Question: How could a person not steeped in religious tradition ever get the idea that we are ...

Question: I began a study on the “bride of Christ” and am very bothered as to why Christians use the term! Since the primary example of the church is “the body of Christ”...how can the Lord’s very own body be feminine when He is masculine? To be fair, how could a person not steeped in religious tradition ever get the idea that we are Christ’s bride?

Response: If the church is not the bride and thus the wife of Christ, then who is? To whom (if not the church) do such verses as the following refer? “For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (Revelation:19:7Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
See All...); “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come....” (Revelation:22:17And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
See All...); “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (v. 20). If the bride here is not the bride of Christ, why would she be longing for His return; and whose bride is she, if not His? She is called the bride because she has not yet been married to Him.

John the Baptist said of Christ, “he that hath the bride is the bridegroom” (John:3:29He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
See All...). The bride clearly belongs to Christ and will be married to Him in heaven (Revelation:19:7-9 [7] Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. [8] And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. [9] And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
See All...). Who else is in heaven at this time to be married to Christ except the saints of all ages who have been caught up to heaven at the Rapture? That the bride is composed of such saints is clear, for she is “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white,” and the “fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (v 8). Is it not the church that is expecting Christ and longing to be taken to His Father’s house in heaven (John:14:2-3 [2] In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
See All...)? That promise is for none other.

That the church is the body of Christ (Romans:12:5So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
See All...; 1 Corinthians:12:27Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
See All...; Ephesians:4:12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
See All...; Colossians:1:18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
See All...), as you admit, is all the more reason to believe that it is also His bride. Man and woman, when married, become “one flesh” (Ephesians:5:31For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
See All...). In the very next verse Paul writes, “This (being one flesh) is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” As the wife is with her husband, so the church is one flesh with Christ.

This entire passage (Ephesians:5:22-33 [22] Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. [24] Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. [25] Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; [26] That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, [27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. [28] So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. [29] For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: [30] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. [31] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. [32] This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. [33] Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
See All...) is about the relationship of husband and wife and is likened to Christ and His church. You say that Christ’s body “can’t be feminine when He is masculine.” You are separating Christ from His body. The “one flesh” that husband and wife become is neither male nor female but something new made up of both of them, a “mystery.” So the body of Christ, of which He is the head, comprises Christ and His bride. It can’t be separated from Him but is one with Him and is neither male nor female. Indeed, because of our union with Christ in one body, Paul writes that in the church “there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ” (Galatians:3:28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
See All...).