Christ Without a Bride?

We can see the importance of the church by examining Christ’s attitude towards it. Christians are supposed to have the mind of Christ. They are supposed to grow to think as Jesus thought. The apostle Paul puts it as, “Have this mind in you which also was in Christ Jesus who gave up Heaven to set in motion this plan to save humankind” (Phil. 2:5 my paraphrase). Paul also told the church at Corinth, “…that we have the mind of Christ.” The mind of Christ thinks like Christ. George Barna writes, “A biblical worldview is thinking like Jesus. It is a way of making our faith practical to every situation we face each day. A biblical worldview is a way of dealing with the world such that we act like Jesus twenty-four hours a day because we think like Jesus” (Barna 2003, 4). So, if Christ intimately aligns himself with the church (Eph.5:22–23), so should we. If Christ loves the church, so should we, if he cherishes and nourishes the church, so should we. Christians should be happy to be a member of the Lord’s church, and they should work to help it grow both physically and spiritually.