The High Calling of Preparing The Bride

The High Calling of Preparing The Bride

What the work of elders is actually for

The question before church elders is not first, “Are the people being helped?” It is, “What are we helping them become?”

Lots of ministry work can appear to be successful while still aiming at the wrong end. A congregation can be established, needs may be met, the work growing, even known by what men call revival, and still the true work remain undone.

The issue is not whether we are busy with people. The issue is whether we are preparing a people for a Person—whether the labor is aimed at establishing a congregation that is focused on benefiting church members, or at preparing a glorious bride for the Bridegroom.

Paul’s measure of a finished work

The apostle Paul was not content that men and women had come into the kingdom. He wanted them perfected, so that he could present them to Christ as a people who were fully prepared for Him.

“that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

(2 Cor. 11:2)

“Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

(Col. 1:28).

“To present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.”

(Col. 1:22).

That was his focused purpose. Warning every man and teaching the whole counsel of God were not optional features of a Paul’s ministry. They were necessary if he was to be faithful to the charge he had received. He would not rest while the people remained carnal. He labored until they could be set before Christ prepared for that moment.

Paul’s measure will not let elders settle for the usual signs of a healthy church.

Conversion is not that proof. It is the beginning of the stewardship. Church growth is not that proof. A congregation can grow and appear successful while the people are not being transformed and remain unprepared. Paul knew churches that were real churches and still carnal—“babes in Christ,” walking as men. He did not treat that condition as an acceptable normal. He warned, taught, and labored so that he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

An eldership content with increase, or at peace with unchanged members, has already abandoned that measure. The name of Christ may be confessed. The work may be admired. And still there may be no bride to present.

The gospel brings people in. Oversight exists so that those people are not left carnal, shallow, and unready. Paul was not gathering a larger church. He was preparing a people he could set before Christ.

Christ’s own purpose for the church

This aim did not begin with Paul. It is Christ’s purpose for the church He loved:

"Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25–27).

The Son gave Himself to obtain a bride, and to present that bride to Himself in glory. The Father desires a glorious bride for His Son. If this desire does not constrain the elders, the ministry will settle for something less than a bride. The Father’s desire will judge our work. We will not be asked whether the church was impressive, but whether she was made ready.

The subtle exchange of missions

A ministry can begin in obedience, with this vision clear, and then settle into a lesser mission.

It happens without being recognized. It happens when the aim becomes to make people feel helped rather than to make them ready. It takes place when peace is preferred rather than the whole counsel of God, when the appearance of health is preferred to the challenging work of presenting men and women mature in Christ. We still talk about preparing a bride. We just stop laboring to prepare one. What we call revival must become reformation in the people themselves, or it is not the work Paul labored for.

Elders feel pressure to produce visible results: attendance, activity, and reputation. That pressure makes it easy to aim at those instead of a bride. The danger is not only that the church has clearly gone wrong. The danger is that it looks sound, and yet no longer asks if the people are being made ready for the Lord.

Questions worth asking

If the church was organized and respectable, yet only a few were ready for Christ, would we even recognize that as failure? Are there a people passionately in love with Christ?

If the numbers increased while the people remained shallow, would we still call the work pleasing to the Lord? Do we look for men and women passionate for Christ and being formed into His likeness, or only for people who function well as respected citizens? Do we measure the ministry by how helped the congregation feels, or by whether they could be presented to Christ without shame?

These questions are not meant to despise churches. They are the difference between watching over souls and merely keeping the church running. John the Baptist was sent “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). He would not baptize people who lacked evidence of genuine repentance and then call them prepared. “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matt. 3:8). The prophet and the pastor function differently, but they must be passionate for the same end: a people made ready for a coming Lord.

What we will answer for

We will not give account for how impressive the work appeared. We will give account for the people entrusted to us—what they became, not only that they came.

The coming of the Lord is the point of the ministry. Every part of the work is aimed at one day: when the Bridegroom appears in glory. That truth must grip the heart, not remain a sentence we confess and leave unused.

We are men charged with making ready a people for a Christ Jesus.

Christ is worthy of a spotless bride. The question before every minister of the gospel is whether we are actually laboring for one.

Praying for a revival that will result in a people prepared for the King of kings.

Aaron Beiler