Covenant Relationship

A covenant relationship can be as cold as the agreement made between a home owner and the homeowners’ association to abide by rules and restrictions for the neighborhood. Or it can be as intimate as the commitment made in marriage to a sacred, lifelong promise of partnership between a man and a woman.

A covenant, per Merriam-Webster, is a formal, binding agreement or promise between two or more parties. It is similar to a contract but usually carries a deeper, more solemn or relational weight, a level of commitment versus just an exchange of goods. What or who are you in a covenant relationship with?

… friendship with the world is hostility toward God. … God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. – James 4:4,6-8. In this, the seventh week of the Pentecost challenge, we made it through Titus, Philemon, Hebrews and James. We have been educated on the first covenant and the shortfalls of the Israelites trying to live under the commands given. We are warned to ‘watch out brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God’ (Heb.3:12). The author of Hebrews reintroduced the high priest Melchizedek, who blessed Abram in Genesis 14, and he reasoned that Jesus’ spent time here on earth ‘so He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people’ (Heb.2:17). Then in chapter 6, ‘Jesus has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek’ (v.20). In chapter 9 we hear more about the first covenant – its regulations, commandments, the earthly tabernacle and the animal sacrifices. Then, ‘God takes away the first to establish the second. By this will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus the Christ once and for all’ (10:9-10). Under this new covenant relationship, ‘Let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful’ (10:22-23). In the passage from James above, he warns of friendship with the world. The devil will stir up pride in accomplishments, possessions, status and even church work. Such friendship is hostility toward God. The call is to submit to God, resist the devil and live into a covenant relationship with Jesus the Christ.

In marriage, it is not healthy to be in a flirtatious relationship with anyone other than your wife. In faith, it is not healthy to be friends with the evil one, who can be flirtatious in many ways. Resist the devil and he will flee from you – Enjoy the last week of the Pentecost challenge and live into a Covenant Relationship with Jesus the Christ.

Prayer guide: Father, thank You for Your word through these epistles. I confess I have had a friendship, even a covenant relationship with the world as I focused on self and my career. Forgive me. I understand as a Christian I am to live in this world but not be of this world. This week’s reading has helped me understand that Jesus paid my sin debt in full once and for all. I commit to resist the devil, draw near to You and lead my family by example in a covenant relationship with You. That is the dad You call me to be, and that is the dad my kids need to see. Amen.

A faithful father lives into a covenant relationship with Jesus the Christ.