Sunday Sermon Outline: Feelings from the Bride of Christ

Feelings from the Bride of Christ


Introduction: 1 Timothy 5:11


I. The Bride’s Emotions


II. The Bride’s Affections
     It is the “LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the feelings and the heart” (Jeremiah 11:20).
     Matthew 9:36, “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
     Matthew 21:32, “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.”
     Luke 8:13, “Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.”
     2 Corinthians 7:15, “His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.”
     Philippians 1:8-11, “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. [9] And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, [10] so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; [11] having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”


III. The Bride’s Decisions
     Philippians 2:4, “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”
     James 2:1, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”
     “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).
     “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
     “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
     “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).
     John 14:21, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
     “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. [14] For the body is not one member, but many” (1 Corinthians 12:13-14).
     “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:29).


Conclusion: Revelation 14:4; 2 Corinthians 12:10; 11:26-27
     ““Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. [7] Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” [8] It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” (Revelation 19:6-8).
     “I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols” (Ezekiel 6:9).
     1 Timothy 2:11-14, “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. [12] But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. [13] For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. [14] And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”




LISTEN TO AUDIO MESSAGE HERE

The love of God

There is much confusion that has been introduced by Satan into the modern church concerning the topic of God's love. First, it must be clearly understood about Satan that 1) he has rejected the love of God completely; and 2) his goal is to lead people away from such love, not toward it. Therefore, he is not a valid source of truth concerning love.

Also, it must be understood that no one is in a better position to explain the love of God than God Himself. Therefore, for men in their limited wisdom to offer spiritual sounding sayings like “God loves everyone,” “God loves everyone the same,” “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin” or to speak of “God's unconditional love” without providing a corresponding, “Thus saith the Lord,” is not only ignorance, but arrogance.

Quoted very quickly in defense of the “God loves everyone” scenario is John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Of all the words in that verse, the one chosen to emphasize is “so”? “God loved the world SOOOO much.”

Actually, the primary definition of the word so indicates manner, not magnitude. “God loved the world in this manner, He gave His only Son.” In other words, the verse describes HOW God demonstrated love to the world, not the degree to which He loved them.

One must also take the context of the passage into consideration. If “God loves everyone” (blanket statement) or if “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner” (separating the deed from the doer), then why is John 3:16 a conditional statement? If God loved the world SOOO much, then why did He make that love contingent upon believing in His Son? The implication of the verse is that those who do NOT believe in Jesus WILL perish, and will NOT have eternal life. So much for “unconditional love.”

But please, let's not settle for implication. Let's utilize what the Holy Spirit has recorded for us. I wonder how many of those who rest their case on John 3:16 even know what John 3:36 says. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Wait … what's that? Wrath? Not love? Yup, wrath. What else would you expect for those who reject His Son and side with His enemy, the devil. There is “enmity” (Genesis 3:15, hostility, hatred) between God and Satan, and between those who represent them. God does not want His creatures to perish in sin. He wants them to repent (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, He showed His creatures the love that is available to them once they accept Christ.

Consider Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Here, the Lord is showing sinful man what is available to them if they are willing to leave behind their sin and submit to His Son. And as Paul proceeds further in his argument, he reminds us that God is working! This special attention is not centered on all men, but “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

In fact, the love relationship that God offers is so strong that nothing can overcome it, yet again it is not available to those who reject His Son. The apostle writes, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Is this something new that the apostle is teaching, or is it exactly what Jesus taught? In John 14:21, Jesus said conditionally, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Likewise in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” The love of the Father is only shared with those who first prove to love His Son by means of submission and obedient service.

Other than being receptive to the cries of the penitent, there is no love relationship described in Scripture between the Lord and ungodly people. There is no truth to the statement that “God loves everyone the same.” Throughout the Scriptures, the Lord has shown Himself to discriminate on behalf of the righteous. Psalm 34:15-16 says, “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. [16] The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.”

A superior example of this is found within the account of the Exodus. Upon being removed from Egypt, the Hebrews were led directly to the edge of the promised land. The report of two spies in particular was favorable, “If the LORD is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey” (Numbers 14:8).

The Lord certainly was pleased … with two of them. Of the original generation removed from Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the promised land. The rest of them died in the wilderness because of their unbelief (Hebrews 3:19). “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; [11] AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST’” (Hebrews 3:10-11).

Where was God's love for the Egyptians, or any other of the pagan peoples? Where was God's “unconditional love” in relation to His disobedient children? Doesn't God “hate the sin, but love the sinner”? No, He doesn't. There is no separation of the deed from the doer, because the heart controls the actions. “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner” is nothing more than an excuse to continue in sin. It is a rationalization for behavior that God abhors.

Consider Psalm 11:5-7, “The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates. [6] Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. [7] For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.”

Consider Psalm 21:8-9, “Your hand will find out all your enemies; Your right hand will find out those who hate you. [9] You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger; The LORD will swallow them up in His wrath, and fire will devour them.”
Consider Proverbs 6:16-19, “There are six things which the LORD hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: [17] Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, [18] a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, [19] a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.”

"What? That's all Old Testament!"

You want a New Testament verse? Consider James 4:4-6, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. [5] Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? [6] But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.””
“Oh, but that's all about evil people!”

Hold on! I thought you said God's love was “unconditional”? I thought you said “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner”? I thought you said that “God loves everyone the same”?

In Hosea 9:15, God says of the tribe of Ephraim (descendants of righteous Joseph), “All their evil is at Gilgal; Indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will love them no more.”

Why would a God of love say such a thing? Because the God of mercy is also a God of justice. He will not provide one at the expense of the other. In love, He has provided a means to escape sin … but He will not force a person to enter into His love. If even His own people choose to reject Him, then He will reject them. “Thus they became unclean in their practices, and played the harlot in their deeds. [40] Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against His people and He abhorred His inheritance” (Psalm 106:39-40).

Certainly that is tough language, but God doesn't do fake. He is a God of complete truth. Satan is the one who specializes in the lie … in manipulation … in hypocrisy. The teachings of the contemporary church demonstrate that they have been listening more to Satan than to God. On Sunday morning, they hug and greet one another … and by Monday morning, they stab one another in the back. They claim to be Christian, but produce little fruit that supports such a boast. They preach love and tolerance and acceptance … until you disagree with them, then they prove who really controls their heart.

Ultimately, that's what this is about … the heart. The love of God is on display for the entire sinful world to see, yet until it is received into a grateful and receptive heart it is of no value whatsoever. Thus Jesus says of those who wanted to kill Him, “You are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:40). “You do not have the love of God in yourselves” (John 5:42).

But those who have accepted the Son are different. They have seen the love that God offers, want it for themselves, and have taken the appropriate steps to receive that love into themselves. They have repented of their sins, expressed faith in Christ, confessed before men that He is exactly who He claimed to be, and have washed their sins away by being buried with Him in baptism.

Seeing such willing obedience, God has accepted their submission to His Son and placed within them His own Holy Spirit. NOW they are in a position to enjoy the full benefits of the conditional love of God. When we realized that our sin separated us from the Lord, we did something about it. We placed our hope completely in Christ Jesus … “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:4).

Now, as the church, what message do we share with a sinful world? Do we go throughout the world preaching love? No, we preach Christ! If the message of the church is the “unconditional love of God,” then why didn't even one preacher in the book of Acts ever preach it? The word love isn't even found within the book of Acts, which is our sole record for the birth and growth of the early church. Why? Because the appropriate message to sinners is repentance. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30).

Once men repent and become Christians … once they become a part of the family of God … THEN they are in a position to experience the fullness of God's love, which is reserved for those who are “A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION” (1 Peter 2:9).

One final word of warning: The closer you draw to the Lord, the more Satan will work to draw you away from Him. He does not want you to experience real love, which is why he has flooded the churches with false doctrines of love based on the feelings of man rather than the facts of heaven. The result is corruption within the church. To one of the seven churches in the Revelation, Jesus says, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

That is the devil's goal … to get you to leave “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Your goal is just the opposite … to “keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life” (Jude 21). Therefore, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love” (Ephesians 6:24).

Feelings

How many marriages have ended in divorce after ten, twenty or thirty years, because of adultery? How many of those adulterous relationships have come about because the physical relationship with the illicit lover produced within the cheating spouse strong feelings that were supposedly no longer present in the marriage? These are people who “feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ” (1 Timothy 5:11). The adulterer – afterward – will often say something like, “I just don't feel anything for my spouse anymore. I love the other person now.” It is obvious that such an individual does not understand love at all, laying aside the declared commitment to the spouse for the renewed experience of a youthful hormonal rush.

In the modern church, we hear much about feelings. Some churches ask a person who claim Christianity to relate their “salvation experience.” Some – when asked how they know they are saved – simply say, “I just feel saved.” Others attend specific congregations based on how it makes them feel. Some enjoy the warmth of friendships. Some experience the excitement produced by music or drama. Some are drawn in by the emotional pull of a charismatic preacher. Some need a sense of familial safety, knowing that their children are being well cared for. Some have just developed an emotional comfort zone provided by the only congregation they have ever known.

In Christian terms though, Christ is the Bridegroom and the church is His bride. Should a bride care more about her house than her husband? Should she have stronger feelings for the stereo and television than the One to whom she's married? What does the Bible say about feelings? Does it speak of emotion?

Webster's Dictionary defines emotion as “a conscious mental reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling, usually directed toward a specific object.” Such a definition should make the Christian immediately uncomfortable about associating emotionalism with the church simply because of the word “subjectively.” A subjective experience is a personal experience. It is one which you alone feel, and perhaps no one else does.

A subjective approach to Christianity is nothing new, but in my lifetime seemed to strengthen significantly throughout the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Preachers began urging seekers to enter into a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” Sinners were entreated to accept Jesus as their “personal Savior.” Such language made salvation a subjective experience, one which could be tailored to each person's individual belief system.

Such thinking has done great harm to the bride of Christ. By speaking of a personal relationship with Jesus, the emphasis of the sentence is upon the individual and not upon the Bridegroom. The divine Son of God is seemingly tacked on as an addendum in a prepositional phrase. This allows someone to “feel” saved, not on the basis of Christ's authority but of their own “personal” emotions.

Do we not know though that emotions are easily swayed? Methamphetamines will stimulate your emotions. Valium will calm your emotions. Anesthesia will numb your emotions completely. A good storyteller can make sure there's “not a dry eye in the house,” while a comedian is adept at making everyone laugh. One song – slow and quiet – can cause you to nod off to sleep, while another song – fast and loud – has you on your feet, dancing about. None of these have anything to do though with the bride of Christ and her relationship to her Husband.

If it was His intention to base this marriage on emotionalism, do you not think that He would have taught such things? Or that His apostles would have practiced such things? Where do we find one instance of Jesus warming up a crowd with a side-splitting joke or a clever anecdote? Where do we see – either in the saving of sinners or the maturing of Christians – the apostles using music to get a crowd pumped up? Or a special gift offered to all the visitors? Where are the words of Scripture which suggest someone just “felt” saved? Where are the passages that describe this “personal relationship” we supposedly have with Christ?

I could not find any form of the word emotion at all in the Bible, but did find reference to affections. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that it is the “LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the feelings and the heart” (Jeremiah 11:20). Perhaps then it should be word of the “LORD of hosts” that actually directs the “feelings and the heart” of the bride.

We know that Jesus had feelings, but of greater importance is what exactly moved Him to feel. Matthew 9:36 says, “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.” So Jesus “felt” bad for those who had no spiritual leadership. What did His “feelings” prompt Him to do? He taught the people His Father's word AND he confronted the bad leaders for their own lack of feeling in Matthew 21:32, “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” What the religious leaders SHOULD have “felt” when confronted by the word of God was … wrong. They should have recognized their sin and repented.

We also know that Jesus actually taught against the kind of emotionalism that is rampant in the church today. In Luke 8:13 – as a part of the Parable of the Sower – Jesus describes those who thrive on excitement. “Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.” The word joy in the Greek is the word charis, from which we derive the words charisma and charismatic. Such people accepted the word with all the emotion and excitement that human charisma can produce, yet fell away because they had “no firm root.” This is no different than the spouse who marries for lust, and when the sexual passions subside they run off to find another partner that makes them “feel” something. If the byproducts of charisma were to be the driving force of the church, why didn't Jesus - “the head of the body” (Colossians 1:18) – say so?

This does not mean that emotion was not present within the church, but the apostles' doctrine presents it in a far different light than contemporary teachers. In 2 Corinthians 7:15, Paul speaks concerning the minister Titus and what specifically fueled his emotions, “His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.” Therefore, it was the obedient behavior of faithful Christians and their proper reception of God's word that produced strong emotion within the preacher.

Meanwhile, in Philippians 1:8-11, Paul doesn't speak of his emotions at all, but reflects the fact that he no longer exists independently of Christ. “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. [9] And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, [10] so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; [11] having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

Please notice that the apostle – demonstrating the “affection of Christ Jesus” – is praying for “real knowledge and all discernment.” He is looking for a bride who is “sincere and blameless” in fidelity to her husband. He is looking among those who call themselves Christians for “the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ.” Again, if emotionalism and excitement were to be a defining influence within the marriage, this would have been a great place to say so as he was discussing affections.

Of course, someone may read all of this and dismiss it, claiming that it doesn't matter what I say since they know how they “feel.” Some have claimed that its not about Bible knowledge, but about their “personal relationship” with the Lord. If that is the case, then why is it that the Scriptures only use the word “personal” twice … and both times in a negative sense?

In Philippians 2:4, Paul says, “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”And in James 2:1, James says, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”
Personal interests? Personal favoritism? Perhaps its time to relearn the primary directive offered to those who would follow Christ. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Perhaps its time to be reminded that your “personal relationship with Christ” is less about you and more about Christ. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). As John the Baptist declared of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Or as Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Emotionalism within the church exalts self. It declares, “I want, Lord!” Obedience though exalts Christ to His rightful place of authority in the body. It declares, “I will, Lord!” Likewise the subjective nature of the “personal relationship” needs to be disarmed by the objective word of God. Jesus told us what was necessary to enter into a proper relationship with Him (and one that is based on genuine affection). In John 14:21, He says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”

Then – once we are a part of the holy family – “we” no longer exist as a “personal” entity. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. [14] For the body is not one member, but many” (1 Corinthians 12:13-14).

Considering the discussion that Paul offers in the rest of that chapter, it is hard to imagine a hand saying, “I just don't feel like I'm a part of the body,” or a foot saying, “I would feel more excited if the hand would turn up the music!” No body part functions individually apart from the instructions of the head. Whether or not a member of the body is useful is determined by the head. The knee doesn't have to “feel” excited and the elbow doesn't have to “feel” loved. The head leads the body, and the members of that body follow.

“Well, I need to feel something to believe its real.” Really, Thomas (John 20:25)? “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:29).

I find it interesting in discussions of feelings and emotions how Jesus' feelings and emotions never seem to brought up. “I like this kind of music.” “I need a preacher that preaches positive messages.” “We have to give people what they want or they won't come back!” What about what the Bridegroom wants? Is that not a valid consideration? Did we not declare our love for Him when we made our good confession? Did we not enter into a marriage covenant when we were baptized into Christ? What more do you need within the relationship than what is provided by your husband?

We know exactly who will be in heaven someday. The Revelation reveals them as “the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Revelation 14:4). In the traditional wedding, vows are made to remain faithful to the marriage “in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, till death do us part.” Yet the bride of Christ demands that she never be uncomfortable? If I had a bride who insisted on excitement and thrived on emotionalism, I would call her high maintenance to say the least. Why is the bride not content with the provision of the Bridegroom? Is she going to leave Him if things get difficult?

Then start walking … the door's that way … because according to the Scriptures, Christ may lead us through weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions and difficulties (2 Corinthians 12:10). Marriage to Him may offer “dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, [and] dangers among false brethren” (2 Corinthians 11:26). We may have to leave behind our comfortable friendships, turn off our exciting video presentations, say goodbye to the praise band and work beside our husband “in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, [and] in cold and exposure” (2 Corinthians 11:27).

Listen to the heavenly music recorded in the Revelation: ““Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. [7] Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” [8] It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” (Revelation 19:6-8).

Have you not thought of how your actions affect the Bridegroom? He declares, “I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols” (Ezekiel 6:9). The modern push toward emotionalism is wrong. The Lord doesn't want just any bride, but one that is chaste and faithful having "made herself ready." The constant desire for entertainment and excitement makes the bride nothing more than a harlot in pursuit of other lovers.

The apostle writes in 1 Timothy 2:11-14, “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. [12] But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. [13] For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. [14] And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”

It is not the church's job to teach Christ, but to receive instruction from Him. As the bride, we have no business making demands of the Bridegroom, since He is Creator and we are creature. Christ must come first in this relationship. What we “feel” is of little regard, since it was our base instincts and natural feelings that caused us - like Eve - to commit sin in the first place. The only way this marriage will work is to "quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness" from the One who redeemed us from our transgressions with His own blood.

I just pray that those who claim to be the bride of Christ will renounce their exciting worldly lovers, repent and return to their faithful Husband before it is too late.