The Faithful Bride of Christ
Marriage is the ultimate commitment or covenant that human beings make to one another. This is why in the Bible there are so many references to marriage and Christians being the Bride of Christ. When God first convicts our soul, we ask God to forgive us of our sins, and God, in his infinite grace, covers our sins with the blood of Jesus. We become the Bride of Christ. We have made the ultimate commitment and covenant with God. We are no longer our own to do as we please but we become one with God.
It is as if we have been born again, and we see the world with new eyes. We start out so gung-ho for God! We submerge ourselves in the Gospel, with other Christians, reading and studying the Bible. We are hungry to know more, to experience more, to do more. We long to fill that emptiness in our soul with more of Christ.
This, my friend, is the honeymoon phase, just like newlyweds are absorbed in each other to the exclusion of the rest of the world for a while, we start out as new Christians absorbed in God. Unfortunately, as with many newlyweds, this enthusiasm as new Christians does not seem to last very long, either, because the real world with its pressures and deadlines and stress creep in to try to take prominence in our minds and hearts. We become distracted by other things that lead us slowly but surely away from God.
These are temptations and distractions. Your temptations and distractions may be completely different from mine, and they can be anything. One thing is certain, though, every temptation and distraction is designed to lead us away from God. The Bible tells us in James 4:17 that if we know to do good and don’t do it, it becomes a sin. Maybe it starts as not praying as much, not reading the Bible as often, letting slip a few words here or there that we know we ought not to say. We start letting a few of those “little” sins slowly slip back into our life. First, it’s a little flirtation with this sin. Or maybe it’s jealousy or lusting after others’ blessings.
Then, we want to rationalize our sins, remember that sin is rebellion against God and against His laws. We want to find excuses for why it’s okay for us to continue being disobedient and allowing our sins to still hang around, for us to continue doing something we know in our soul we ought not to do. We say, “It’s okay. It was only a small thing. It isn’t going to hurt anyone else. Right?” Wrong. It hurts you, and it hurts your walk with Christ. Worse yet, YOU then become a hindrance or a stumbling block to someone else. Your “little sins” can make someone else fall. Do you want to be responsible for that? I certainly do not.
Do you want to stand before God and say, “Oops, God, I didn’t know John was watching my life and almost became a Christian, but because of what he saw me doing decided that he lived a better life than me. I’m sorry that he couldn’t see Christ in me.”
I don’t think God is very big on excuses, so let’s pull out the magnifying glass for just a minute. Just look to the example that Adam and Eve gave us after their disobedience in the garden. Did their excuses make any difference in their (and subsequently our) punishment for defiance of God’s authority? Nope. Would an excuse work for your children when they are in defiance of your authority? Nope. So, we are without an excuse.
How about some real-life examples?
- When you wake up in the morning, do you check in with God before you check in with Facebook, email, eBay, twitter, etc? Exodus 20:3-5
- Do you check in with God before you make a decision, big or small? Do you make sure you are walking in God’s will? Do you ask what God’s opinion is in which path you take? Matthew 6:33, Luke 6:12
- I was so busy today I forgot to pray. I didn’t have time to thank God for anything today. I’ll do it tomorrow. Philippians 4:6, Psalms 55:17
- What are my lunch companions going to think of me if I bow my head and offer blessing and thanksgiving over the food God has graciously provided for me? I’ll do it next time. Skipping once isn’t going to matter, right? Mark 8:38
- Oh, look how sexy that man or woman is! I can look as long as I don’t touch. Matthew 5: 27,28
- Why do they have that big nice house while I struggle with this little one and all the problems it is giving me? I deserve to have that house; they don’t. Exodus 20:17
- No one knows, and as long as no one knows, no one’s going to get hurt by it. I will just keep it my little secret. Proverbs 28:13, Psalms 19:12, Isaiah 29:15, Hebrews 4:12, Numbers 32:23, Luke 8:17
- I don’t know why he got promoted over me. I have more experience, and I would do a much better job than him. James 3:16, James 4:2-3, Proverbs 14:30, Exodus 20:17
- I wasn’t really gossiping about Betty, I was just telling Susie what happened. It’s not really sowing discord in the church. Proverbs 6:16-19, Proverbs 11:13, Proverbs 16:28, Proverbs 20:19, Proverbs 26;20, I Timothy 5:13, Ephesians 4:29
Proverbs 16:17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.
I could give many more examples of wrong thinking and illegitimate excuse making. Those are just some of the ones that I have been guilty of in the past and ones that I have seen a lot of other Christians struggle with, even Christians who are not new disciples of Christ.
Every day the world is watching us. If we act, talk, think like everyone else who does not know Christ…if we live and act exactly like the people around us, then what do we have that they would want? II Timothy chapter 2 is bursting with instructions on how to be a Christian. Verse15 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (KJV)” Study the Bible, pray for God to give you wisdom to discern the truth, so that you won’t be ashamed of the work that you do.
In the 19th verse of that same chapter “…Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” When you call yourself a Christian, you are taking on the name of Christ, as a wife takes her husband’s name after marriage. As a disciple, follower, and representative of Christ, we need to leave behind sin, immorality, and wrongdoing.
Spouses who do not stay faithful are not very desirable are they? If you knew before you got married that your spouse was going to cheat on you, would you still marry him or her? Most of us would not. Let’s look at that in business terms. In a corporation or business, if you have lazy workers who don’t show up on time every day, who only put the minimum effort in to barely get the job done, who are dishonest and cheat the company any way they can, who conspire with your competition…if you knew a person was going to be that kind of employee beforehand, would you hire him or her? Would you give them your bank account numbers and full access to your business with the ability to destroy what you worked to build up? Everyone said no to that one, right?
Most companies have a policy to have a performance review for all their employees. This is to benefit the company and help the employee to grow within the company to potential advancements in the future. Performance reviews focus on what the employee is doing right, where the employee needs improvement, where the employee needs more education and training, and lays out a plan for the employee on steps to improve over the coming year.
When you become a Christian, you become God’s bride. God doesn’t want a cheating spouse any more than we would, nor does He want lazy, dishonest workers. Are you cheating on God? What can you do today, right now, to stay faithful to God everyday? Check in with God daily!
No matter how long you have been a Christian, or how good you think you are or you try to be, there is always room for improvement. Romans 3:23 tells us that everyone has sinned and fallen short, but we don’t have to keep doing the same thing over and over again. Ask Him where you need to improve, and I promise He will let you know! God is not going to force you to be faithful to Him; that’s all your decision.
The Challenge: We know that God is faithful, but are we? Are you a faithful bride patiently awaiting your groom, Jesus? I encourage you to read Jesus’ parable about the faithful servants in Matthew 25:14-30 and II Timothy Chapter 2. If you sat down with God and He gave you a performance review, what would your performance review look like? What are you doing right? Where do you need to improve? How are you going to work toward gaining more education, knowledge, wisdom, faithfulness, and discernment so that you can advance in your work for and relationship with Christ?
