David and Jonathan were best friends. They had laughed and cried together. They made promises to each other. David describes Jonathan’s love as being better than the love of women.

The love of women is what we call a euphemism. It’s talking about the love a husband and wife get to share together, being naked and unashamed.

We know David had a love of women. He’s already married a couple and later he’ll get himself in trouble desiring after a woman.

David is not saying he loves Jonathan as he loves a woman. David was a man after God’s heart. God’s law calls that sinful, for a man to love a man as he would a woman. David, though imperfect, sought to honor God’s laws. This verse is not about that at all.

It’s about a love that’s better than that physical kind of love.

This is a more perfect love, a love that connects souls, not just bodies. It’s a love that is unchanging, unfailing.

It’s a love that keeps no record of wrong, always forgiving.

It’s a love that is kind and generous.

It’s a love that isn’t selfish or proud; it’s a love that thinks of others first.

It’s a love that always trusts.

It’s a love that always protects.

It’s a love that always hopes the best and endures to the end.

It’s the love of God.

It’s the love that we can rest in for eternity because we know we are secure in His unfailing, unchanging love.

It’s the love that once we know it, fills us with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19).

May God help us all to understand how much we are loved and to receive that love, God Himself to dwell richly within and through us.