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A Bride Prepared
A Good Marriage
A good marriage is a
beautiful thing – a Godly thing with deep and transcendent meaning
for the entire Church of God. That is why it is so important to
continuously build on our marriages all of our lives. A good marriage
is a close, unified relationship between a man and a woman. It was God
who instituted the marriage covenant between a man and a woman. God
brought about the marriage covenant for a vitally important reason.
From Genesis to Revelation, God uses the intimacy and love between a man
and his wife to reflect the deeply spiritual relationship between
Jesus Christ and His Bride.
“Just you and me Lord,” is
not the kind of relationship that we are to have with our God. God
designed man to be interactive with others in a spiritual way – it is
not good that man should be alone. (Genesis 2:18) The
apostle Peter explains that our eternal life depends, not only on our
relationship with God, but also on how we relate to our spouse, and with
our Church brethren.
In His infinite wisdom,
God gave the married couple the creative ability to bring children into
the world as an exact type of His eternal plan of bringing many sons and
daughters to glory – imbued with eternal life. God is reproducing
Himself, and there is no more appropriate picture of His grand design
than the family relationship. As Jesus presided at the very first
wedding, He said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his
mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one
flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) God intends, and expects that marriage be
the epitome of perfect unity.
God intends that a married
couple enter into the Kingdom of God together. That is what Peter means
by, “being heirs together of the grace of life.” Discord
or conflict within a marriage impairs, not only the relationship between
husband and wife, but also obstructs and frustrates a right spiritual
relationship with God. Peter expounds on this concept: “Likewise,
you husbands, dwell with [your wife] according to knowledge, giving
honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs
together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
(1 Peter 3:7) What does it mean, “that your prayers be not
hindered” – how are prayers hindered?
Peter continues, “Finally,
be you all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as
brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.” (1 Peter 3:8) A serious
marital problem arises when a husband and wife can no longer share their
deepest feelings and heartfelt concerns with one another in an honest
way. They are no longer of one mind, and their prayers to God
are not in harmony. An untenable situation comes about when the
individual partners assert their reconciliation with God, but not with
each other. The oneness of the marital union is strained to
the breaking point, and God cannot, and will not, bless that kind of
discord because the primary unity of the marriage is missing.
Instead of being heirs
together of the Kingdom of God, the situation has become
reversed. Peter’s point is that when the intended unity and oneness of
a marriage relationship breaks down, the parties become separated from
one another and then lack the oneness to be heirs together of the
grace of life. A person’s prayers are, therefore, hindered,
frustrated, and cut-off from God – there is a spiritual disconnection
from God – because the individual parties are, in effect, asking God to
bless only a part of a marriage that should be unified.
It is the same situation
with the Body of Christ – the Church. Our prayers to God cannot be
right, when our rapport with other brethren is not right. Can we pray
and ask God to disregard a part of the Body of Christ? No, we cannot.
It is confusion. If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he
is a liar: for he that does not love his brother whom he has seen, how
can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20)
One Church
In the same way that a
husband and wife are meant to be heirs together of the grace
of life, all members of the Body of Christ are meant to be heirs
together of the grace of life. “The Spirit itself
bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And
if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified
together.” (Romans 8:16-17) “Being justified
by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life.” (Titus 3:7)
The husband is the head of
the wife – who is the weaker vessel. That is an exact picture of Jesus
Christ and His Bride – the Church of God. Jesus is the head of the
Church – we know that. But do we realize that we – the Church brethren
– are the weaker vessel? And yet, Jesus made it possible for us
to be joint-heirs with Him in the Kingdom of God when He laid down His
life for us.
The scriptures are clear
about our relationships with each other. God hates divorce because it
tears at the very fabric and basis of family and community. In
precisely the same way, God abhors division among those in His Church.
Reconciliation is our duty. More than that, our responsibility to
reconcile with each other even supersedes our religious worship. Notice
the words of Jesus Christ, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and
there you remember that your brother has anything against you; Leave
there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be
reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
(Matthew 5:23-24)
In the same way that
quarrels between marriage partners are spiritually harmful because they
impede their prayers; offenses between Church brethren also frustrate
and encumber a right relationship with God. Most members underestimate
the seriousness of severed relationships between brethren. Until such
time that the camaraderie among brethren is restored – prayers are
hindered. Let us keep the big picture here. The
Bride that Christ is going to marry will be made up of all the
reconciled brethren in the Church – those who are ardently working to
restore and maintain right relations among all the brethren. The
Bride that Christ marries will have learned to make peace and
reconciliation a way of life. Keep in mind that both husbands and
wives will make up the Bride of Christ.
The worst pain is that of
betrayal. Jesus Christ has experienced betrayal. His marriage to the
Bride will be exemplified by the faithfulness and loyalty of those who
have learned to make peace. In the millennium, Christ’s marriage to the
Church will not be a troubled marriage because His Bride will have
made herself ready by practicing the skills of reconciliation. That
is why it is so necessary at this time for husbands and wives to learn
how to live together in love, respect and harmony. God’s Spirit
dictates that Church brethren possess this same unity of the Spirit –
making them one. They, too, must be unified because Jesus and His Bride
will have a good marriage.
Chapter 8: Bride of Christ |
