Quote:
Originally Posted by least
STG,
"but where does it say we should give ourselves to the church? "
We ARE the church.
Christ gave himself to the church. Jesus died and resurrected. Ascended to the Father and made Lord and Christ. God gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him (the son) shall not perish but have everlasting life.
All the believers is the one body, the church, the body of Christ, the one new man, the bride of the Lamb of God.
Christ loves his own body, he nourishes and cherishes her.
The church is the bride. The bride is waiting for the bridegroom, not giving herself to herself.
A member of the body (the church) is already in the body; a part of the body does not marry (or divorce) the body.
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Least, I recommend doing a thorough exegetical study on "the Bride of Christ" and what that all entails.
The typical interpretation that came out of Catholic mysticism where the church = the bride is built solely upon Paul's hyperbole in Ephesians 5.
The church was never explicitly called the bride in scripture. Since I've been on this topic as of late, this is another example of biblical eisegesis.