The church is likened to the bride of Christ in Ephesians 5:31-32: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. This teaches the close cooperation and fellowship between Christ and His people, as they serve their Heavenly Father.
While on earth Jesus referred to Himself as the bridegroom, saying: Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? . . . But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them. (Mark 2:19,20) And Jesus likened His return to gather His faithful to a marriage, in Matthew 25:1-13. Until His return we are pictured as being betrothed. Paul wrote to the church: I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2) Virginity in this context does not mean with respect to the opposite sex, but rather it means to be without all forms of sin.
God would not use a bride as a picture for the church unless He loved us dearly. And God declares this love, saying: The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee . . . O virgin of Israel. (Jeremiah 31:3,4) Even in the Old Testament God loved His people as His bride, with God saying to them: thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name. (Isaiah 54:5)
In olden times if a man very much wanted to marry a certain woman he might pay a high dowry for her. Jesus, by leaving the riches and glories of heaven to be born in a stable and to suffer on the cross, paid a high price for us: For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
Jesus speaks of this in the form of a parable, which enables us to comprehend how greatly He cherishes the church. In it He likens Himself to a man who found a treasure (the church) in a field: the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. (Matthew 13:44) I believe this speaks of Jesus buying the church with His own blood rather than the more popular interpretation that it represents a believer forsaking all. There are several reasons. Firstly, only Jesus paid the full cost of redemption. Secondly, the parable concerns the whole kingdom of God, not just one person entering the kingdom of God. And this is the interpretation of the kingdom of God in all the other parables of the kingdom. Thirdly, it is consistent with the previous parable where Jesus said: the field is the world. (Matthew 13:38) So Christ, for the joy of obtaining His church, paid for the sins of the world. Then was fulfilled Hebrews 12:2 where it is written: Jesus . . . who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
The parable of the pearl has a similar meaning. But it is made clearer that it was the church, his bride, rather than the whole world, that was His pearl, and the ultimate purpose of His suffering: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:45,46)
It is possible to taste of the love of God here on earth, before we meet Jesus in heaven, just as a bride experiences something of the companionship of the bridegroom before marriage. Often it is when Christians gather together to pray and read the bible that they taste the love of God, even according to Jesus' words when He said: where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)
To be married to the Lord we must be in agreement with Him because: Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3) We cannot be in agreement with Christ, if He wants to do good and we want to do evil. His will must prevail. Therefore the Scripture says: He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1 John 2:6) Jesus' path was that of righteousness. Those who refuse this commandment are not married to the Lord. In fact: He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:4)
God says to us, who are members of His church now, the same as He did to His people under the Old Covenant, that they should turn from sin and false gods to do righteousness and justice, in companionship with their Maker and Heavenly Husband: And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi (my husband); and shalt call me no more Baali (my lord). For I will take away the names of Baalim (false gods) out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name . . . I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgement, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil . . . and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. (Hosea 2:16-23) Although Christ's death is the means by which remittance of sins is obtained, so that we may be caught up to meet Jesus in spiritual marriage, our willingness to be righteous is a condition for betrothal, and our actual righteous deeds are a product. According to the prophecy of Hosea: I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness. Because we are betrothed to Jesus, His good influence inspires us to do good in the same way that a good husband would be an encouragement to his wife to do good.
Because a Christian is in a sense betrothed to God, when a Christian seeks pleasure from or gives allegiance to the devil, it is called spiritual adultery.
Spiritual adultery is spoken of in Ezekiel 23 where God likens His people of Israel and Judah to two sisters named Oholah and Oholibah. By way of explanation, God's people, the Israelites were at this time divided into two nations: one called Israel which comprised the Northern part of the modern State, and the other called Judah which comprised the Southern part. Oholah, meaning ‘Her own tabernacle’, represented Samaria the capital of Israel, because Israel promoted false worship of golden calves. (1 Kings 12:28-30) So it was their own tabernacle of worship, not God's. Oholibah meaning, ‘My tabernacle is in her’, represented Jerusalem, the capital of Judah where there was God's true tabernacle, and where the people could come to worship God in truth. It should be noted that even though Judah had the true place of worship, people's lives outside the place of worship were not holy.
By calling Israel and Judah by the names of these two sisters, God showed that worshipping idols and following pagan practices, was the spiritual equivalent of adultery: The Lord said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? Yea, declare unto them their abominations. That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons . . . to pass for them through the fire, to devour them . . . then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it. (Ezekiel 23:36-39)
Because a Christian is betrothed to the Lord, God is concerned about the sin of a Christian in the same way that a husband would be concerned about the adultery of his wife. Therefore God says to His own people: You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. (Amos 3:2) In this context God is referring to punishments on earth, which are largely for the purpose of correcting us.
The presence of idols and evils in our heart will hinder us from tasting the love of God. Therefore we must abstain from sin by not allowing our heart to be ensnared by any evil. The love which constrained the Lord Jesus to sacrifice so much for us constrains us to seal out sin in anticipation of enjoying, not only the future rewards of heaven with our Saviour, but also His present goodness on earth.
As adultery destroys a marriage, so sin destroys our relationship with God. Even though when we sin we do not hurt God directly, He is hurt because He wanted us to love Him more than sin. It is God's love and care for us which causes His jealousy of which He speaks in Deuteronomy 6:14,15: You shall not go after other gods . . . (for the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. What sort of husband would not be upset if his wife was committing adultery. So jealousy is the proof of God’s love.
The apostle Paul shared God's jealousy over the church, not that he wanted the church for himself, far from it, but rather he wanted the church to be for God. He wrote to a church: I am jealous over you with godly jealousy . . . But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2-4) One of serpent Satan's corruptions, is the diminishing of the importance of doing good, through the heretical doctrine which says we have freedom from the obligation to keep God's moral law.