Stewardship of the Bride

We have been talking about stewardship. Stewardship is that position in life, where one takes responsibility for the well-being and success of someone else’s property, possessions, or an organization. We looked at the stewardship of life, meaning our life is not our own, it belongs to God. Therefore, we ought to be good stewards of this precious gift. (No more cinnamon buns for you.)

Last week we tackled the ever popular media fixation on the environment. We are called by God to take stewardship of the earth and one day we will be held to account for the way we treated God’s creation. Today, we are looking at the stewardship of the church. Not your church, because you don’t have a church. The church is not yours.

The church is called “bride of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2, Revelations 19:7-8). The bride belongs to the husband. But God has given us stewardship of his most prized possession, his bride - the church. How are you treating his pride and joy? Do you speak evil of his bride, do you withhold your services, refusing to use your gifts and abilities for her blessing, and/or do you withhold your resources so that she is not adorned with beauty but is drab and without finery?

The bride’s husband (in biblical times, the bride’s fiance was considered the husband, even before the formal wedding) paid the ultimate price for her, his very life. He loves her so much that he gave his very life for this bride. Then he gave us the responsibility to care for his bride - the church, until he comes again to receive unto himself his prized possession. Imagine with me for a moment. We have been given the task of taking care of the king’s bride. But we speak evil of her. What if we are constantly complaining about her, gossiping about her, sinning against her; would we not be held to account? Or what if we refuse to serve this bride of whom we were given stewardship? We refuse to carry the train, so it is soiled. We refuse to wash her clothes, so she is stained. We refuse to help her so she grows tired and loses her joy; would we not be held to account? What if we refuse to give of our resources, withhold our finances so this bride has not a jewel, a ring, or a pearl to accent her beauty? Instead, we ignore the bride of which we are stewards and spend our resources on our own pleasures, use our gifts for our own advancements, and justify it all by our criticism of the bride - the church.

There is no institution created by man, no governmental services designed by parliament, no social service developed by society that can replace or have the positive impact of the Church. It is the Church that God has designed to protect society, to bring healing to the sick, to lift the downtrodden, to bring eternity to the hearts of the lost. Each of us, in our own small way are given the task of taking care of the bride – his Church.

This Sunday, I will be sharing on ways we can care for God’s most prized possession – the Church. When the Church is prosperous, successful, and expanding, everyone benefits. God is calling us to care for the Church, so that those who are in the church will be blessed.