Tag: Covenant

Brotherhood Covenant

Who knows what a Covenant is?

A covenant is a relationship between two partners who make binding promises to each other and work together to reach a common goal. They’re often accompanied by oaths, signs, and ceremonies. Covenants define obligations and commitments, but they are different from a contract because they are relational and personal. Think of a marriage—a husband and wife choose to enter into a formal relationship, binding themselves to one another in lifelong faithfulness and devotion. They then work as partners to reach a common goal, like building a life or raising children together.

There are some men in this room that have been married a long time.  Who has been married the longest?  Who has been married the least amount of time?  Maybe we can learn from each other the importance of a marriage covenant.  And maybe I just needed to hear this and research this.  Maybe this is for me?

A few weeks ago, I was away for a class for three nights.  I wasn’t gone long, but it reminded me how important a covenant is with God, and I was able to be still and reflect how important the covenant is between me and my Manuela.  And how important it is to not break that covenant.    

Jason Soroski writes “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish… We have heard these words repeated in many wedding ceremonies, and if you are married you have likely said them yourself! What does it mean to be in a covenant marriage, and how does it enrich our lives and fulfill God’s purpose?

At the heart of biblical marriage is a covenant before God to cherish one another and continue to grow as one. At the heart of a covenant marriage is a desire to not just ‘get through’ life together but to thrive together. It means to love, encourage, and cherish one another while constantly seeking Christ in our relationship.

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Covenant Marriage as presented in Scripture is not something to be taken lightly, but makes up the foundation for the family, the community, and the bedrock of a strong and healthy society.

The Bible declares marriage as the most important relationship one can enter into aside from their relationship with God, and Ephesians 5 gives us perhaps the most detailed explanation of how this plays out.

There is a full, beautiful meaning in the full context of these verses that reveals the beauty of what covenant marriage truly is: “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior”.

”Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” In this passage, it is reiterated that in a covenant marriage the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.

This is a picture of two people in mutual submission to Christ, and a wife submitting to a godly man who leads the home spiritually and who loves his wife more than he loves himself. As Christ was crucified for the sake of his ‘bride’ the Church, the covenant husband is willing to endure the same for his wife he has given himself to in marriage. This is the most beautiful of love stories. A story of mutual love and submission, of two individuals ever-growing more and more into one, entwined within the love of Christ and for one another.

Marriage continues to be the most beautiful ceremony we engage in. This is because within marriage we find deep and wonderful meaning. We see the beginning of a new life and an adventure of two people joining their lives together, entwining their hearts as one in the presence of God, friends, and family. It is the highest of vows. Near the end of a traditional marriage ceremony, we often hear the phrase, “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” This phrase, drawn from the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:6, reminds us that marriage is a covenant initiated by God, which we agree to join into. When we commit to a covenant marriage, we are joining our hearts together in a supernatural way that only God can orchestrate.” (Jason Soroski 2021)

I came home to a couple that we know where the husband broke that covenant with his wife and with God.  He cheated on his wife, and I got to hear about that and how it tears a family apart and how sad it is.  They’ve got three kids together.  I got to reflect on that when I got home. 

I said all of this to remind us how important our covenant is not only between our wives, but how important it is to God.  And to remind us men, that our wives are special and our marriages are special and that we should cherish our wives.  We should strive to love our wives like Jesus loves us.  Do we take that covenant serious enough?   

We just had Valentines Day, so I got a good deal on these cards, grab a card and write your wife a special note, telling how much she means to you and your family.  Or maybe you want to write your sister, or Mom or that certain special woman in your life a card.  

So go home, give your wife a hug and a kiss and tell her you love her.        

I Wonder

Our church recently upgraded from old-timey bench style pews to more comfortable chairs with cushions and gave the old pews away. 

My wife and I were fortune it enough to get one of the pews and we placed it on our back deck.  We occasionally sit in it and marvel at God’s beautiful creation. 

I sometimes wonder how many people gave their life to Jesus sitting in that very same pew that we use to gaze upon God’s creation, with a command of His voice, that I am in awe of.  I wonder how many people sat there and cried during a sermon that pricked their hearts.  I wonder how many couples, male and female, sat there holding hands being preached to about God’s design in marriage covenant between man and wife.  Or how many young men and women sat in the very same pew and marveled at how God, Himself, took on flesh and died on the Cross for our sins, defeating sin and death through His descension into hell and resurrection and ascension into heaven for you and me.  

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:6 “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”[a] 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?[b] 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

I wonder how many sermons have been preached in that church with that old church pew.  And how many people sat on that old-fashioned church pew. And now my wife and I and children get to sit on the same pew that saw people give their lives to Jesus, the most important decision you will ever make, to spend eternity with Jesus. 

But there is still something about sitting in an old uncomfortable traditional pew that can’t be replaced.  I wouldn’t trade that memory for anything.