Church as Chosen Lady #7 of 7:

Her House with Seven Crafted Pillars

(Proverbs 9:1)

We can’t leave John’s Chosen Lady with six posts. That’s not a good number. Seven is a good number, like those “seven crafted pillars” that adorn the house of Lady Wisdom (Pr 9). For the ancients, columns or pillars can’t just hold stuff up, they have to hold things up with elegance and beauty like those columns of the Parthenon.

From time to time, the church has sought to fill in Lady Wisdom’s pillars with “seven virtues” or “seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.”  Peter started it with his lists of seven virtues to support our faith: “     Support your faith with

1.         good character, and good character with

2.         knowledge, and knowledge with

3.         self-discipline, and self-discipline with

4.         patience, and patience with

5.         reverence, and reverence with

6.         human affection, and human affection with

7.         agape love.
For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pt 1:5-8).

Such qualities, Peter urges us, are to increase “among you”—among the believing congregation; to keep the church “from being ineffective”. I’m hesitant to mess with the Apostle’s list of virtues—as if I could improve on it. However, maybe it’s okay to come up with a different kind of list—a list of adornments. Seven ornaments that make the gospel attractive, like those seven pillars that make Lady Wisdom’s house inviting. Let’s start with “the greatest of these”:

                        1.         Love, by which all people will know we are followers of Christ (Jn 13:35)

                        2.         Joy, “joy in the Holy Spirit” (Ro 14:17)

                        3.         Peace, an irenic “peace that passes understanding” (Phl 4:7)

                        4.         Graciousness, “forgiving one another, as Christ has forgiven you” (Eph 4:32)

                        5.         Generosity, “be generous and eager to share” (1Tm 6:18)

                        6.         Blessedness, “blessed are the merciful…” (Mt 5)

                        7.         Song, “singing to the Lord with all your hearts” (Eph 5:19)

When one sees love, joy, peace, graciousness, generosity, blessedness, and hears the congregation singing songs of praise and adoration; there is beauty and wonder that passersby can’t help but notice. As Anne Lamott puts it: “It was the singing that pulled me in and split me wide open” (Traveling Mercies, p. 47). There’s something beautiful about the Chosen Lady.