#15 Christ's Bride No Longer Corrupt

By Dr. Stephen Phinney

I have often wondered what it would have been like to have married my bride in a perfect state of being. Since my thoughts are constantly filtering the influx of sin by the enemy, I have never been able to even image the glory of such an idea. I am sure she could say the same about me. This is why it is an almost impossible task for us to comprehend that Christ Jesus actually married a Bride who was and is no long corrupt, particularly when I see Bridal members wounding each other more than the enemy. 

“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But, you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:17-24).  

“So this I say and affirm together with the Lord”  
I either bear witness, in the name of the Lord Jesus, or I am ministering by His authority. The object of this is to exhort each Bridal member to walk worthy of his or her high calling, and to adorn themselves with the doctrines of the Groom. With this view, the Groom reminds the Bride of what they were before their conversion, and of the manner in which the harlots (impure women) lived out around them.   

“That you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk”  
Most likely, this shows that the mass of converts in the Ephesian church were from among the pagans (those who have no belief in Christ). Paul regarded them as Gentile converts. He challenges us not to function in the futility of our minds - in the way of recklessness or in thoughtfulness. The word vanity or futility, in the Scriptures, means more than mere emptiness. It denotes moral wrong, usually being applied to those who worshipped vain idols, and then, those who were alienated from the true God.  

“Being darkened in their understanding”  
These converts had darkened understanding because they were alienated from the true God and particularly, because of the blindness of their hearts. The problem at hand here was, and is, the Bride continuing to think and function like her unsaved friends, i.e. not living as Bridal members of the great Groom, but still acting like harlots of the age. In general, Gentiles functioned in darkness. Paul speaks of a simple and well-known fact; a fact seen today, as well - understanding becomes darkened by indulgence in sin. A person, with a darkened mind, has no just views of the regulations of his appetites. One, who freely indulges in sexual activity, has no perception of the loveliness of purity. A person, who is materialistic or covetous, has no just views of the beauty of compassion. One, who indulges in vices, will weaken his mental powers or abilities, and render himself incapable of true spiritual effort. Indulgence in vices destroys spiritual insight, as well as the body, and makes one unfit to apprehend the Truth. 

Nothing is more obvious than the fact that indulgence in sin weakens the mental capabilities and renders us unfit for the higher calling. The pagan world (in the unresponsive, stupid mind; the perverted moral sense) reveals the incapacity for profound or extended spiritual effort. The Bridal member, who carries out pagan ways, leaves an impression that the gospel of the Groom is lukewarm and inviting of indulgent vices – wasted by recklessness and drunkenness. This is not the message our Groom desires to portray. What the Bride should desire is this: If a person wishes to be blessed with a clear understanding, he should be a “pure Bride.” The Bride with a balanced and clear mind should fear and love God. It should also be understood that as Bridal members debase their understanding with sin, it is needful to make an effort to redeem their minds once again. This can only be done through the renewal of the mind in Christ Jesus.  

“Excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them”  
This means they lived a life unlike that of the Father, or lived a life He could not approve (as Source and Author). The ignorance, of the true God and of what constituted virtue, was a lack of the quality of being morally good and righteous. This is what’s in the minds of unsaved or Gentile thinkers. 

“Because of the hardness of their heart”  
Because of their hardened hearts, they have become callous and given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Here, the reason is stated why the Bride lived and acted as we did before being saved and why our understanding was blinded. It is not that God enfeebled our human mind by an act of revenge, due to the sin of Adam; but that man made his own mind this way because of the sin of Adam. Due to Adam’s sin, mankind has a deficiency and incapacity of supernatural understanding. Before becoming Bridal members, we only had one kind of understanding, that of the natural (earthy) type. Man cannot understand the things of God unless he is redeemed by the Groom. The simple reason is because of the hardness or the heart. Sin hardened the hearts of man. A man or woman who has a blind and hardened heart sees no Truth, nor the beauty in Truth.  

THE THREE POINTS OF THE MIND  

People are to blame for the blindness of their darkened minds and misunderstandings. A person becomes responsible for whatever proceeds from his wicked heart. Adam provided the basis of a darkened mind; from that day forward, every human being born has been born with a darkened heart. 

Undoubtedly, there is a shared influence between the dark mind and a degenerate heart. One acts on the other. Understanding is affected, first, through the will or heart. If it is a bad heart (unsaved), it will promote a dark mind. This is a direct result of the consequences of our union with Adam and the fall. Due to this certainty, our emotional instability, understanding, will, and affections have all been corrupted. The need for the Groom has now been made clear.  

The unsaved (non-Bridal members) are under obligation to repent, in order to love God. Man could not be trusted, by God, if they enlarged their intellects or created additional emotional stability of their own mind. The only way God, the Father, could trust mankind was to make him a new creature. He had to give him a new heart. 

The way to enlighten the understanding of the mind of man is to purify his heart. The approach must be made through the affections and choices of the Groom. For the Father knew that if the people “felt” right toward Him, they would soon “think” right, and allow the heart to be pure. Therefore, their minds would no longer be darkened. 

“Lay Aside the Old Self” 
“But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:20-24). 

“But you (the Bride) did not learn Christ in this way” 
You have been taught a different thing by the Groom; you have been taught that His Life requires you to abandon such a course of life. Christ is making a clear distinction between the “old teacher” and the new. 

“If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him” 
If you have listened attentively to His instructions and learned the true nature of His Life, you would not practice the things of the old teacher. You would practice only those taught by the Spirit, or by the ministers whom He had appointed. 

“Just as (the) truth is in Jesus” 
We have learned the true nature of His Life, as He Himself taught it. The Truth He gave to us was simple and life changing. We are instructed to lay aside the old self from the former manner of life and renounce it. The meaning here is “with respect to your former conduct or habits of life, lay aside all that pertained to a corrupt and fallen nature.” You are not to lay everything aside that formerly pertained to you; your dress, manners, modes of speech, and conversation might have been correct, in many respects. However, everything that proceeded from sin - every habit, custom, mode of speech, and conduct that was the result of depravity is to be laid aside. The special characteristics of an unconverted or unsaved man are what you are to put off; you are to assume those which are the proper fruits of a renewed heart.

“Which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit (the heart)” 
Each day, the flesh is consistently being corrupted by the lust of the heart. The more we operate in the former things, the more we give lust an opportunity to deceive us into thinking we are still slaves to the old teacher. The un-renewed man is not under the direction of reason and sound sense, but is controlled by his passions and desires. The word, lust, has a more limited significance today than the original word and meaning. Today, the word “lust” is confined to one class - sensual appetites; but the original word denotes any passion or tendency of the heart. It may include greed, ambition, the love of pleasure, or gratification in any way. The fuller meaning is that the heart is, by nature, under the control of such desires. 

Those types of passions are deceitful. They lead us astray. If fact, they plunge us back into the ruins of Satan all over again. All the passions and pleasures of the world are illusive. They promise more than they perform. They leave their deluded vows to disappointment and endless tears, or to repentance without change. Nothing is more deceitful than the promised pleasures of this world. All who yield to them find that at last they flatter, but betray - and in the end, kill us. 

IN SUMMARY   

As the Bride of Christ, we are members one of another. We belong to one body - the Church - which is the body of the Groom. The idea is that falsehood tends to loosen the bonds of brotherhood. In the human body, as discussed earlier, harmony is typically perfect. The eyes never deceive the hand, nor the hand, the foot, nor the heart, nor the lungs. The whole moves harmoniously, as if the one could put the utmost confidence in the other. Falsehood in the Church is as disastrous to its interests as it would be to the body, if one member was perpetually practicing a deception on another. As Bridal members, we need each other to be freed from the lusts of the heart and the darkened minds of the former ways of living. When each Bridal member is living and functioning in the Truth of the Groom, we can be the Bride the Groom needs for His work of service – helping other fallen Bridal members. The bottom line is we need to prepare as Brides, for the Groom. 

Christ’s Bride No Longer Corrupt Copyright © 2013 IOM America. Permission to reproduce for educational purposes. Please keep author’s name intact.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. 

Next: The Song of the Father