Morning & Evening Devotional Reading

 January 7– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, Revised and Edited by W. C. Neff

“My sister, my spouse.” 

—Song of Solomon 4:12

Notice the sweet titles that Jesus, our heavenly Solomon, uses with intense affection to address his bride, the church. He calls her “My sister”– that is, one near to me by ties of nature, partaker of the same sympathies. And then “My spouse,” the nearest and dearest, united to me by the tenderest bands of love. “My sister” by birth, which makes me “bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh,” and “My spouse” by heavenly betrothal in which I have taken you unto myself in covenantal righteousness. “My sister” whom I have known all my life and over whom I watched from her earliest infancy; and “My spouse,” taken from among the daughters of men, embraced by arms of love, and united unto me forever.

See how true it is that our royal Kinsman is not ashamed of us, for he dwells with obvious delight upon this two-fold relationship. He twice calls us his own, doting with rapture on his possession of his Church. How he delights in his chosen ones. He, the Shepherd, sought the sheep because they were his sheep; he has gone about “to seek and to save that which was lost,” because that which was lost was his long before it was lost to itself.

The church is the exclusive possession of her Lord; none else may claim a partnership or pretend to share her love. And, Jesus, your church delights to have it so! Let every believing soul drink solace from these wells. O, dear soul, Christ is near you in ties of relationship; Christ is dear to you in the bonds of marriage, and you are dear to him; behold he grasps both of your hands with both of his, saying, “My sister, my spouse.” By these two sacred designations, your Lord has a double-hold on you that he neither can nor will ever let you go. And, dear one, don’t be slow to return the hallowed flame of his love. [M&E]