I have been blessed by a beautiful, wonderful, loving, supportive wife. We met in 2001, began dating shortly thereafter, and became engaged on Christmas Eve in 2005. We were married almost a year later (December 2, 2006). During the time we dated, were engaged, and the almost two years of marriage, we have remained faithful spouses.
What if the faithfulness had been broken during the engagement period?
The prophet Isaiah wrote, "For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5). In the New Testament, the apostle Paul intentionally continues this imagery relating Christ and the Church to husband and wife (Ephesians 5:22-33).
However, before reading Paul's words to the Christians at Ephesus, it would be beneficial to understand traditional Jewish wedding customs of the day. Understanding these customs give a better hermeneutical understanding of what he is communicating.
In a nutshell, the Jewish wedding customs began with the initial engagement ("betrothal") which was usually arranged by the parents of the bride & groom. After this betrothal period the couple was considered husband and wife, but they still remained apart physically (including sexually). At an unknown time, the groom would then return to claim his bride! There would then be an elaborate wedding feast and a formal uniting of the couple. They would then begin their life together as a family.
With that brief description of the wedding customs of the day, we can better see what Paul is communicating in Ephesians 5:22-33.
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, 23 for the
husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church. He is the
Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives should
[submit] to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives,
just as also Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 to make
her holy, cleansing her in the washing of water by the word. 27 He did this
to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands should
love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just
as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of His body.
31 For this reason a man will leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
32 This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her
husband.
The emphasis is on the relationship between Christ and the Church, and there just happens to be some practical applications for husbands & wives there as well!
The Christian and the Church are intertwined. I like how Thom S. Rainer, President and C.E.O. of LifeWay Christian Resources, put it in his recent book Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts (Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 2008). He says, "...the church and Christ are eternally tied. The two cannot be separated. The two are married to each other. Christ is the groom. The church is His bride. Trying to be a Christian without a connection to the local church is like trying to have a marriage without interacting and communicating with your spouse. The church is a critical piece of a relationship with God. In fact, a relationship with God is seriously compromised apart from the local church" (page 76).
All that being said, could we say we are a faithful bride to our groom? As in the Jewish tradition, the betrothal period is over; we are considered spiritually married to our Groom, and we are awaiting His return to take us with Him for a honeymoon into eternity! But as we await Him, are we still the pure, expectant bride He longs for?
To those who consider themselves Christians, let's be faithful. We expect it from our mates... we know our God is faithful to us. Let's give back to Him what we expect from our mates... let's be a faithful bride anxiously awaiting our soon-returning Groom!
Revelation 19:6-9
6 Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying:
Hallelujah —because our Lord God, the Almighty,
has begun to reign!
7 Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory,
because the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and His wife has prepared herself.
8 She was permitted to wear fine linen, bright and pure.
For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, "Write: Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb!" He also said to me, "These words of God are true."
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