We must be prepared to meet our bridegroom, Jesus Christ

The church is represented in the Bible as the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 11:1-2, Paul the Apostle refers to the church as a “pure virgin” for Christ. The church is an institution that shows the world what Jesus Christ is like. Even if the entire world grows corrupt, the church should remain clean and pure to greet Jesus Christ in His second coming. Therefore, trying its best to maintain its purity is the least the church could do to prepare. Moreover, in this day and age where tolerance is held up as the highest virtue and society raves about acceptance and acknowledgement of anything and everything, the need for the church to be very sensitive towards keeping its body bridelike, is all the more pressing.

The church must have its own beauty, purity and unique functions. In Genesis, God speaks the world into existence and “saw that it was good.” After creating mankind in His own image and likeness, God “saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” All God’s creation has its own unique beauty. It’s an unseemly thing for people to constantly imitate others without even attempting to take care of and love the unique beauty given to each of them. We look the most classy and elegant when we live up to the best of the characteristics, talents and strengths given to us. The same applies to the church. The church is a beautiful place. The church is a place where there are messages of love the world cannot imitate, beautiful music, selfless service, sincere worship, education to cultivate servanthood and stewardship, forgiveness, love and grace. There are many great institutions in the world, but there is, truly, no place like the house of God. To use the words of the Prophet Isaiah, the church is “beautiful and glorious.” Cultivating these aspects is the only way for the church to remain functional. Therefore, if the church is to be respected by all and demonstrate its power and authority, it must carry out the mission given to the church in accordance with the will of Jesus Christ, the head of the church, by cultivating its noble, pure and beautiful features the world cannot imitate. The church must discard the attitude of recklessly imitating anything that looks good on the outside in order to satisfy its own desires. We must remember that when a church loses its churchly appearance, it becomes like salt that loses its taste. Until the second coming of Christ, the church must faithfully walk in the direction of preserving the style, taste and function given exclusively to the church.

The church must take pride in keeping to the paths of righteousness until we greet the Lord. The Almighty Jesus Christ kept to the end of bearing the cross. If Jesus was just looking to gain the world, it would have been better off for Him to listen to Satan and jump off the top of the temple or bow to Satan, instead of bearing the cross. What the church needs to do is follow God’s plan and remain faithful to Him on the strength of His power and ways. In other words, conforming to the ways of the world for God’s sake should never happen in the church. The world uses bad methods to accomplish what it believes to be a good purpose, like the Communist regime or Adolf Hitler, who justified injustice while touting a purpose that seemed plausible to so many people at the time. So no matter how hard one works to spread the Gospel, if the methods aren’t right, there’s a problem. The church must always insist on the righteous ways of God.

The church must stand guard over its position of faith and fulfill its role properly. It is wrong for the church to break away from its given position to go out and act in place of Jesus Christ. For example, if a wife makes her husband stay at home to take care of the kids while she goes out to work because the money he earns isn’t enough to meet her expectations, she’ll be able to spend her money however she wants, but money can’t buy happiness. Which family would be happier, one with a wife who is satisfied with her husband’s small income and uses it to the best of her abilities, or one with a wife who says she’ll go out and work instead because her husband makes too little? Taking the story a step further, it would be absolutely heartbreaking to witness a situation where a wife is willing to sell her body for money to help her family and it would be downright pathetic if her husband was fine with such a crazy idea. The problem is that the church, as the wife of Jesus Christ, is ignoring His good plans and abilities, as well as her identity as a sacred institution, is embracing and utilizing all sorts of unusual ways and means of the world in the name of Christ. Jesus is not a incompetent being who relies on man and enjoys the fruit of our labor. The church must guard and fulfill its God-given role before the Lord.

The church must keep its body holy until the day of the Lord’s second coming. I’m afraid the church will be recognized as a place where human desires can be fulfilled without guilt. Many people believe anything done in a church setting can’t possibly be bad, but what’s considered bad in society is equally as bad in a church. In fact, it’s much worse. In ancient history, we can see that acts of sexual immorality were openly displayed in religious events. Religious influence grew and expanded by allowing anyone to enjoy themselves engaging in inappropriate activities, justifying it as a religious event under the guise of religion. It is not ok to bring in secular music to the church, nor does it make the music any holier. What do you think of parents who tell their kids it’s bad to go out to drink, but ok to drink at home, and actually encourage them to drink at home by providing them with alcohol? The parents’ job is to educate their children to stay away from alcohol; it’s not their job to drag secularism into the home. Is it ok to create a dance party atmosphere inside the church? Is it dangerous to go to music festivals and raves with your friends but perfectly fine to enjoy the same secular music at church? If so, why did Jesus drive out the money changers and those selling doves in the temple? It was because they weren’t fit to be in His Father’s house. The church cannot embrace everything of this world and use it to serve Jesus Christ her husband. To do this is to bruise and tear His heart to pieces. We must never make the mistake of degrading ourselves to missionize or preach the Word. The church must preserve its churchly purity, so that weary souls are able to walk in freely and find comfort away from a world full of sin.

The end times are near. We must get ready to greet our groom. “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers” (1 Peter 4:7). There is a pressing need for the church to dispassionately think about Jesus’ noble will, the responsibility and mission of the church and what He requires of the church, and to act in accordance with His desires. The church, which has become the bride of Christ thanks to His sacrifice on the cross, says she is for Christ but does not care for His plans and ideas, doing things in her own way using every possible means to make Him happy. This kind of attitude is similar to that of Jezebel, who said she was for her husband, but got caught up in her own ambitions and ultimately destroyed her husband King Ahab, her children, and all of Israel and Judah. We are living in the end times. Churches should not accept people like Jezebel, who called herself a prophet. Until the day the Lord comes again, the church should dedicate itself faithfully and devotedly to the work He has entrusted to the church, and welcome Him with joy when He arrives.