I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:1-3
I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Sometimes the most important message of all can appear simplistic, unsophisticated, beneath us.
I am afraid. As the apostle looked at this church, something worried him. If Paul were to visit our churches today and look us straight in the eye and say, “Something about you bothers me,” we’d want to know what that was.
As the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning. The devil has a plan for every church, he’s working his plan, and he never sleeps. We’re no smarter than Eve was. We’re no better. We are in danger.
Your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. The virginity of a church consists in this — a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. It is so unimpressive to worldly eyes, in a way so unproductive and impractical. But this is the very soul of authentic Christianity. Everything else that is right and good flows from this sacred center. Anything else, however “right,” if it displaces this sanctity, dishonors the Lord and violates a church.
It is possible for our thoughts, the corporate soul of an entire church, to be led astray without our realizing it, which is why Paul raises the matter. Legitimate but secondary issues are constantly trying to claim the heart of a church. Everything good is a potential enemy of this best. And the nobler the distraction, the more difficult to discern.
Community is good, but it doesn’t come first. Mission is good, but it doesn’t come first. Sound doctrine doesn’t come first. Marriage and family life don’t come first. Etc. Jesus himself comes first in the thoughts and heart and passion of a faithful church. Whatever the claim or cause may be, if it won’t come first on that great and final day when we will be presented to the Lord himself, then it shouldn’t come first today.
Churches who have lost their virginity can get it back. In the grace of God, purity is wonderfully recoverable. “Remember from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first” (Revelation 2:5).