What a difference our Heavenly Bridegroom sees between His beloved bride and the world. He says, "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." Oh, beloved, what an eternal wonder Jesus claims her as His own; "My Love"! Mine by choice; Mine by redemption; Mine by effectual calling; Mine from all eternity. "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee," JER 31:3.

When the refiner can look into the fining pot upon the molten metal and see his own image, he knows the dross has all been removed. This is what Jesus sees in His bride. "As the lily"—the very description He has just given of Himself: "I am the lily of the valleys"—pure, beautiful, fragrant!

See the contrast the Lord sees between His "LOVE" and the world, "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." What could portray a greater contrast than a beautiful lily and an ugly piercing thorn?

Our Saviour not only shed His blood to deliver His bride from the penalty of sin, but He will, "...sanctify and cleanse [her] with the washing of water by the word, That he might present [her] to himself a glorious [bride], not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that [she] should be holy and without blemish," EPH 5:26-27.

Jesus saw His bride, "As the lily among thorns," when He prayed for them in JOH 17:15. "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Our text demonstrates the bride's conformity to her Heavenly Bridegroom where it says, "I am...the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." As the lily contrasts the thorn, so Christ's bride must contrast the world. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world," JAM 1:27.

ISA 43:21 says, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise." Oh, beloved, how essential it is to see that there is no place for those things that dishonor Christ. "As the lily among thorns," so the world will see the contrast between Christ's bride with her will dissolved in His and their own sinful ways.

2CO 3:3 says, "...ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ." The world does not read the Epistle to the Romans or the Epistle to the Ephesians. It reads every professor of Christ's holy name, and it expects a high standard. The world takes no time to study the doctrines of God's grace, but it does look for a humble, gracious, loving Spirit of Christ in the tried and tempted believer who stands out, "As the lily among thorns."

Professed believers, when you walk in open rebellion against God's revealed will, "...the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you," ROM 2:24.

God's Word exhorts the women as the type of Christ's bride to obedience. "...be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers...teachers of good things...obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed," TIT 2:3-5.

May the Holy Spirit whisper these words of our Saviour into your soul, "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." Amen.