Wednesday, January 19, 2005 AD
The Bride of Christ is not a Stepford Wife
Chris Atwood, in the comments to my post on unbelieving children, writes:
(The problem is not that churches are following a "bride of Christ" model, but that they are following a "girlfriend of Christ" model. Discuss.)
But what sort of a bride is the church? Answer: she is the great answer to the rhetorical question in Proverbs 31: "An excellent wife who can find?". To her husband, Christ, she is indeed "far more precious than jewels".
And the Proverbs 31 wife is no simpering doormat. She is an admirable and capable woman, who does her husband "good, and not harm, all the days of her life". She works hard, helps the poor and needy, brings honour to her husband:
It also strikes me that Scripture describes the church as the bride of Christ, and Christians as soldiers of Christ. Problems come when individual Christians are encouraged to think of themselves as each being Christ's bride. It's easy to see why this can make many boys and men uneasy. Bigger problems come when the church takes on the mantle of being Christ's soldier.
That last quote from Proverbs 31 illustrates the point nicely: in those verses we have the husband (Christ), his wife (the church) and her children (us), who are to join in her Husband's praise by calling her blessed.
I think teenagers (girls too, but especially boys) respond better to a Christian culture heavy on self-discipline, intellectual defense of the faith, and standing against this decadent age (the soldier of Christ model), than to one solely devoted to tearful surrender, heart to heart fellowship, and moaning prayer circles (the bride of Christ model).While I'm sure he has a point about many boys (and indeed men) being put off by the increasing hugginess of large parts of the church, I wouldn't want to describe the latter as a "bride of Christ" model to which a "soldier of Christ" model is to be preferred. After all, the image of the church as the bride of Christ has far greater prominence in Scripture (Ephesians 5, Revelation) than the image of the Christian as a soldier, though the latter is certainly there (eg Ephesians 6).
(The problem is not that churches are following a "bride of Christ" model, but that they are following a "girlfriend of Christ" model. Discuss.)
But what sort of a bride is the church? Answer: she is the great answer to the rhetorical question in Proverbs 31: "An excellent wife who can find?". To her husband, Christ, she is indeed "far more precious than jewels".
And the Proverbs 31 wife is no simpering doormat. She is an admirable and capable woman, who does her husband "good, and not harm, all the days of her life". She works hard, helps the poor and needy, brings honour to her husband:
Her children rise up and call her blessed;If we're worried about the "feminization" of the church, perhaps we should first of all be worried about models of "femininity" that fall a long way short of that presented to us in Proverbs 31, not to mention other figures such as Abigail or, for that matter, Mary.
her husband also, and he praises her:
"Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all."
It also strikes me that Scripture describes the church as the bride of Christ, and Christians as soldiers of Christ. Problems come when individual Christians are encouraged to think of themselves as each being Christ's bride. It's easy to see why this can make many boys and men uneasy. Bigger problems come when the church takes on the mantle of being Christ's soldier.
That last quote from Proverbs 31 illustrates the point nicely: in those verses we have the husband (Christ), his wife (the church) and her children (us), who are to join in her Husband's praise by calling her blessed.
