2022-5丨General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

Message Two Song of Songs—the Progressive Experience of an Individual Believer's Loving Fellowship with Christ for the Preparation of the Bride of Christ

E. In the fifth stage of Song of Songs, the lover of Christ shares in the work of the Lord—7:1-13:

S.S. 7:1 How beautiful are your footsteps in sandals, / O prince's daughter! / Your rounded thighs are like jewels, / The work of the hands of a skilled artist.

S.S. 7:2 Your navel is a round goblet / That never lacks mixed wine; / Your belly is a heap of wheat, / Fenced in by lilies.

S.S. 7:3 Your two breasts are like two fawns, / Twins of a gazelle.

S.S. 7:4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory; / Your eyes, like the pools in Heshbon / By the gate of Bath-rabbim; / Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, / Which faces Damascus.

S.S. 7:5 Your head upon you is like Carmel, / And the locks of your head like purple. / The king is fettered by your tresses.

S.S. 7:6 How beautiful and how pleasant in delights / You are, O love!

S.S. 7:7 This your stature is like a palm tree, / And your breasts are like the clusters.

S.S. 7:8 I said, I will climb the palm tree; / I will take hold of its branches; / And let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, / And the fragrance of your nose like apples,

S.S. 7:9 And the roof of your mouth like the best wine—Going down smoothly for my beloved, / Gliding through the lips of those who sleep.

S.S. 7:10 I am my beloved's, / And his desire is for me.

S.S. 7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields; / Let us lodge in the villages.

S.S. 7:12 Let us rise up early for the vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has budded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love.

S.S. 7:13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, / And over our doors are all choice fruits, / New as well as old. / These, my beloved, I have stored up for you.

1. In verse 4 the Spirit reviews the loving seeker's beauty in her submissive will (neck) wrought by the Spirit's transforming work through sufferings for the carrying out of God's will, in the expression of her heart, which is open to the light, clean, full of rest, and accessible (eyes like pools—cf. 1:15; 4:1; 5:12), and in her spiritual sense of high and sharp discernment (nose—cf. Phil. 1:9-10; Heb. 5:14).

S.S. 7:4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory; / Your eyes, like the pools in Heshbon / By the gate of Bath-rabbim; / Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, / Which faces Damascus.

S.S. 1:15 Oh, you are beautiful, my love! / Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.

S.S. 4:1 Oh, you are beautiful, my love! / Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; / Your hair is like a flock of goats / That repose on Mount Gilead.

S.S. 5:12 His eyes are like doves / Beside the streams of water, / Bathed in milk, / Fitly set.

Phil. 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all discernment,

Phil. 1:10 So that you may approve by testing the things which differ and are more excellent, that you may be pure and without offense unto the day of Christ,

Heb. 5:14 But solid food is for the full-grown, who because of practice have their faculties exercised for discriminating between both good and evil.

2. Song of Songs 7:11 shows that Christ's lover wants to carry out with her Beloved the work that is for the entire world (fields) by sojourning from one place to another (lodging in the villages); this indicates that she is not sectarian in carrying out the Lord's work but keeps the work open, so that others can come to sojourn there and she can go to sojourn elsewhere; this is to keep one work in one Body.

S.S. 7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields; / Let us lodge in the villages.

3. To share in the work of the Lord is to work together with Him (2 Cor. 6:1a); to work with Him, we need the maturity in life, we need to be one with the Lord, and our work must be for His Body (Col. 1:28-29; 1 Cor. 12:12-27).

2 Cor. 6:1 And working together with Him, we also entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain;

Col. 1:28 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ;

Col. 1:29 For which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.

1 Cor. 12:12 For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.

1 Cor. 12:13 For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.

1 Cor. 12:14 For the body is not one member but many.

1 Cor. 12:15 If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, it is not that because of this it is not of the body.

1 Cor. 12:16 And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, it is not that because of this it is not of the body.

1 Cor. 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were the hearing, where would the smelling be?

1 Cor. 12:18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, even as He willed.

1 Cor. 12:19 And if all were one member, where would the body be?

1 Cor. 12:20 But now the members are many, but the body one.

1 Cor. 12:21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

1 Cor. 12:22 But much rather the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

1 Cor. 12:23 And those members of the body which we consider to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor; and our uncomely members come to have more abundant comeliness,

1 Cor. 12:24 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked,

1 Cor. 12:25 That there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.

1 Cor. 12:26 And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.

1 Cor. 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

4. The Shulammite works as Solomon's counterpart, taking care of all the vineyards (S. S. 8:11), the churches and the believers on the whole earth; we must have a work that is for the entire world; this is what Paul did by establishing local churches and then working to bring them into the full realization of the Body of Christ—Rom. 16:1-24.

S.S. 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon: / He let out the vineyard to keepers; / Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

Rom. 16:1 I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a deaconess of the church which is in Cenchrea,

Rom. 16:2 That you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been the patroness of many, of myself as well.

Rom. 16:3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,

Rom. 16:4 Who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles;

Rom. 16:5 And greet the church, which is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the firstfruits of Asia unto Christ.

Rom. 16:6 Greet Mary, one who has labored much for you.

Rom. 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

Rom. 16:8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.

Rom. 16:9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.

Rom. 16:10 Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Greet those of the household of Aristobulus.

Rom. 16:11 Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.

Rom. 16:12 Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved sister, one who has labored much in the Lord.

Rom. 16:13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother as well as mine.

Rom. 16:14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers with them.

Rom. 16:15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints with them.

Rom. 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

Rom. 16:17 Now I exhort you, brothers, to mark those who make divisions and causes of stumbling contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them.

Rom. 16:18 For such men do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own stomach, and through smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

Rom. 16:19 For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and guileless as to what is evil.

Rom. 16:20 Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Rom. 16:21 Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, as well as Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

Rom. 16:22 I, Tertius, who write this epistle, greet you in the Lord.

Rom. 16:23 Gaius, my host and host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, greets you, and Quartus the brother.

Rom. 16:24 See note 1. ( Some ancient MSS add v. 24, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. )

5. Song of Songs 7:12 says, “Let us rise up early for the vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has budded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love”; at this time she is able to relate the Lord's work to the Lord Himself; now she can express her love to the Lord at the place of His work.

S.S. 7:12 Let us rise up early for the vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has budded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love.

Morning Nourishment

S. S. 7:11-12 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields; let us lodge in the villages. Let us rise up early for the vineyards; let us see if the vine has budded, if the blossom is open, if the pomegranates are in bloom; there I will give you my love.

By the end of Song of Songs 6 the lover, having passed through various stages of transformation, has become Solomon’s duplication. She is now called Shulammite (the feminine form of Solomon—v. 13), for she has become the same as Solomon in life, nature, and image to match him for their marriage. At this point it seems that the book should end, yet it continues. Solomon is the lord of many vineyards, and these vineyards require much labor. Now the country girl, who has become his Shulammite, must become his co-worker. This indicates that eventually Christ’s lovers need to share in the work of the Lord. To share in the Lord’s work we need to be qualified, and our qualification depends upon the spiritual equipment; that is, it depends on our being equipped with all the attributes of the divine life. (Life-study of Song of Songs, p. 55)

“Your neck is like a tower of ivory; / Your eyes, like the pools in Heshbon / By the gates of Bath-rabbim; / Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, / Which faces Damascus” (S. S. 7:4). Here the Spirit reviews [the lover’s] beauty in her submissive will (signified by the neck) wrought by the Spirit’s transformation through sufferings for the carrying out of God’s will, in the expression of her heart which is open to the light, clean, full of rest, and accessible (eyes—cf. 1:15; 4:1; 5:12), and in her spiritual sense of high and sharp discernment (nose).

Song of Songs 7:11 reveals that she wants to carry out with her Beloved the work that is for the entire world by sojourning from one place to another. This indicates that she is not sectarian. In the Lord’s work it is not easy to keep our work open, to not keep our work “in our pocket.” We must learn to keep the work open, so that others can come to sojourn there and we can go to sojourn elsewhere. This is to keep one work in one Body.

[Verse 12 signifies that] she and her Beloved work diligently not for herself but in the churches, for others to bud, blossom, and bloom, in which she renders her love to her Beloved. If we work in this way, others will receive much help. To share in the work of the Lord is not to work for the Lord but to work together with the Lord.

Through our experience we have learned that to work together with the Lord we must be mature in life and we must teach the high truths... In Song of Songs we see that to work with the Lord we need the maturity in life, we need to be one with the Lord, and our work must be for His Body. Our Lord is Solomon and we must be the Shulammite; that is, we must be one with the Lord. Actually, to work with Christ we must be Christ. Paul was a real Shulammite because he lived Christ (Phil. 1:21).

The Shulammite works as Solomon’s counterpart, taking care of all the vineyards (S. S. 8:11). This indicates that our work should be for the Body, not just one city. We must have a work that is for the entire world. This is what Paul did by establishing local churches and then working to bring them into the full realization of the Body of Christ. (Life-study of Song of Songs, pp. 57, 59-61)

The problem is that we are all for our own places. We may all be for Jerusalem, but Judah is for Judah, and Benjamin is still for Benjamin. But let us go forth into the fields and lodge in the villages and look at all the gardens. We should not be shortsighted but have a broadened vision... Hallelujah for all the churches throughout the world! Let us go forth into the fields and lodge in all the villages and visit all the gardens. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” p. 336)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” chs. 1-14