Before I get too carried away with discussing Marquis de Sade and his beliefs about sexuality and love, I want to introduce you, O reader, on Sade the singer/band. From the UK. From the ’80s-90s. Ohhhhhh boy.
(In the spirit of full disclosure, her name is pronounced shah-DAY, but I’m going to juxtapose her song with de Sade’s writing anyways)
I heard Sade’s song “No Ordinary Love” (1992) initially as a cover performed by The Civil Wars, whose harmonies add to the depth of emotions the song mournfully conveys. However, I want to also talk about the official music video Sade originally produced alongside the song.
In the video, Sade envisions the familiar story of the Little Mermaid who longs to be with her sailor, but cannot. They are literally worlds apart! She sings as she makes a wedding gown and she suddenly has sprouted legs and lost her fish tail, and surfaces to find her long-lost love. Land-side, she now finds that her love is nowhere to be found (or, at least, not in the one place she looks–the nearby bar), so she gives up after downing 1 shot and dramatically runs back to the ocean to sit pensively drinking a bottle of water. And… fade to black. The viewer doesn’t know whether she will continue to hope for her love or return to her watery home beneath what appears to be a bunch of cargo ships.
The Marquis de Sade espoused a nihilistic worldview (not the only thing he espoused, if you know what I mean), and he therefore dispensed with all morality, especially regarding the sanctity of life and sexuality. “There is no God,” he says, “Nature sufficeth in herself; in no wise hath she need of an author.” Therefore, “we are no guiltier in following the primative [sic] impulses that govern us than is the Nile for her floods or the sea for her waves” (Aline et Valcour). In other words, sexual promiscuity and violence toward other people are entirely validated by his atheistic nihilism and Darwinian fatalism.
The lyrics of “No Ordinary Love” tell the story of unrequited, steadfast love at the end of her rope. The singer sings
“A love like that won’t last;
didn’t I give you
all that I’ve got to give, baby?
This is no ordinary love…
I keep crying;
I keep trying for you;
there’s nothing like you and I, baby.”
This type of love is familiar to the Christian, as Jehovah gave his whoring people many love letters in the form of the prophets. In particular, Jehovah spoke through Hosea to highlight the spiritual adultery both Israel and Judah committed. Jehovah is the jilted husband, who would love to reconcile.
“I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.” (Hosea 7:13)
“How can I give you up, O Ephraim?…
My heart recoils within me; My compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” (Hosea 11:8-9)
“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” (Hosea 12:6)
“Return, O Israel, to Jehovah your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
Take with you words and return to Jehovah;
say to him, ‘Take away all iniquity;
accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses;
and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the works of our hands.
In you the orphan finds mercy.
I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.
I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;
his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon.
They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain;
they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.” (Hosea 14:1-8)
Compare this to Marquis de Sade’s thoughts that “the only way to a woman’s heart is along the path of torment.” Sade and de Sade both err when it comes to love: Sade’s character drains herself in giving unconditional love in her unrequited relationship. Marquis de Sade recommends a love that consumes the other, for “one must do violence to the object of one’s desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater.” It is true that neither an unrequited love or a lustful hedonistic dominating love are no ordinary loves, but what would an ordinary love look like? Ordinary literally means “in order,” and neither of these types of love belong in our world which yet reflects the creation ordinances of Jehovah, which include labor, rest, worship, and marriage. And God saw all that he had made, and it was good. An ordinary love should sing “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” (Gen. 2:23a)
But we have fallen, and sin afflicts every man, woman, and child. We do not love that which God loves, and we have injured ourselves with our lusts. So now that which should have been inordinate and out of order, the Sades and de Sades of the world are now ordinary, and every man, woman, and child does what is right in their own eyes, and God destroys his people for lack of knowledge. He destroyed Israel and Judah for lack of love, for judgment begins at the house of Jehovah. But now we see no ordinary love in the person of Jesus, who lived, died, and rose again for us when we were yet enemies and fixated on loving our dead and sinful selves. Sade is only human to say “a love like that won’t last,” for no man, woman, or child could maintain a one-sided love. Marquis de Sade argued that his lust was entirely natural, but we recoil at the natural phenomena of black widows eating their mates, or some mammals that eat the runts of their litters. So nature cannot be our guide towards an ordinary understanding of love.
Jehovah pursues us with a love that is now increasingly foreign to a world that hates Jesus. The triune God of love is an ever flowing fountain of love. He is patient, kind, and does not envy, for his covenant love endures forever. Who is a pardoning God like Jehovah? He rejoices with the truth, and does not rejoice at wrongdoing. This God of love is not ordinary, and we can rejoice in the truth that he has loved us with an everlasting and unconditional love.
Let us therefore repent and believe and bear fruit in keeping with repentance for the glory of His name.
Where streams of living water flow... 