May 25, 2025

How Beautiful You Are My Love – Song of Solomon 3:6-5:1

Ice Breaker

1. Read Song of Solomon 3:6-5:1 as a group.
2. Discuss: What is one of the most meaningful gifts you have ever received from someone you love, and why did it mean so much to you?

Loving God Unreservedly

3. How might the expression of love in this passage influence our understanding of God’s love as both passionate and personal?
4. Discuss the wilderness theme that runs throughout Scripture and how it plays into the life and ministry of Jesus. How does this theme relate to our text in this chapter?

Loving People Sacrificially

5. Why is it important to have a community around us as we enter into and grow in our marriages? What other biblical passages might suggest the benefit of such a community?
6. How does the purity of this bride prefigure the consummation of all things when Jesus returns for His bride, the Church?
7. Do you appreciate physical beauty in other people?
8. Are there aspects of your own self that you like to keep hidden from view?
9. Why do so many in our contemporary culture are more interested in how they feel and how they can express their wills, emotions, and desires than they are in being appreciative of the gift of their bodies? How do you explain this? What effect does the teaching of the image of God have on such a discussion?

Making Disciples Purposefully

10. What weddings have you been a part of that pointed to the final return of the great Shepherd-King? Discuss the power that weddings have in communicating the gospel to non-believers.
11. How can you disciple that person?

Dig Deeper (optional/personal study)

12. Research: Use the article from the, Tyndale Bible Dictionary, on the Image of God:

Genesis 1:26–27 teaches that God determined to create man and woman in his own “image” and “likeness” and that they would have dominion over the animal creation. Jesus Christ is preeminently the image of God (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3). Incarnation means that Jesus is truly human, and because he is truly human, he is truly the image of God. The believer is to “put on Christ” (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27; cf. Eph 4:24; Col 3:10, “the new nature” in the image of God), an action also described as the formation of Christ in the believer (Gal 4:19).

Conformity to the image of Jesus Christ is achieved through the process of sanctification that is ultimately completed at the resurrection. Only then is the body changed until it is fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ (Phil 3:21). Restoration in the image of Christ carries beyond creation in the image of God, for the image of the earthly is then exchanged for the image of the heavenly (1 Cor 15:49).^[1]

^[1] Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). In Tyndale Reference Library. Tyndale Bible dictionary (pp. 627-628). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.