Metaphors of the Church: The Bride of Christ

The Church is never directly called the Bride of Christ, but the metaphor is made indirectly.

Paul, speaking of the Corinthian local church says,

² I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. ³ But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴ For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:2–4)

“Promised” to one husband sounds like “betrothed,” which in that culture was as good as married, legally binding so much so that to break the betrothal was termed a divorce (recall Joseph was going to put Mary away, divorce her, privately, Matthew 1:19). It was commitment to one husband and demanded purity. For the Corinthians to embrace another “Jesus” and “gospel” was tantamount to committing adultery, spiritual adultery.

Paul also indirectly makes the metaphor when he talks about the church’s death to the law,

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. (Romans 7:4)

He is illustrating how two people are married until one dies, then the other is free to remarry. We were, so to speak, married to the law, but we died to the law in Jesus’ death on the cross and are now free to be married to Jesus, who was raised from the dead.

And Paul again indirectly makes the metaphor about the church being Christ’s bride when he speaks of the marriage relationship in Ephesians 6:

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³² This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:25-33)

The application of the metaphor is that the wife is to be obedient and respectful to her husband the way the church is to Jesus. Being the Bride of Christ demands respectful obedience to the Lord of the Church.

Is the mention of the wedding supper of the Lamb in Revelation speaking about his wedding to the Church? The betrothed bride and groom were officially married but had a wedding ceremony after betrothal and sexual union in order to consummate the marriage, this ceremony centered around a banquet.

⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. ⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. ⁸ Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) (Revelation 19:6-8)

This sounds like the wedding of the Lamb, Jesus, to his church, the saints or God’s holy people, at Jesus’ coming to earth to establish his kingdom on earth. However, in the remainder of the book of Revelation there is another bride mentioned, adorned for her groom, and that is the heavenly Jerusalem that comes down from heaven to earth (Revelation 21:2; 21:9; 22:17). But this “wedding” occurs after the millennial kingdom, whereas the one mentioned here in chapter 19 seems located at the beginning of the millennial kingdom, and hence to be speaking of Jesus’ marriage to the Church.

The Church as the Bride of Christ requires spiritual faithfulness and respectful obedience to Christ, and speaks of the intimate and loving relationship Jesus has to his Church.