Preserving the Bride's Beauty
by Rev Eu Hong Seng
The Church of Jesus Christ in Malaysia is maturing and is becoming more and more the beautiful Bride He is returning for.
He gave Himself for her that He might sanctify and cleanse her, that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle but holy and without blemish. And so as a member of the Bride of Christ we must do all we can to keep the Bride beautiful.
Some of the things that we need to do collectively to keep the Bride beautiful are: practise the highest moral standards (Rom 13:12-14); know, teach and defend sound doctrine (Jude 3); and protect the unity of the Church (Eph 4:1-6).
I wish to elaborate on the last. Every believer needs to say: "It is my job to protect the unity of the Church". Unity is a critical component of God's plan for Christian community and we must do all we can to promote it. The Bible gives several pointers on how to protect the unity in our church and the Church.
Focus on what we have in common, not our differences. We are called to be united, not uniform (1 Cor 12:27). Therefore, you and I need to focus on what we have in common and not get hung up on small issues (Rom 14:19).
Common sense dictates that we be realistic in our expectations. We need to realize that no church will ever be perfect since churches are composed of sinful people (Eph 4:32).
There will be seasons in the life of the local church where there are difficult situations and challenges. We need to bear with the church through her struggles and imperfection. Too many just jump ship in times when their church needs them the most.
Every believer needs to choose to encourage rather than criticize (Heb 10:24). We are to be involved and contribute to the church rather than stand on the sidelines and complain about what others are doing.
Many who serve in church come early, leave late, listen to too many complaints and are seldom thanked for the work they do.
We must decide to refuse to listen to gossip (Eph 4:29). By listening to gossip we are being part of the problem. We are to separate ourselves from those who are gossips. Obviously gossip is one major unity buster.
Today the enemy is using the Internet to slander just about anything that moves - there seem to be no boundaries. And today's gossip is wickedly slanderous.
The Bible reminds us, "Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people." Lev19:16a NLT. We all need to learn to tame our tongues!
Another very important aspect of protecting the unity of the church and keeping the Bride of Christ beautiful is to practise God's method for conflict resolution. We are all familiar with the biblical model of conflict resolution in Matthew 18:15-17 and we do well to follow it.
We bring disrepute to the testimony of the Church when we forget His injunction and by taking matters into our own hands.
The Bride of Christ is also kept beautiful when we support our shepherds. God has given our pastors and leaders the responsibility and authority to maintain the unity of the church. We are to help them in this task in every way possible.
We are also to honor our spiritual leaders through encouragement, love, prayers and appreciation (Heb 13:17, 1 Tim 5:17).
Pastors and leaders, we must not forget our fatherly duty not to "exasperate" the sheep under our care nor use our position to "muddy the waters" and abuse them.
Sheep are not necessarily the only guilty ones! Pastors, let us not forget we are called to be shepherds, not just leaders. The Bible mandates each and e-v-e-r-y Christian to maintain unity.
There are many "little foxes" that spoil the vine; indeed both shepherds and sheep sometimes do the many "little things" that can hurt the unity of the church.
He desires a beautiful Bride and I do not intend to mar or maim it in any way. |
