The Church Part II: Jesus, Our Bridegroom

We are in the middle of a series addressing four habits or virtues in Scripturally-vibrant churches. We first considered Scriptural faith in the life of Abraham as our father in the faith. This time we will consider love.

Our culture is often quite confused, when it comes to understanding the true nature of love. One person loves pizza. One mother loves her screaming newborn, who cannot love her back. Consider one more contrast. I loved my wife dearly when I was recently sick. She's a great nurse. On the other hand, my wife loved me and so went out of her way to nurse me back to health and with a smile on her face.

Certainly in both contrasts, the love is real. However, in the examples of loving pizza and my loving my wife, self-gratification is the root of love. I loved my wife for what she did for me. In the examples of the mother loving her infant and my wife loving me, the love is self-sacrificing. My wife loved me and so she gave to me. If we are to be a vibrant community of Scriptural love, we shall have to develop and nurture the love that willingly gives and sacrifices out of its nature.

Let's take a look at this love we can inherit in our bridegroom, Jesus. We'll consider three snapshots of THE Church. Our future glorified state, our former state before becoming apart of the Church, and what our present is called to be by our Bridegroom.

The Church's Future: Revelation 19:6-8

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out:

Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints (ESV).

This is the Church in Glory. The End of this Age has come and gone. We are living with Jesus forever from this point on. Let's make a couple of observations. The Church had responsibility for becoming ready for the return of Jesus. "...for his Bride has made herself ready." Part of the Church's responsibility is to be concerned not only for the hereafter, but also for the here-and-now. Secondly, the wedding clothes of the Church, which she will put on for her wedding, is "the righteous deeds of the saints." These righteous deeds have not occured in a vaccum, nor have they been done totally by God, himself. Rather they are those "of the saints." (By the way the saints are who make up the Church.) Thus, if the Church is to prepare herself for Glory, she is to do this in the here-and-now through deeds of righteousness.

Let's make a side observation. As we know clothes are made of threads ... yet the threads are not isolated. They are held together ... that is they are sewn together. If we press this analogy further, then the righteous deeds are not isolated events but are sewn together. I'll argue from our Ephesians passage that Christ-like love is what binds these deeds together. In order to further pursue the picture of who the Church is responsible to become in the here-and-now, let us consider from where we've come.

The Church's Past: Ephesians 4:17-5:18

Before beginning in chapter 4, let's consider 5:15-21:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand waht the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (ESV)

If we look carefully, we'll see that this passage is the balance of the whole passage we'll consider from 4:17 through 6:9. In particular verse 18 needs to be highlighted:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.... (ESV)

What we are comparing here is debauchery with being continually Spirit-filled (the Greek seems to convey the idea of keep on keeping on being filled with the Spirit. Debauchery versus the Spirit-filled life. Debauchery is the lifestyle of seeking to fill one's own inner appetite at any expense. It's the tireless pursuit of pleasure and self-gratification as one's overriding passion in life. However, if we read Paul's instructions following the call to the continuous-Spirit-filled life. It is a life lived in constant giving to others and promoting their welfare.

To get a flavor of the verses leading up to this point, let's consider 4:17-19.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance taht is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (ESV)

The people before truly becoming Christians and truly entering the Church were "greedy to practice every kind of impurity." Do you see how that fits with the understanding given above of debauchery. Self-gratification above all. In the verses leading up to our crux passage Paul implores the Ephesians to "no longer walk as the Gentiles do." According to Paul's thinking, anyone not in the Kingdom of God is a Gentile, and anyone in the Kingdom is a true Israelite. In coming up to the passage we are seeing Paul plead with these people to move from self-gratification to self-sacrifice and service as a lifestyle.

The Church in the Present

Consider now 5:22-33.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 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. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (ESV)

Do we see how this passage flows rather seemlessly from our crux passage, comparing the debauched lifestyle of self-gratification with the Spirit-filled lifestyle of willingly giving and self-sacrificing and others-promoting. Also bear in mind that what is directed to wives in this passage is not written for husbands. What is written for husbands is not written for wives. Husbands, it is not your job to patrol your wife in these regards. You are to petrol your own responsibilities to her. The wife is to give according to her husbands needs and vice-versa with the husbands.

We should also notice at this point taht 6:1-9 also follow this patter of giving according to the needs of others or mutual submission to the needs of others. Parents and children, masters and slaves/servants are to mutually submit to the needs of others.

Our example right slap-dab in the middle of all of this is Christ and his self-sacrificing & others-promoting love for the church. This type of love is consisted of and measured by deeds ... and dare I say righteous deeds. These deeds are not done in isolation. Rather this is the members of the Church in mutual submission to the needs of one another. This is the wedding dress mentioned in the Revelation 19 passage. These are the righteous deeds of the saints, woven together by, through, and in Christ-like self-sacrificing and others-promoting love.