Being One
Next week will be Christian and Luiza’s last Sunday with us before they travel home for their wedding. Before the church ceremony in Bucharest they will have to go through a whole load of bureaucratic rigmarole. Legally they will be as good as married but they have stated that they will not consider themselves a couple until they have made their vows before God.
The book of Proverbs has much to say on the qualities of a good wife, not only in the famous chapter 31:10-31 where she is described as worth more than rubies (“Why not diamonds?” I ask myself), but also in 12:4, which says “A worthy wife is a crown for her husband, but a disgraceful woman is like cancer in his bones” (NLT). On a similar note, 19:13 says “a quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping”, while in 19:14 we learn that “only the Lord can give an understanding wife” and 18:22 states that “The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favour from the Lord”. There is no equivalent description of the qualities needed to be a good husband, it seems all he has to do is be loyal to the Lord who will then supply the necessary so he can bask in the glory of this paragon among women. There are, however, several references to his responsibilities and to the need for him to love and cherish his bride.
Initially God made woman, Eve, from the rib of man, Adam, (Gen. 2:22-25) and the Bible consistently reminds us that they are as one. In the same passage we are told that a man should leave his parents and hold fast to his wife as they are of one flesh and this instruction is repeated by Our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 19:5. At the other end of the Bible, when all we know has been swept away, the New Jerusalem is compared to a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband (Rev. 21). There is also a hymn that describes the Church as the Holy bride of Christ, whom He came from heaven to seek and for whose sake He died. St Paul describes the head of woman as man, the head of a man as Christ and the head of Christ as God (1 Cor. 11:3), thus we are joined through Christ to the whole of God’s people and to God Himself.
This being a part of the Body; being part of the Church; being one with each other is central to the instructions Christ gave at the Last Supper, when He told the Disciples to eat His body and drink His blood in remembrance of Him (Matt. 26:26-28). A little later, just before His arrest in the olive grove and knowing He was about to leave them to face the enemy alone, He prayed that the Father would protect them, by the power of His Name, so that they could be one as He and God are one (John 17:11). He then went on to pray that the same would apply to all those yet to be converted.
So being “one” is very important. This is not an egoistic one but a spirit of oneness shared with all our brothers and sisters in Christ. As I quoted last week, there is no I in team. If we want to fulfil the prophecy for the Church, as often quoted by Bob M, and see the dry bones rise (Ez. 37.1-14) and march out into New Malden, we need to be that team and have that oneness.
(Incidentally, Prov. 31:10-31 should make all us women glad that we live in the 21st century and that we do not have to get up in the dark, care for the children, cope with the servants, manage a business, make cloth and buy a field in order to preserve our husband’s good name at the Elders’ meetings – hurrah for Women’s Lib!)
