He who has the bride
is the bridegroom;
but a friend of the
bridegroom,
who stands and hears
him,
rejoices greatly
because of
the bridegroom's
voice.
Therefore this joy of
mine is fulfilled.
He must increase, but
I must decrease.
John 3:29 -- 30
When we forget
that we have been bought with a price, and that price was paid by God himself
to satisfy His own debt, then we allow unnecessary practices and doctrines to
become necessary. When we forget that
we are the bride and the friend of the Bridegroom then we have forgotten who we
are in Jesus Christ. This is exactly
what was occurring in the Corinthian church and in fact is occurring in many
churches today. There seems to be a
clamor for one to be entertained, and to reach out for things that seem to be godly
but are doing nothing more than taking us away from Him and making us our own
necessity to our soul. If this is so,
then you are out of God's order. Yes,
we are to be the arms, legs, and mouthpiece for our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, but this is not to be our first order, for our first order is to be a
friend of the Bridegroom. What is the
influence in your life? If your
influence is in the right direction, and your claims to be one of the bride of
Jesus Christ then you will not put out your hand to that which is
carnality. What is so unfortunate in
the church of Corinth and in many of our churches and Christians today is that
Christians are becoming, if not already have become, amateur prominences, and by
being this, we are preventing God to have His way in our life. The Corinthians believed that as a Christian
the things that they were now holding of high importance, were nothing more than
having a sympathy for the way they saw things should be done. Often in the church there is group euphoria
in a rejoicing of the soul in the wrong things, but we need to rejoice in the
right things and to be doing so is to be a friend of the Bridegroom: He must
increase while we decrease. We need to
hear the Bridegroom's voice and obey yet no matter what obedience is and what
brings or upsets us, whether it be a crumbling of our health or any of the
trial, or tribulation. Our goodness in
purity should never bring attraction to ourselves, for our goodness, in purity
simply ought to act as the magnets and draw us to Jesus Christ. If our holiness is not drawing us towards Him, then our holiness is not of the right order, rather it is an influence
that will lead us to inordnance affection and lead our soul away into side --
eddies. This was occurring greatly in
the Corinthian church and Paul is addressing this problem, direct and
succinctly, and he does so as the Greek so well attest, with force. If you do not want to be a hindrance and to
be a saint that God has called you to be then what needs done is that Jesus
Christ is presented, not for what he has done for us, only for what Jesus
Christ is our true friend and our bridegroom and we in the bride. If we do it any other way that all we have
done is to make cause for us to stand now as though we had such a fine character
which is only an increasing of ourselves which is an absolute contradiction to
the Word of God.
How then
are we to maintain this friendship and our loyalty to the Bridegroom? It is simply that we must be more careful
and test all things according to Scripture, and to test our morality, our
carnality that may be driving us away from the bride rather than drawing is
closer to Him. We are to obey, and
leave the consequences with God. We
must guard our vital relationship to Jesus Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to
guide us as we study and read His inspired word. Even when we feel that there are no things that are needing our
obedience, then the only thing we are to do is to maintain our vital connection
with Jesus Christ and to what the will of God is for our life and for His
children. Time will come when there
will be a crisis in your life and we have the responsibility to find out what
the will of God is so that we can maintain this vital relationship and our
friendship with the bridegroom. So
often we have supplemented our faith with work which may be only a means of
evading the soul’s concentration on Jesus Christ. This is what was occurring in the Corinthian church for they were
supplanting their faith and placing their Faith in Faith, and supplying even
emotional need by over emphasizing and misusing the gifts of the Spirit that
were to lead the church and other churches before the complete fullness had
come, which is the Bible. Guard against becoming amateur providences which only
will lead you to work against Him, and a misuse of the weapons we need to stand
firm against the wiles of Satan.
I have set
forth this in order to understand that which was occurring in the Corinthian
church has occurred in Christian churches for many years and is even more so
occurring in many of the churches in our present age. Chapter 7 of Corinthians Paul turns his attention to some very
serious practices within the church.
Not only do we find the principles spoken to the Corinthian church to be
principles for us also, we can also see that that which he speaks about and
addresses are to the same things that are happening with many Christians, and
in many churches. Therefore, it is
important that we take the next verses and chapters slowly and with great care
and examine everything within the Greek language and in context. As set forth the context of the Corinthian
church and how that same context applies to many churches today therefore
again, what Paul addresses aptly applies to us today. The next blog will begin at Chapter 7, in what is needed is
prayerful attention to what God is admonishing, and praising, and then applying
those principles in our lives. Pray,
read God's word, become the friend of the bridegroom, as you have never before
been, for you all are His bride.
Let all those who seek You
rejoice and
be glad in You;
and let those who love Your
salvation
say continually,
"Let God be magnified!"
Psalm
70: 4
God saves those who love His the name
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