LOVE THE GROOM, LOVE THE BRIDE

From Steve: I publish another blog called IMMEASURABLY MORE that focuses on The Church and how churches both traditional and emerging can grow as a people who serve a great God. This is part of a post on the response to a world that despises the church but claims to love Jesus,


One of the most intriguing images found in the Bible is that of the Church as the Bride of Christ. The Church is Christ's partner, His helpmate. The Church is united to Christ by covenant. That covenant is rooted in Christ's giving of Himself for the Church and then the Church giving of itself to Him in return. Spiritually speaking, the two are one.

That oneness is described in another form in 1 Corinthians 12 when the Church is also called the Body of Christ. The Church is the continuing, living embodiment of the Person of Jesus Christ. We are united with Him through our baptism and held to Him as inseparable because of his unconditional love.

Today, a whole lot of people feel free to despise the church. Dan Kimball has written an excellent book called They Like Jesus, But Not the Church. Dan describes an unpleasant, even tragic reality in the 21st century. People want to have Jesus, but they want to have nothing to do with the church.

In 0ne sense, the church has earned such an attitude. Too often the church has forgotten it was the Bride, and acted like it could be Christ's representative without reflecting the nature and character of Christ. But that doesn't change a deeper reality.

God chose the church. Christ made a covenant with the Bride. He did not make that covenant because of who the Bride was but because of Who He (the Groom) is. To chose to hate the church, to try to separate Christ from His Bride is to ask Him to divorce Himself from the Church. This Christ clearly will n0t do.

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