Love Personified in Song and Epistle
Personifications · 5 verses
The Song of Solomon personifies love as a force 'strong as death,' with jealousy 'cruel as the grave.' Love's coals are 'coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame'—a flame of the LORD (Shalhebethyah). Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. This personification elevates love beyond emotion to cosmic power. Paul's great hymn in 1 Corinthians 13 continues this personification: Love suffers long and is kind; love envies not; love vaunteth not itself; love never faileth. Love bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. John takes this further: 'God is love'—not merely that God loves, but that love itself is the divine nature. To know love is to know God; to dwell in love is to dwell in God.
Scripture References
“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
“Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”