ESPOUSED UNTO ONE MAN
[p. 240] ESPOUSED UNTO ONE MAN
When the servants of the Lord have to do anything which looks like vindicating themselves they always feel foolish in doing it, though it may be forced upon them by the conduct of others. Paul’s only reason for doing it was his jealousy on God’s part. He did not want the Corinthians for himself but for Christ; he had espoused them to one Man. It was in his mind in all his labour that the Corinthian assembly should be uncorrupted in virgin affections for Christ. He does not regard them as married, but espoused; their thoughts needed to be kept in simplicity as to the Christ. The serpent deceived Eve by his craft; he diverted her attention from the tree and from the will of God. Simplicity as to the Christ is what should mark each local assembly as an espoused virgin.
There can be no doubt that Paul had given the Corinthians a very distinct impression that they were to be for Christ in an affectionate way. There is nothing more delightful than to see this taking form in young believers — every presentation of Christ laying hold of the heart and displacing what is of the flesh and the world. Paul’s presentation of Christ to them was his espousing them to Christ. It is well that this should be always in our minds in any service: it is to be such a presentation of Christ that those who come under its power will not think of any other. It was the present result for which Paul laboured; he desired to present them to Christ as those whose thoughts were filled with Him through the ministry. Now this is just what Satan would seek to counteract. We have to do with a crafty deceiver whose object is to introduce something to our thoughts which is not the one Man. See Romans 5: 15.
Philip at Samaria, and the whole of the Acts, show how the one Man was presented. God has nothing for men [p. 241] outside that one Man, and he is putting right thoughts of Him in men by the glad tidings so that there might be in every place a company of persons who are espoused to Him in chaste virgin character, who want nothing but Christ and refuse what is not Christ, however good and nice it may seem to be. Men at Corinth had transformed themselves into apostles of Christ — they had that appearance, but there was no truth in it; they were Satan’s ministers. No doubt they used Christ’s name, and said many things which in themselves seemed to be right, but there was no presentation of Christ as the one Man. Had they brought anything better than Paul? Another Jesus, or a different Spirit, or a different glad tidings? They might well bear with it if they had now got something better than Paul had given them. But it was far otherwise.
Presenting as a chaste virgin to Christ is not a future thing. It is the satisfaction which the faithful minister of Christ cherishes, that there should be a local company, free from corrupting influences, for the eye of Christ to rest upon with pleasure now as answering to His thought. It is the present moral result of the ministry of Christ. We receive Him into our thoughts through the ministry. “In teaching uncorruptedness” (Titus 2: 7) shows that no element of defect is to be present in what is set before the saints.