Bride of Christ Perspectives

This is a paper I wrote a few months ago, but thought I would make it available to everyone in cyberspace.

            In light of the fact that Jesus Christ our Lord views us as His cherished Bride, how does this affect your perspective on the following:

            Worship:

            Understanding the definition of worship as intense focus and devotion, in light of the fact mentioned above, brings an incredible perspective to worship.  Worship suddenly becomes a natural outpouring of our heart, when we begin to see Christ the way He really is, and fall in love with Him for that reason.  Worship ceases to be a drudgery that we have to perform, as if we were grudgingly bowing down in front of a king whose policies and ideals we don’t really agree with, but that we still have to honor—instead, worship is a response in devotion and love to the great love and faithfulness He has shown us!

            Sin:

            Sin can be thought of as breaking a law, or doing something wrong, and it is.  But looking at it from the angle that Christ is our “groom”, and we are His “cherished bride”, makes it less about a formalized code that we are breaking, and more about hurting Someone we love.  The realization of who Christ is and the way He sees us should change our motivation behind not sinning.  The reason I do not want to sin is not because I am trying to avoid hell or get to heaven; it is because I love Jesus and do not want to do anything that displeases Him, particularly in the light of all the grace He has shown us, and how much He loves us and is looking out for our best interests.  Psalm 10:4 has an interesting statement about the wicked.  It says, “God is not in all his thoughts.”  I noticed it does not say, “God is not in his thoughts at all”, but rather that the wicked person is not thinking about God all the time.  What that tells me is that if we have the mentality that we are in love with Him and He is in love with us, just like a groom and his bride, all our thoughts will be centered on Him and what He desires, and what we desire will pale in comparison.  That is the thing that will keep us from wickedness.

            Obedience:

            The verse that comes to my mind in relation to being obedient to Christ is 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”  Because we understand the relationship that exists between ourselves and Jesus, we should not think of obedience to Him as a grievous thing, like following the rules of a strict taskmaster.  We are so overwhelmed with gratitude and love because we do not deserve anything that He has given us and we want to do whatever we possibly can to show Him our love, that obedience should be the natural response of the heart to express our love for Him.  In a healthy marriage relationship, a wife obeys her husband, not because she is scared of him or insecure, but because she wants to demonstrate that she respects, trusts, and honors him.  Our relationship with Christ should have the same impetus.

            Life Purpose:

            The whole reason Jesus uses this metaphor is because there is an unbreakable covenant that is enacted when two people are married.  The husband does not have his own life separate from his wife.  The two become one.  It is the same when we make a covenant with Christ.  Colossians 3:4 is one of my favorite verses describing this, and it says, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”  Christ doesn’t just give us a new life for us to go live on our own…He becomes our life!  Our old life is dead.  As was mentioned in the sermon we listened to in class, love involves leaving your old life to begin a new life, completely entwined with your spouse, and the purpose of your life becomes to please him/her.  When we become a Christian, the purpose of our life becomes to please our husband, Christ, and we cease to look at our own interests and expectations, and focus on Him and what He wants and who He is.