A  Bride Prepared      

Be So Doing

What must the Bride be “so doing” in order to make herself ready for the marriage of the Lamb?  Please do not assume that, overall, the Church is on track.  Christ’s instruction to the end-time Church obviously indicates that the brethren are not ready to be presented in marriage to Christ – just the opposite.  The Church is not living up to Christ’s high calling, and they are blind to that fact – why else would He have such harsh criticism of our spiritual condition?  “You do not even know that you are wretched, and miserable, poor, blind, and naked,” – and that is God’s appraisal of our spiritual condition (Revelation 3:17).

Church people are becoming less and less like Jesus Christ in their actions and thoughts – and because they are blind, most are not even aware of it.  If the people of God were to be brought up before Christ today, many would be at risk of hearing the dreaded words, “I never knew you.”  (Matthew 7:23)  The sad fact is that the spiritual condition of God’s Church is deteriorating rapidly.

God the Father and Jesus Christ are working together to bring us to salvation, but we have to respond to their overtures, and be fashioned in their image. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has ordained beforehand that we should walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:10)  How do we do that?

What does Christ mean by those words – be found so doing?  Doing what?  What did He really have in mind for us to be “doing?”  Aren’t Church brethren doing things?  Some are making tapes and DVD’s for distribution; others are investigating issues such as the calendar, new moons, or prophecy; a number are reproducing Herbert W. Armstrong’s materials; some brethren are busy publishing materials, or doing website maintenance; we find brethren involved in choir, hall setup or serving at potlucks.  But these are not the actions that Christ meant when He said to be “so doing.”  Yes, those things are important – but much more is required of the Bride.

Seek the Spiritual

The spiritual is more important than the physical.  Jesus taught Martha the difference in Luke 10 – and we are privy to His vital lesson.  “Jesus entered a village: and Martha welcomed Him into her home.”  Martha was a lot like those brethren who are very involved in all kinds of very necessary physical projects.  “Martha had a sister, Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet, and listened to His teachings.”

“But Martha was inundated by her projects, and said to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you even care that my sister has left me to do all the serving – alone?  Tell her to come and help me.”  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about too many things.  But one thing is more important than anything else: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Jesus made it clear that spiritual endeavors superseded the physical ones.  It’s not that the serving and setting up are unimportant; it is that the spiritual things of God are most important.

When we apply Christ’s lesson that the spiritual nature of God, to which we must attain, surpasses the physical aspects of our lives, we begin to realize that a disproportionate emphasis on the physical comes short of Christ’s expectation for us.  The exceedingly more important development of our relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and our love and harmony with our brothers and sisters in Christ is what must come first.  Our Spirit-motivated relationship with God is the basis for being like-minded with the brethren.  That is what we must be so doing.

Why is the development of our spiritual lives of paramount importance?  It is because Jesus Christ is going to take to Himself a spiritual Bride – not a physical organization.  None of us is yet spiritual.  We are still a very carnal people in that we refuse to be at peace with one another (1 Corinthians 3:4).  We have been given the obligation of reconciliation with all brethren – and that we must be so doing (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).

The Bride of Christ in Revelation 19:7 will not be a loose federation of divided brethren.  The Spirit that is held in common by those comprising the "Wife of Christ" is the strongest bond that exists.  Jesus is not going to return to an estranged people who will not have anything to do with each other.  Our salvation depends on our love for God’s entire spiritual community.  “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.”  (1 John 3:14)

Let us not miss the importance of Jesus’ lesson for us at this time.  Some might wonder, “What more can I do – I have only so much strength, time and resources?”  Precisely!  But Jesus is not speaking of physical activities.  He expects us to be doing the spiritual!  It is high time we give priority to the spiritual aspects of our faith.  Yes, church activities and projects are necessary, but they do not rise to the level of the spiritual relationship with God and brethren that Jesus was speaking about when He said, “be found so doing?”

Who do You Love?

Are we living up to our spiritual responsibility?  Another way to ask that same question is this:  What must the future wife of Christ be doing to make herself ready for the marriage of the Lamb?  When Jesus returns:  First, the Bride will have made herself ready to meet the Bridegroom, and secondly, the foolish virgins will not be prepared (Matthew 25:12).  Let us be honest with ourselves – looking at the disheveled, disunified state of the Church today, we are certainly not ready.  We must each personally be healing the breach that exists – the responsibility is ours.

Just before He died, Jesus Christ told the apostles to love one another.   Most people would say that they love those in their group, and thus have fulfilled that Scripture.  But can we agree that all those who have God's Holy Spirit are elect children of God, and that there are individuals in various groups who have God's Spirit?  All the corporate groups would say that they uphold that principle.  But they do not – not with a Godly love!

Various Church leaders have chosen a mistakenly narrow viewpoint when determining who to include in the “love one another” category.  Those leaders subtly imply to the members of their congregations that they are better than other fellowships.  As a result, some brethren tend to shun and look down on those brethren not in their organization.  That is an arrogant attitude of self-exaltation that Jesus Christ condemns (James 2:1).

Everyone with the proper reverence for God's love and way of life will be discerning which brethren to include in their personal fellowship.  It does not matter whether or not they are in a particular church organization.  "They that feared the Lord spoke often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name."  (Malachi 3:16)

How much time do we have left to get our act together?  Jesus Christ is going to look each of us in the eye and ask, "When did you – not your hierarchy – reach out to your brother and sister in love and reconciliation?” (2 Corinthians 5:18)  "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves."  (Philippians 2:3)

Chapter 3: Are You Not Yet Carnal?