The Choice of Love, Part Three Lessons From The Life of Solomon

1Corinthians 13: 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Life is about choices. We can look back over our lives with regret or rejoicing at the decisions we make; usually it is a mixture of both. Of all the facets of being inescapably human, romantic love remains one of the most confusing and daunting we will face. That is because it is one area that we still tend to listen more to worldly philosophy than Godly wisdom. We are inclined to Oprah-ize love or wonder what Dr. Phil says, instead of what God says. The reason we seem to get it wrong so often is that we treat love as strictly an emotion, a product of our soul. But love is also a product of our spirit even though we give it more emotional power than it rightly deserves. In fact, one just needs to look at the way we speak about love, to see the emotional control that we give it. We do not say that we have love or even feel love. No; we "fall into" love; as if it some sort of bear trap clasping around our ankles not letting us go. Love is not quicksand beloved. As with everything, God explains for us in the bible, exactly what love is supposed to be. Remember that it is the design of God that we are not to be alone. In just the second chapter of the bible, God declares this fact:

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18

Paul continues his discourse on what love is in verse six with a simple oppositional statement. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. In the first two devotionals in this series, we talked about having God as the center of any loving relationship. This verse confirms that. The life of King Solomon should give us all pause for not keeping God first in love.

King Solomon was one of the most successful Kings of Israel. His reputation and wisdom from God grew in stature and at his height of prominence; his kingdom was unrivaled in the entire world. Early on we see recorded about Solomon:

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man, including Ethan the Ezrahite--wiser than Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom. 1Kings 4: 29-34

And God continued to prosper King Solomon:

King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift--articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules. 1Kings 10: 23-25

Yet King Solomon did not keep God first in the loving relationships he had:

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter--Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 1Kings 11: 1-2

As you can see, the bible does not deny that King Solomon "loved" these other women. We have the free will to love outside of how God intended love to be for us. In relation to the sixth verse from 1Corinthians 13 however, Solomon delighted in evil. How do we know this? Continuing in the story:

He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done. 1Kings 11: 3-6

Solomon knew the truth, yet did not rejoice in it. Thus, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. God had spoken the truth to him many years before. He had been warned specifically about what not to do and then in the name of worldly love, he did it anyway. He allowed his soul to dictate what love was to his spirit. As a result, Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not rejoice in the truth.

The sad thing is that we make the same mistakes to this very day in the name of "love". Not Godly love, but love as the world would have us believe it is. We can easily compromise. We can easily settle for less than God has for us, because of our fear of loneliness. Some would even venture outside of the realm of believers to find love, ignoring further biblical directives:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 2Corinthians 6:14

Not realizing that while they may find love as man loves, God's way is always better. God's love is always better. You may find love outside the realm of believers but then it is up to you to maintain it. Continuing on in the above verse:

What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. 2Corinthians 6:15-16

God gave us the directions; we must choose to follow them. He has let us know exactly what love is supposed to be and what it is not supposed to be. We must choose to embrace it or choose what the world has to offer. The hearts and butterflies feel nice for a time but are fleeting in the face of patience and kindness. The gooseflesh feeds the soul but when the chips are down in any relationship, and they will be down at some point, you will need to have more than loving feelings. You will need to have God first and a sacrificial mindset or the very soul in which you built up your love will also tear it down. Your choice to love must be rooted in your choice to rejoice in the truth of God and not delight in evil. King Solomon was considered the wisest person in history, yet that wisdom could not penetrate his failed view of love. He chose what the world had to offer and paid a dear price. Choosing God's love is always better.

Anthony Wade June 26, 2008