Eve typifies the church as Christ’s Bride. Eve was built with a rib taken out of Adam. After building this rib into a woman, God presented her to Adam. What came out of Adam went back to him and became one with him. In the same principle, the church comes out of Christ and will go back to Christ to be one with Him.
The aspect of the church as the Bride implies love. Marriage is a matter of love, and the life of a marriage depends on love. If a husband and wife do not love each other, it will be very difficult for them to remain together. No doubt, Adam and Eve loved each other. Because of this love, they became one. Today there is a mutual love between Christ and the church. Not only do we have Him as our life and as our person, but we also enjoy this mutual love. Christ desires to make known His love to the church, and the church responds by telling the Lord how much she loves Him. Whatever we do for the Lord we do joyfully and willingly out of love for Him. When you love someone, you are happy to serve him. You serve not out of necessity, but out of love. As the church, we must bear the testimony that we love the Lord. Whoever contacts us should receive an impression that we love the Lord and, out of our love for Him, serve Him willingly. This is the aspect of the church as Christ’s Bride.
If we have a genuine love for the Lord, we shall spontaneously be the church in the aspect of God’s family. So many worldly people today are either orphans or wanderers. They are homeless. We in the church life are members of God’s family. Therefore, we are at home. The church is our real family. We appreciate the natural family life created by God. But we can testify that this family life is not as sweet as the family life in the church. How pleasant is the church as God’s family! If you stay away from the church life for a period of time, you will realize how precious the church is in the aspect of God’s family. Oh, we in the church are God’s family!
As we have pointed out, we are also God’s kingdom. In the church we all are under God’s government, God’s authority and rule. We are not lawless. On the contrary, we are governed spontaneously in a pleasant and loving way. Although there are elders in the churches, they do not exercise control over the saints. Rather, all the saints are willingly under God’s rule. This is the church as the kingdom of God. If all the people in this country lived like this, the enemy would be completely subdued.
In the church we are under divine government. Because of an inward ruling, we cannot cheat others or take advantage of them. This inner ruling is the reality of the kingdom. Today in the church Jesus Christ is King. He is the King on the throne within us and among us.
Furthermore, the church is the dwelling place of God in spirit. When we are not in our spirit, we do not have the church as God’s dwelling place in a practical way. But whenever we turn to our spirit, we sense that God has a dwelling place in our spirit. This dwelling place is for God’s rest.
Not only is the church the Body, the new man, the Bride, the family, the kingdom, and the dwelling place; the church is also the warrior to fight against God’s enemy. God’s enemy, Satan, is terrified of such a church. Satan is not afraid of individualistic Christians, not even if they number in the thousands. But whenever the believers come together as the church in the aspect of the Body and in these other aspects, Satan trembles. By the church in these seven aspects Christ is expressed, the Father has rest, and the enemy is defeated. May we all see the vision that the church is not a matter of individual holiness or spirituality. On the contrary, it is a matter of being built up together as the Body, the new man, the Bride, the family, the kingdom, the dwelling place, and the warrior. As such a church, we defeat the enemy and prepare the way for the Lord Jesus to come back.