Convenient vs Covenant Relationships

In our cultural moment, one of the most radical moves we can make is to enter into covenant with other believers.

Community has been a buzzword for Christians for several years. We talk about finding and cultivating community. For example, one of the values in our church is authentic community. Too often, though, Christians fall into cultural patterns, not of true biblical community, but patterns of relationship reflected in the world. The prevailing cultural pattern is a pattern of convenient relationships. The biblical pattern, however, is one of covenant relationships.

One way to define covenant is: “a relationship based on a promise.” Throughout the Bible, God makes covenants with his people. In fact, the primary way God relates to his creation in general and his people in particular is through covenant. There are six main covenants in the Bible (as outlined in Kingdom through Covenant by Gentry and Wellum).

1. God makes a covenant with Adam and creation

For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, 
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 
But they, like Adam, have violated the covenant; 
there they have betrayed me. (Hosea 6:7)

2. God re-establishes his covenant with Noah

Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, “Understand that I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. (Gen. 9:8–10)

3. God makes a covenant with Abram

When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring. (Genesis 15:17–18)

4. God makes a covenant with Moses and Israel through the 10 Commandments.

The Lord also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel based on these words.” Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant, on the tablets. (Exodus 34:27–28) 

5. God makes a covenant with David.

The Lord declares to you: The Lord himself will make a house for you. When your time comes and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. (2 Samuel 7:11–14)

All of these covenants gradually unfolded God’s revelation and purpose until the promise and fulfillment of the new covenant.

6. The New Covenant 

 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin. (Jeremiah 31:31–34)

In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20)

Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant. (Hebrews 7:22)

From Convenient to Covenant Relationships

In the context of these overarching covenantal relationships, the people of God would likewise make covenants of renewal and commitment to each other. 

Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, the king, and the people that they would be the Lord’s people. So all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed its altars and images and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, at the altars. (2 Chronicles 23:16–17)

Historically, Christians have followed this pattern, and our culture has remnants of covenantalism that linger. One remaining covenant relationship is the marriage covenant. This is very different than a mere “contract” or even “commitment.” That said, we have few covenants left in our culture and even less covenantal seriousness. Even covenant marriages and committed relationships have lost their covenantal backbone. Covenant relationships have yielded to the cultural pull of convenient relationships. Here are some basic differences between the two.

The two most sacred covenantal institutions in our culture are the family and the local church. Both families and churches are bound by covenants of oath and blood, promise and purchase. A family starts with vows of a man and woman (covenantal oath), who then bear children (covenantal blood). The church has been purchased by the covenantal oath and covenantal blood of God in Christ. A local church is a group of who have then made promises of covenantal oath commitment to one another. A local church is a group of people who enter into temporary covenant with each other in light the eternal covenant God has made with them in Jesus Christ. A church is a fabric of covenantal relationships in the new covenant in Christ. The covenantal nature of the local church is both “already” and “not yet.” The local church is a covenant community (already), and the local church cultivates or becomes covenant community (not yet). One big way the Bible talks about being and becoming a covenant community is church membership.

Church membership is biblical

The word “membership” comes from the older translations of Bible verses that talk about being a smaller part of a larger whole, an integral part that completes the entire entity. For example, my arm is a “member of my body”. Without my arm, my body is not complete.

For just as the body is one and has many parts [older translations say “members”], and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12).

So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19).

Membership is implied by many verses in the New Testament. There was a way to know who had “joined” and who had not “joined” the earliest disciples:

Many signs and wonders were being done among the people through the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared to join them, but the people spoke well of them. (Acts 5:12–13)

There was a way to know who was a “inside” (part of the church) and who was “outside” (not part of the church).

But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you. (1 Corinthians 5:11–13)

There was a way to know if the church had a majority, which assumes a specific number of members.

If anyone has caused pain, he has caused pain not so much to me but to some degree—not to exaggerate—to all of you. This punishment by the majority is sufficient for that person. (2 Corinthians 2:5–6)

The Bible’s “word pictures” for the church don’t make sense without a way to know who is a part and who is not. In every one of these in “real life,” there is a clear way to know what is a part and what is not.

• The body of Christ. (I know what is my body and what is not).

• The family of God. (I know who are my kids and who are not).

• The army of the Lord. (The military knows who is enlisted and who is not).

• The temple of God. (We know what is a part of a building and what is not).

• The bride of Christ. (I know who my wife is, and who is not).

Whether you call it “membership,” “partnership,” or something else, the Bible clearly teaches that the church should have a way to know who is a part of the church and who is not. Historically, churches had a membership covenant that members would commit to, and then a list or “roll” of people who formally “joined” the church as members.

Church membership is practical

Church membership helps pastors know who God has required them to care for.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account (Hebrews 13:17).

It helps the church know who God has required them to care for in special way.

For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. (Galatians 5:13).

Church membership is counter-cultural

Our culture celebrates the individual self and staying true to yourself, despite the cost to your relationships. Any relationship with anyone or anything other than yourself is disposable, so they say. Keep it as long as it is convenient.

In contrast, the church should celebrate the non-optional nature of relationships in covenant. We should celebrate this in the family and in the local church. In our cultural moment, one of the most radical moves we can make is to enter into covenant with our wife or husband and kids, and stick with it. In our cultural moment, one of the most radical moves we can make is to enter into covenant with other believers in a local church, and then stick with them—with folks who are younger than us and older than us, richer than us and poorer than us, more liberal than us and more conservative than us. We should reject superficial convenient relationships and cultivate covenant relationships with other Christians as we join in fellow membership with them.

What are other ways you see the pull toward convenient relationships and the opportunity to cultivate covenant relationships?