Jesus' Wife

Orthodoxy

Let me start by saying I am not claiming or arguing that Jesus had a wife when He dwelt on the earth. Those myths and heresies have abounded as people have diluted the pure gospel of the Kingdom of God. We must be people of the book, devoted to believing what is found in the text of scripture, not the vain imaginations and silly speculations of men.

I think that our human tendency to look for patterns and find connections, sometimes, leads us to conclude things about the kingdom and the church that were not true in the time of Christ and are not true now. We must be committed to the Apostle’s doctrine and to sound (healthy) doctrine that builds on the firm foundation of the Prophets and Apostles with the Lord Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone of all our faith and practice (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Reality

Our culture has a real problem. We are bombarded on all sides with enticements and images and ads that just are not real. The white washing of everything makes it almost impossible for the real world to compete. Magazines and movies build a portrayal of beauty that real life people cannot attain because it’s more airbrush and camera filters than real life. Our lives are curated across social media where no one can feel the biting mosquitoes or smell the body odor. We turn fun activities into impossible to capture perfection. And because we are filled with these expectations nothing ever seems good enough for us.

The local church has fallen victim to this kind of thinking as well. As we have become an even more consumer driven society and everyone sees what is wrong with the church. I will be the first to agree that our churches are not perfect but I think that we sometimes judge the church too harshly because we are imagining a group or entity that Jesus never intended to build.

Consider that Jesus’ church would be engaged in a fight. When Jesus talked about building His church He specifically pointed out that the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). Jesus knew they and us would be imperfect and face challenges. He even gave direct instructions to us about how to deal with sin among the saints, even to the point of removing a person from the gathered body (Matthew 18:15-20). The Apostle Paul also regularly wrote to the churches because there were problems that must be addressed in local churches. Remember most of Paul’s letters were written with local churches in mind. Even those circular letters meant to be passed on to other churches were instructions for each individual church.

Bad Mouthing

As I said, our churches are not perfect and we must strive to be as biblical in our practices as possible, even when that means doing things that are hard and uncomfortable. Our local churches are frail and flawed and in some ways maybe even failing but she must not be abandoned!

Did you notice that I referred to the church as ‘she’? That’s because the church is Jesus’ bride! When we talk about the problems and needs of local churches maybe we should do so with some reverence because that is Christ’s bride you are talking about. 

Jesus loves the church! Jesus loves local, faithful churches! Jesus gave Himself in life and in death for His wife (the local church). Paul then tells us that Jesus did this to present her to Himself  “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-28).”  This means that while we may see imperfections in the church’s current state, just as we are not perfect individually, Jesus will bring us as believers and His bride as a whole to this holy estate in His time and purposes.

So I encourage us to transform our criticism into caring and get busy loving the local church. Jesus loves the church and if anyone does not love the local church then they don’t really love Jesus.

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