Section 464
I. Here is a very loving and endearing title given unto her, "O my love"
It may be rendered "my friend";[3380] there is a mutual friendship between Christ and believers; the church owns Christ to be her beloved and her friend, and Christ welcomes his church and people to the entertainments of his grace, under the characters of his beloved, and his friends, saying, "Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved:" and he not only calls them so, but uses and treats them as such; he converses with them, and discloses the secrets of his heart unto them; he is a friend to them at all times, in adversity as well as prosperity, and has given the most incontestable proofs of it in his suffering and dying for them. The Septuagint render it, "my neighbor:" the church is Christ's neighbor; they dwell near to each other; he dwells in their hearts by faith, and they by faith dwell in him: he shews, that he regards his church as his neighbor, by loving her as himself; nay, he has so loved her, as to give himself for her. Again, if we consider this title, according to our version, it well suits the church, who is Christ's love. 1. Objectively; She is the object of his love, was so from eternity, will be so throughout all time, and when time shall be no more; he has given the fullest proofs of it in his undertaking, as a surety for her, in his assumption of her nature, in dying in her room and stead, and in making satisfaction for all her transgressions. The nature of this love has been shewn already on Song of Solomon 1:2. 2. She is Christ's love subjectively; Christ's love is fixed upon her, and is shed abroad in her heart, by the Spirit, and this causes love in her soul to him; that so as Christ loves her, she loves him, with a real, hearty, sincere, and superlative love; she is therefore Christ's love, both because he loves her, and also because she loves him.