Firestarters: Ignite the Faith WithinExemplo

The Bride

When I was a young man, a Scripture breathed life to me. It gave me a revelation. It has become one of the most meaningful and important Scriptures and ignited a passionate love in my heart for the Church.

Paul writes about the global family of Christians being a bride, with Christ, our bridegroom. If this is Christ’s heart towards the Church, how can so many believers treat her with such indifference or as a necessary duty or chore to get to Jesus? Is that the way you would want your spouse treated? To be used to get to you?

The bride’s preparation is a big part of the wedding day. The hair, the make-up and, of course, the dress. She should be presented without spot or blemish. That is what we should be committing our lives to do. We are those who get the bride ready for the bridegroom, preparing her, ushering her towards her destiny. We’re not just allowing the hand-me-down dress to be acceptable, but giving her the best, preparing her with holiness and righteousness through ‘the washing of the word.’

Our lives as Christians should be wrapped up in preparing for this great and eternal wedding.

It is impossible to love Jesus and hate his Church. We cannot divorce the two; they are wrapped up within one another, but so many believers have nothing to do with his Church.

How can you talk about the bride of Christ with disdain when you are part of that very bride? ‘No one ever hated their own body,’ and yet that is what we do when we dishonor and disrespect the Church. When we criticize and voice opposition against the Church, we criticize ourselves. It is like publicly criticizing your own wife, ‘Oh yeah, we are married. But she disgusts me, so we stay in different rooms.’

I want to encourage and implore your heart to love the bride of Christ. You were made to love Jesus and His Church. It is within you. Perhaps you have been hurt by those who have carried the name or authority of the Church, some who were not truly a part of the bride, but she has taken the flack for their wrongdoing. Hurt has caused many to look at her with disdain or bitterness.

However, she is beautiful; she is the one Christ died for.

• What do you love about the Church? How is that love seen in your life?
• Are there things that need to be forgiven? Grievances or offenses caused by people within the Church affect how you see her now? How can you lay those down and move on healthily, serving her as Jesus asks you to?
• There is no claim that the Bride, the Church, is already perfect, but there is an invitation to us to help prepare her. How can you play your part in that work? What does it require of you?