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Author Topic: How did Christ Love the Church?  (Read 2603 times)

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guest24

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Re: How did Christ Love the Church?
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2018, 11:46:14 am »
The wife/church/our response....

Proverbs 31:10-12  A wife of noble character who can find?  She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.  She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.  She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.


A WIFE OF NOBLE CHARACTER WHO CAN FIND?  SHE IS WORTH FAR MORE THAN RUBIES.
   The wife of noble character is a gift from God.  The man who finds a noble wife, is said to have gained God's favor.  A wife of noble character who is not cherished as a gift from God, as a favor bestowed upon the husband, is not being shown her true worth. (Genesis 2:18; Proverbs 8:35; Proverbs 18:22; Proverbs 19:14) Maybe one of if not the hardest things to get women to understand, is their true value.  From the moment of birth, woman are taught that their value is found in their sex appeal, their outward beauty, or worse yet, their monetary value, or work value.  We see the stereotypical husband who refuses to do “woman's” work, or expects his meal piping hot on the table the moment he walks through the door.  We are confronted daily by images of the perfect figure and the flawless face, airbrushing keeping a tidy little secret so as not to destroy the appeal.  Diets and diet aids to help us achieve what is not possible, clothes that are revealing beyond our comfort zones.  Even the overly criticized church goer who sees everyone as violating the law of God but themselves, assaults the image the woman has of herself.  We further destroy her self image, by proclaiming the authoritarian headship of the husband, the inferiority of a woman in submission, the demand for silence in church and her inability to be “smart” enough to teach men who are of course far superior to woman. Whether boldly claimed, or whether objecting to the subtle messages sent but proclaiming the them as truth none the else, there is a huge assault on woman's image of themselves. More times than not, she not only carries that image throughout the days of her life, but also she carries them into the marriage. She is told to be this or that, to do this or that, to be X or Y, but seldom is she told how precious she really is.  She may, if one of the lucky ones, be told she is beautiful, but as my own dear daughter reminded me, that beauty is fading, of no real value, even though we are told to aspire to it.  A wife with a wonderful husband, might tell her she is loved, might even show her that love, but how often is she shown the value of being a chosen gift of God, the favor of God bestowed upon those who have been privileged to know her intimately?  Proverbs 31:10 b   She is worth far more than rubies. Very few things in scripture are said to be of this great of value, among those that are is Christ Himself, (I Peter 1:19; I Peter 2:4-7)  wisdom that is the real wisdom, the wisdom from God, the wisdom that leads to salvation, (Job 28:18; Proverbs 8:11; Proverbs 3:15) and the wife of noble character. (Proverbs 12:4)  Wife: that is a very exclusive club to belong to, and should spur us to Godliness, to be the woman of virtue that is talked about in this passage.  Individual and Church: understanding how great our value is to God is not just an honor but a responsibility of enormous magnitude.  Husband: if you don't really understand how precious the gift God granted to you in your wife, or how great a favor He showed you when He gave her to you, you are dishonoring both God and your wife. 
   As I studied exactly what noble or virtuous meant in this passage, something became clear.  The word means strength, might, efficiency, wealth, the force of like an army.  Throughout scripture, the word is usually used for men, in fact, this is the only incident where it is used specifically for woman.  But what was especially interesting and will turn many men inside out, is that the men that are virtuous, or of noble character, are time and time again, in scripture, upheld as being worthy, or having earned honor (Exodus 14:4; Exodus 14:17) and the headship. (Genesis 47:6; Exodus 18:21-25; I Kings 11:28; I Chronicles 5:24; I Chronicles 7:9-11)  The wife of noble character, has earned the right to headship, however, in the humility of submission, she willingly yields that headship to her husband, not because he has earned headship, but because it is his birthright by being created first. (Genesis 1 & 2; Colossians 1:18; I Corinthians 11:7-12; I Timothy 2:11-15)  The real significance of this understanding, belongs to the wife whose husband is not a Godly man, for yielding headship to the husband has nothing to do with earning it, whether the husband has earned respect, headship, honor or not, the wife of noble character yields that position, that role, to the husband, simply because by God's design, it is his.  The power to be this humble, this yielding is like so many of the things we are commanded to do and be, possible only in the power of the living God. (II Samuel 22:33; Psalms 60:12; Psalms 108:13; Hebrews 3:19; Zechariah 4:6...word for strength, power, might, same word used for virtuous in Prov. 31)
HER HUSBAND HAS FULL CONFIDENCE IN HER AND LACKS NOTHING OF VALUE.
   This gift from God, this virtuous wife, is not only of great worth, but has the confidence of her husband, because in her, he lacks nothing.  Colossians 1:24 (NIV) Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. What could possibly still be lacking in Christ's affliction, His afflictions are what brings us salvation and it is a salvation that is complete in Him.  But when we look deeper into scripture, we see that what is lacking in the suffering, is a unity with us, the believer, it is the sharing with one another, the sharing of pain, sorrows, joys, treasured moments, that help to build within us, the unity that is lacking in Christ's suffering.  All the suffering in the world, could not bring us to the point of being one with Christ, unless, we are willing to share also in His sufferings, sufferings that are there to bring about the same goal, the goal of marriage, the goal of a righteous bride.  (Romans 8:17; I Corinthians 12:27; II Corinthians 1:5; II Corinthians 6:10; Ephesians 1:23; II Timothy 2:10)  In Christ, the husband lacks nothing of value from the wife of virtue, because what is of value, is the wife and the unity that she strives to build through righteousness.
SHE BRINGS HIM GOOD, NOT HARM, ALL THE DAYS OF HER LIFE.
   Romans 13:10 (NIV) Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. One of the things we learn very quickly when studying love, is that it does not harm.  In Proverbs 31:12 we see that the wife loves the husband, in that she does him no harm. (Matthew 7:12; Matthew 22:39; John 13:34; John 13:8) Before we too quickly dismiss this small kernel, consider God's command to His people.  If love was assumed, if it was a given, then God would not have commanded us to Love Him. (Deuteronomy 4:29; Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 11:1; Deuteronomy 13:3; Deuteronomy 30:6; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30-33; Luke 10:27)  Love in marriage is not just something we can assume, it is something that we learn, it is something we choose.  Remember back in Ephesians 5, where we talked about love being a choice, here it is again.  We choose whether or not we will love.  In the beginning we may feel the warm fuzzies of being “in love” but real love develops over time, is given to us by the Holy Spirit, and becomes the center, or core of not only our relationship, but our righteousness before God, the angels, and one another.
   Through revelation, the bridegroom reveals Himself as someone the bride can trust, as we see in Isaiah 53, someone whose sole purpose, entire goal is the righteousness of the bride.  Not a false righteousness that He is not able to achieve, or a demanding righteousness where every little thing is criticized, but rather a genuine righteousness that flows from example, equipping, and a value, a treasuring of the wife, that the husband discovered when he sought out on this adventure we call marriage.  Likewise, earthly husbands, are to love their wife with example (headship) and equipping (provision and care), and cherishing (understanding of who the wife is to him) in order to fulfill the command of loving the wife as Christ loved the Church.  In Christ, there is no such thing as a no win situation, because in Christ, it is God Himself that provides all the tools necessary to succeed, the tools of the Holy Spirit, instruction through example and written word, purpose or goals that are clearly laid out, and the Love that is without end, without condition, enduring, everlasting. In Christ, the church is found innocent of wrong doing, the bride is indeed, presented blameless because it is the righteousness of Christ, His very life lived in humility that cleanses her of wrongs in the marriage. In response to this revelation by the Bridegroom, the wife of noble character responds by being someone that the husband can put His trust in, a trust that she will bring Him good things.  Many people have questioned, if we can give anything to God.  If God provides all things good, what can we return to Him that has value?  The good things we can bring to Christ, the good things the wife of noble character can bring to the husband, begins with her own righteousness through the blood of Christ.  The husband cannot love his wife unto righteousness unless he is himself righteous in Christ.  Nor can the husband reveal through example the righteousness of headship unless the husband is righteous in Christ.  Likewise, the wife of noble character, the wife that is responding to her husbands righteousness, cannot bring only good to her husband unless she also is righteous. (Matthew 12:34)  Her own righteousness in Christ is one of the good things she brings to her husband.  It is from the righteousness that over flows her heart, that her words, her gentle, quiet (peaceable), and reverent life bring good to her husband.  This good that overflows from her heart, is that glory, that treasure, that beauty that is stored for her in in heaven.  It is a revelation of her own of who she serves, who she is reflecting in her own life.  The wife of noble character must, have stored on her account, the wealth of Christ that is her's to share. (Matthew 12:35; Luke 6:45)  Because Christ is the provider that gives only good gifts, because our treasure that is stored in heaven is that of Christ, it is the overflow of Christ in her life, into her works, that will be evidenced to the world of the good things she brings to her husband.  By doing good, she brings good to her bridegroom. (John 5:29; II Corinthians 5:10; II Corinthians 9:8) As head of the wife, the husband is to share in the teaching of scripture with the wife, but her reciprocating that good teaching, is also part of the good that she brings to her husband.  (Galatians 6:6) As we previously touched upon, the woman is not instructed by Paul to do no teaching of men, we see that again here in Galatians, rather she is not to usurp her authority to teach over a man.  She is to instead, teach only in the authority of God as given to her by God, and nothing more.  As a woman of noble character, the wife tests all things, to see if they are good.  (I Thessalonians 5:21)   The witness of the Holy Spirit and the lining up of that spirit with the scriptures, is our measure of what is tested to be good. (Romans 12:9; I Corinthians 14:29; I Thessalonians 5:15-22; I John 4:1-6) The wife who is responding to the revelation of Christ, that we need to be righteous, does so through the training of herself in Godliness, (I Timothy 4:6-10) and by running toward the righteousness that the Husband desires for her. (I Timothy 6:11)  It is with a soft heart, a reverent spirit for the things of God, that mark her response to the revelation of Christ.  The things that identify her as a woman in submission.  The wife of noble character, responds to her husbands revelation, by submitting herself to him, as she would unto the Lord.  I Peter 3:2 & 4 (NIV)  when they see the purity and reverence of your lives...Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.  Sometimes we look at our lives, focus on all the bad things the world says we should not like, and forget that the truly good things in life, are the things that come from God, the things that we are to bring to our Bridegroom, in the form of a submissive heart that reveals the righteousness of Christ.
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