One thing I am noticing now days is that there is a lot of contention as to who the Bride of Christ is. I don’t profess to have cornered the market but I’m more inclined to believe that she is a believer who is in love with Jesus. As you know, not everyone is in love with Jesus. Yes we are saved by faith, but not all Christians pursue Him as a bride. “This is what the Lord says:
“ ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me ..” Jeremiah 2:1 (NIV)
The Bible mentions her in the Book of Revelation and all through the scriptures and it likens Israel and then the Church as a Bride. I feel it’s important to explore this thought. I am convinced that it’s the Church today, but is it all the Church? The Bride speaks of someone who is in love with the Bride Groom - Jesus, it’s someone who is close to Him. Jesus said to Peter three times, “Do you love me,” after he had denied the Lord just before His death. There was a need for Peter to repent of His sin and get back into a right loving relationship with the Lover of His soul. As you have probably noticed there are Christians out there that aren’t walking in love. Look at this verse.
“If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15)
It appears from this verse that some Christians just scrape into heaven by the skin of their teeth. Are they the bride? Were they loving Him with all their hearts? They were saved by faith, but while on earth they never really had an intimate relationship with the Lord. Praise God we are saved by faith, otherwise not many of us will make it, but does this mean that it doesn’t matter what we do, for there will all be the same reward for everyone. I don’t have the space to go into this now but the scriptures are plain that there are rewards for what we Christians do here on earth. This is nothing to do with going to heaven or hell, that’s already sorted through the blood of Jesus.
“For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.” (Matthew 16:27 )
Also look at Matthew 5:11, Matthew 6:1-6. I was going to use the parable of the 10 virgins as an argument, some wise and some foolish but no one else seems to agree with me. The point I wanted to bring out was that they were all ‘virgins’. Virgins in scripture are those who are the children of God. The 5 unwise Virgins were not prepared for the Bride Groom’s return and were shut out of the Marriage Feast. It doesn’t say they were cast into hell; it just says that Jesus never ‘knew’ them. ‘Knew’ is tied up with a love for Jesus. (Adam knew Eve.) Paul says that he wanted the Corinthian Church to be prepared as a chaste virgin for Christ.
“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” (2 Corinthians 11:2)
Paul was concerned that their devotion to Christ could be polluted by the Devil’s trickery.
“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3)
It’s possible for Christians not to have a pure love for Jesus. The unwise virgins weren’t shut out of the marriage supper because they were ugly, they just didn’t get themselves ready. They hadn’t got their ‘glory box’ sorted, hadn’t been intimate with Jesus and the Lord’s warning of a sudden return ignored.
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “ (2 Peter 1:5-11)
They were unproductive in their ‘knowledge’ of Christ. This is the word ‘epignosis’ in Greek. This is a knowledge that changes you. Paul put the ‘knowing’ of God very high on His to do list.
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:7-10)
The word ‘to know’ here is ‘Ginosko’ in Greek and has a wide range of meanings, but essentially means to have an intimate relationship with Christ. A love that longs for Christ as a Bride as a a bride would for her husband. It says that in the beginning Adam ‘knew’ Eve in marriage. Knowing in scripture is often used as that of a very close intimate knowledge. I can say that I know about the Queen of England and can give you heaps of stats about her, but I have never met her personally. There are some who have met her and there is her family who know her even better still, but it’s her husband who should know her more than anyone else. The word ‘knew’ in Genesis is ‘yada’ in Hebrew. It’s used often in scripture and is also the word for ‘acknowledge’.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge (Yada) Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
The Bible starts and ends with the illustration of a marriage so it must be important to God. Our relationship to God is illustrated in many different ways to try and get the point across.
We are likened to branches that are attached to a vine. This is powerful stuff, for the same sap that is in the Vine (Christ) flows into the branch (The Church).
We are called living stones in a building. We are called Children of God adopted into His family, Servants and also Soldiers. They are all valid illustrations and help us understand who we are and who He is and what our role is, but the illustration of a Bride is the most powerful of all.
No one gets closer to the Bridegroom that the Bride, she even gets closer than the child does. The Husband shares His secrets with the Bride which He wouldn’t with the son. The Bride and the Husband become one and that is what John is trying to tell us in and Paul in Colossians.
“I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”John 17:23
“You are filled with God in your union with Christ.” As far as I can see this is the closest relationship one can have with God.” (Colossians 2:10)
In Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!”
Notice that it’s the Spirit and ‘the Bride’ who call for Christ to return. “Come Lord Jesus.” It doesn’t say that the Spirit and the Soldier say “Come Lord Jesus.” It doesn’t say the Spirit and the Sons say “come Lord Jesus”. We have a lot of verses about us being soldiers so isn’t that more important? But it says it’s the Bride. I can see that Soldiers aren’t as close to the Bridegroom as a Bride is and neither is a son.
We looked at Martha and Mary recently who were both in the House, but Mary sat at His feel. She saw His worth and loved Him so much, for she discovered who He was and what He really wanted from her. Martha however was working (for Jesus) in the kitchen and didn’t take up the offer. These are 2 types of Christians in the here and now. One who wanted to get really close to Jesus and hear His heart beat, and here was Martha who preferred to work for Him. John the Apostle was also like Mary, for he was the one who leaned his head on the chest of Jesus. He said of himself that he was the one ‘whom Jesus loved’. (John 13:23).
It’s not that Jesus loved Him anymore than the others, it’s just that John appreciated who Christ was and took up the offer to get as close to Him as he could. He really, really knew the love of God. God loves everyone in the world but those who know it experience it with such intimacy.
Solomon had revelation that was so amazing and wrote the Song of Songs. I’m sure that he didn’t really know what he was writing, for it spoke of a future love between the Bridegroom and his Bride - Jesus and the Church. In the song there are other woman (The daughters of Jerusalem) who admired the King but they were not the bride, which makes me think again that not all Christians are the Bride of Christ.
In the story of Elijah and Elisha we see there are other prophets present who stood afar off and didn’t cross over the Jordan which again strengthens my point. They were not prophets of Baal, but of Israel.
After penning Ecclesiastes and how vain and pointless life is, Solomon then goes on to write the Song of Songs celebrating the ultimate love story. Loving the Bridegroom and being loved is the point of this song and life. To ‘know’ the King of Kings as she does is what life is all about. The whole song is dripping with illustrations gathered from creation to help us understand how much He loves His Bride and how she is invited to love him.
To give you just one of the hundreds of examples in this song, it says of the Bride, that she has dove’s eyes.
“Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes.” S/S 1:15
It also says of the Bridegroom that He has dove’s eyes too. Do they look like birds?
“His eyes are like doves By the rivers of waters, Washed with milk, And fitly set.” S/S 5:12
What does this mean? Besides doves being soft and gentle, doves don’t have vision like we do, for they can only focus on one thing at a time and are called ‘love birds,’ for they become fully focused on each other, besotted in each other. They only have one partner in life, eyes for only one. When you watch them together they seem to be in synchronization, copying everything the other one does. This is quite a picture of the love relationship that can exist between Christ and His Church. Oh to have dove’s eyes for the King. To have eyes only for Him and only do those things you see the Lord doing.
In the Song of Songs when the Bridegroom withdraws Himself the Bride can’t stand it and goes out hunting for Him. This is an extravagant love that only a Bride has. Do we have a Bride’s heart too? For some if the Lord withdraws Himself, do they even notice. Are we focusing on Him and placing Him first in all our decisions?
I want to remind you that it was men who wrote these verses in the psalms and the Song of Songs, and not a woman. They were real men. One was a builder (Solomon) and the other a warrior (David).
When you are in this place of knowing you can’t live without Him anymore and life just becomes black and white without Him. Not all Christians are like this? I know that we are all saved by faith and PTL for that. But there are rewards for Christians. For the Bride I believe the greatest reward is to have more of Him. The desire of the Bride is like that of Paul, that I might ‘know’ Him. My personal view is that if you desire only Him in this life then when you get to heaven your greatest reward will not be a bigger house or more crowns but the opportunity to have more time with Him, more of Him. Jesus can multi task and up there your great reward will be to have as much time with Him as you want. I believe that those who don’t care that much down here about their love for Jesus will be blessed to be in heaven but it won’t be the same as the Bride’s relationship. We will all be happy to be there but oh the priceless privilege as Paul said of ‘knowing’ Christ. So are all Christians the Bride? I don’t think so.