Do You Delight In The Bride Of Christ

The closer you are to the Lord, the closer you will be to other believers.
--Peter Jeffrey

What is the Bride of Christ?

Is it singular or plural?

Who much should we want to be with the Bride?

Proverbs 30:18-19

Genesis 29:20

Not to compare Jesus with Jacob but in a much grander scale Jesus traveled from Heaven to earth and worked for 33 for the delight of His eyes, the church.

Romans 5:25-27

Now suppose that the very Spirit of Jesus Christ Himself were given to dwell, not only in the body of Jesus, but also in another human. (And realize that according to the New Testament, this is what happens to all who belong to Christ—Romans 8:9)

Obviously then, like Christ, the man or woman who has been given the Spirit of Jesus would love what Jesus loves and died for—His bride, the Church.

So one of the best tests of whether we belong to Christ is whether we delight in His delight, namely, the people who comprise His church.

Or as John put it:

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren (I John 3:14).

King David put it this way:

As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
Psalm 16:3 NASB

Saints is one of the terms applied to the people of God

Paul refers to Christians as saints in nearly every New Testament letter he wrote, using the word more than fifty times.

But the saints are not perfect at all.

I Corinthians 1:2

David uses words “majestic ones,” “excellent ones” and “glorious ones.”

The question is do we ever refer to our fellow believer in such magnificent terms?

We must remember that we aren’t part of the majestic ones because of anything that we did or can do, but because of what He did and can do through us.

Delighting in Christ’s people is normal, healthy Christianity.

Do you delight in the bride of Jesus Christ?

We must remember that the church is not just one person but individuals who make up the church.

Do you delight in her willingly?

When God makes a Christian, He changes the person’s heart so dramatically that delighting in the followers of Jesus becomes as easy and natural for the soul as delighting in sunsets and savory food is for the senses.

We shouldn’t come to church because of the ought’s but because of the wants. Although some of the ought’s are good and positive our primary motivation should be because we delight in Jesus and His bride.

Delight in the church is inborn in those who are born again.

Do you delight in her company?

For the Christian, the presence of the saints, by virtue of their being saints, evokes delight. For what makes these people to be saints in the earth is the God in the heavens—the most delightful Being in the universe—living in them and working through them.

You see when authentic Christians assemble in a local church, the omnipresent God dwells in their midst in a special way.

So the reason why growing Christians as readily delight in being with the saints of God is the real presence of God Himself living within ordinary people we know.

Ultimately, you are delighted by Him in them.

Of course this doesn’t mean that growing Christians experience spiritual elation in every encounter with fellow believers. We must remember that the saints are humans.

Do you delight in her activity?

From the first days of his ministry until the end of his ministry decades later, the apostle Paul faced opposition and persecution in his work.

Why did he willing endure so many imprisonments, beatings, and stonings for so long (II Corinthians 11:23-28)

Near the end of Paul’s life he answered this question:
II Timothy 2:10
I endure all things for the sake of the elect, the church.

We are all looking for something of meaning and yet we keep trying to fill it with the temporal and not the permanent.

To delight in anything other than Christ is like watching a video of someone else’s wedding when you could be on your own honeymoon.

Expressing your delight

Grow to see the bride of Christ and her work more as Jesus does.

Demonstrate your delight in the bride of Christ in ways that will make a real difference.

Psalm 149:4
The Lord takes pleasure in His people.

Do you?