II Corinthians 11:2-3

2 Corinthians 11

2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

3 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.

Many of us have sung songs about God’s jealousy for us. We know that He loves us and desires for us to be wholly His. In verse two it says that we are betrothed to Christ and that God desires for us to be presented pure for Him. Have you ever really thought about this? That Christ is waiting for us as His bride? Like a groom anxiously awaiting his soon to be wife, Christ is excitedly waiting for us. But… are we pure for Him?

This isn’t talking about sexual purity, although that too is important. Verse three and the other verses that follow explain that God desires a pure devotion to Christ. Like two that are engaged and are single-mindedly focused on each other, so should our devotion be to Christ.

But we get distracted. We are deceived like Eve in the garden. We follow other “lords” in our lives. We devote our time, resources, and talents to things that do not glorify our betrothed. We put things and other people before Him. We bring Him our leftovers and put Him last.

If this were a movie, the audience at this point would be so upset for the groom, sure that the bride does not deserve him… We would be moved and convicted, certain that she should act better than that… but do we? Our heavenly groom deserves so much more than any earthly one. In His perfection He sees our lack of commitment and devotion to Him and loves us anyway. He continues to draw us to Himself and anxiously awaits the day we will be joined to Him.

Like the bride waiting for her wedding day, be single-mindedly devoted to Christ. Do not be drawn away by ‘false gospels’ and the treasures of this world.

Hebrews 12:2- fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.