Christian Love Is Stronger Than Death

August 1, 2013

If love is as strong as death, then in Christ, love is stronger than death.

“Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death; ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol. Love’s flames are fiery flames — the fiercest of all. Mighty waters cannot extinguish love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned.” (Song of Solomon 8:6–7, HCSB)

Romantic love between two people is strong. Yet, the eternal love between Christ and His children is stronger. The implication is that I can get through anything if I have Christ.

What is the relationship between Christian love and death?

While romantic love is strong, this kind of love ends at death. It is the reason why we say “until death do us part.” Marriage is something for a man and a woman to enter while they live here on Earth.

“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30, HCSB)

Christian love therefore, is stronger than romantic love. Paul says that it is stronger than any number of powerful agents in life.

“For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 8:38–39, HCSB)

Christian love derives its source from God. He loves as part of His nature. He loved the world and His love provided a way to overcome death.

““For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, HCSB)

Jesus understood that God loved the world and realized that His sacrifice on the cross would be the vehicle which helps people overcome death. His love, by his dying and being resurrection, teaches us that Christian love is stronger than death.

“This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16, HCSB)

John describes the fact that Christians will be willing to sacrifice their lives because their allegiance to Christ is stronger than the consequences of not loving the Antichrist.

“They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death.” (Revelation 12:11, HCSB)

This Christian love compels a person to be willing to sacrifice life for death for the sake of love for another person. We can do this because of the love of Christ in us. As the song “In Christ Alone” by Stuart Townsend and Keith Getty says, the power of Christ, which comes from the love of God, is stronger than death.