“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27 (ESV)
We live in a society that says, “I love Jesus, but I don’t like the church.” Imagine a friend telling you the following: “I love to hang out with you but want nothing to do with your spouse.”* What would you say to that person? Do I think that the church is perfect? No, but what I think makes no difference in the matter. Jesus loves his church! This fact alone should cause us to love it as well. Please share your thoughts.
*As much as I would love to take credit for these thoughts most of them came from Matt Ford.
9 comments:
This passage has brought on a new meaning since I got married, which was only a week ago. I can imagine that Jesus takes great offense at the rejection of his church just as I would take great offense to someone rejecting my wife. That's a great analogy Scott. Good Post.
I agree that we should have a love for the Church, with a big "C".
But I would caution making any metaphor like this too simplistic.
First of all, the Church according to the Bible is the collective body of followers of Jesus. This means our love for Jesus must flow into our love for fellow followers. When this love is seen, then the Bride is beautiful and others will know the measure of life change that results from Jesus (They will know you are Christians by your love).
I believe that the Church is beautiful and is God's plan for bringing His glory to the earth but I think that many small "c" churches are far off the mark and I do not believe that God loves every small "c" church. Of course He loves the people in the church, including those leading it astray, but I do not think we should be too quick to extend this analogy to include every institution of churches.
With that said, I think it is easy to sit in judgment of other churches or our own church leaders while being guilty as well.
Ryan- I agree with you about the difference between church with a big "C" and little "c". I actually thought about this when writing the post, but because scripture uses the the little "c" I thought I would stick with it.
I think part of the problem is that we have created two categories.
The true "Church" which is made up of all believers, past present and future and is made up of local congregations and not contained to walls.
And then we have what has come to be known as the "institution of church". This is usually associated with power, greed, and political gain.
I am not so sure Paul would have used the word church with the latter of these. (Though, I will admit I have not really pondered this until now. So I could be wrong) With that said I agree with the following statement.
"I believe that the Church is beautiful and is God's plan for bringing His glory to the earth but I think that many small "c" churches are far off the mark and I do not believe that God loves every small "c" church."
However, if God does not love a small "c" church, then for that reason I would say it is not the church by any means, lower "c" or upper "C".
What makes "the bride" beautiful and who determines that beauty? Is it because the bride acts right and does right things or because "The Groom" has declared her as beautiful?
both.
I am not so sure about that. The only thing that makes the Church beautiful is Christ. I think to say otherwise is really putting the cart in front of the horse.
In my own life I know the deep and ugly stains of my sin. There is no way on my own I could make myself beautiful / righteous. But through Christ, and only through Christ, I am made beautiful / righteous. It start with the groom proclaiming me beautiful / righteous and only then am I able to do beautiful / righteous things. I am pretty sure you would agree with this.
The problem is, even though I have been proclaimed righteous through Christ I still do unrighteous acts. Thankfully, because of the cross, these acts do not change my righteous standing through Christ. Though, I still do unbeautiful things it does not change my beauty as the bride.
That beauty is determined by Christ and only by Christ. The world will never think the Church is beautiful, no matter how many good things we do. They will either hate the church or love the church just like they will either hate Christ or love Christ.
P.S. By saying this I am not giving a license to sin by any means. As the bride we are called to love our neighbors. Though, our beauty never changes we still face the discipline of God and we will also one day have to give an account for all our thoughts, deeds, and actions. Sadly, there are many people in the Church who will make it into heaven but have absolutely nothing to show for their life when they stand before God. I fear that!
I was reading the dialogue between you and Ryan about the idea of what makes a thing beautiful, Christ's declaration as such or the thing doing the right stuff. Ryan had said "both" to which you disagreed with. I believe our worth or rather us being "worthy" love from the Father comes without merit, but the beauty as the Bride of Christ comes from the Bride as well. Without Christ we are nothing, as scripture says. However, as people, saved or not, we are valuable even in the eyes of The Creator, as scripture also states. I think even the sinner can show a saint what redemption or forgiveness looks like, even if that sinner never sees a clear picture of the One who redeems and forgives at His core. So i tend to agree with Ryan on this one.
You asked, "What makes "the bride" beautiful and who determines that beauty? Is it because the bride acts right and does right things or because "The Groom" has declared her as beautiful?"
Just like in a human marriage, the man finds a woman beautiful because he has seen in her beauty even if no one else can, but at the same time there is a universal element that people can see the beauty in the woman the man picks, because she holds that beauty even apart from him. I realize the metaphor breaks down here because it's God who has created us and given us the beauty in the first place, but within us whether redeemed or not, we are still beautiful not just because He has said we are but because we still have His fingerprints within us. So, life then is still sacred and people, all people still matter. The Bride is beautiful even before she is united in Christ and still able to be a reflection of His Grace, even before they know what that Grace means to them.
Mark-
I agree that there is a common worth / value that comes from the fact that we are created in the image of God. So in that sense all people are valuable. However, when using the word beauty I was referring more to righteousness. In that sense the bride is not beautiful before coming to Christ. As a matter of fact, she is not even a bride, rather a wretched prostitute. Does the bride suddenly become faithful when married? Not really, but because of the groom she is seen as faithful. That is the essence of her beauty.
I realize I used beauty when describing what the world thinks of the church, which most likely caused problems. But, going off the idea of value... Does our value take on a new meaning when we become the bride? Or to use a different illustration: Is our value different when we become children of God?
Scott, why would you suddenly change the analogy plainly used here? "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church..." We were talking about beauty of the bride and your own question, "What makes "the bride" beautiful and who determines that beauty? Is it because the bride acts right and does right things or because "The Groom" has declared her as beautiful?" For which i gave answer already, you can re-read if you like.
The question of value,
"Does our value take on a new meaning when we become the bride? Or to use a different illustration: Is our value different when we become children of God?"
Our value, our worth like money is only as good as what is behind it and what the government deems it. So again it's both! The money has it's value, such as "one dollar" but it's the governing bodies who determine how much "one dollar" can get you. Our value comes from the fact that we were ALL made in the image of GOD and all bear His fingerprints, however some have joined themselves to him and been graphed into the family. The point is that even before we knew GOD, He made us and as dirty and wrenched as we were we were still "beautiful" and "worth" the price of His own life. Much like i said before about the man who loves a woman because of the beauty he sees in her, sure others may see it and still others may have to see it through his eyes, but her value is determined by both the worth place on her by the man in love and by her own intrinsic value, which you and i both know was given by bearing The Image of The Most High.
Mark,
The reason to change analogies was to see it in a different light, just like you did by using money as an analogy. All this said, you are arguing the exact same thing that was stated before, so I will recap. (2 Tim. 2:23)
Do I believe that there is a common value of being created in the image of God? Yes.
Do I think their is more / greater value in being the bride? Yes.
Do I think that value has anything to do with my own merit? Not a chance.
That value comes from being declared righteous, because of the groom. Which, is what has been stated from the very first dialogue between Ryan and I.
Post a Comment