Love and the wedding feast

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 1 Corinthians 13:4‭-‬10 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/1co.13.4-10.ESV

This is a description of love in human terms but it is also the way that God loves us except that His love is truly unconditional. In the parable of the wedding feast where this king has prepared a wedding feast for his son’s wedding, Jesus said that all of those who were invited refused to come. So, the king sent his servants out and found people who would come to the wedding feast. Now, the king had told them to go out into the streets and the highways and find people who were willing to come to the feast. But…in order for them to attend the wedding feast, they had to put on wedding clothes.

Many of them, in fact, most of them did put on the wedding clothes that they were given. Garments of pure white. All of them except one. When he was noticed, the king said to bind him and cast him out. Why? Because he didn’t put on the garments that were offered to him to be there. Some use this parable to say that God doesn’t want us to come as we are but He does. His servants in this parable brought the people into the feast just as they were but they had to put on their wedding clothes. The wedding clothes symbolize the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we accept when we accept Him as our Savior. Without His righteousness covering our sinfulness and all of our sins, we wouldn’t be allowed into Heaven.

We are called and chosen just as we are, warts and blemishes and scars included but when we accept Jesus as our Savior we are clothed in His righteousness. So when God looks at us, He sees His Son’s righteousness covering us so we are allowed into the banquet. Jesus does call those who are flawed and sinful to be His servants and His followers in this world because those who believe that their “righteousness” is good enough don’t believe that they need Him. Like the man who didn’t put on the wedding clothes, they believe that their “righteous” clothes are good enough.

Make sure you have your wedding clothes on.