Covenant Community

God created us to live in communion with Him and with others. The Fall wreaked this arrangement. The Church is the place where we are restored and then sent out to live. Every person, every family, has its trials and pains. We sometimes think our own difficulties are unparallel, but this kind of thinking would only indicate how little we get out and how shallow our knowledge of others really is. God calls us to live, and He calls us to live in the context of the community of His people. To the degree we forsake that assembly with our bodies or our hearts, our suffering will increase.

In Acts 2, every day believers met together in the Temple courts, broke bread in one another’s homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. Hebrews 3:13 suggests that many years later, Christians were still meeting daily. For this to become a part of our daily living we must develop covenant consciousness; a way of thinking that begins with the congregation rather than the individual—thinking in terms of “we” instead of “me.” It is in the context of the covenant community that we find rest and restoration.

The way we develop the covenant community mindset begins by believing and obey our loving heavenly Father. We must resist the temptation to withdraw and instead, do our duty. Our duty is to trust and obey, even when we don’t feel like it. We have all taken public vows before God and His people to be committed participants in the covenant community we call church.

Here are a few important points for us to remember if we are to comprehend and implement life in the Christian community so that we and our families will know the blessings of God for many generations.

1. The Lord’s Day: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…” This day distinguishes the covenant people of God from the world.

2. Worship: “Forsake not the assembly of yourselves together…” The corporate worship of the one true God is central to the covenant community.

3. Fellowship: “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” If we are not in the homes of other church members, and other church members are not in our homes, then we cannot possibly know one another the way we should.

4. Time management: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” We cannot manage time, but we can manage ourselves. When we become so busy with work, or other activities, that we begin to neglect our families and our covenant community, then our orientation is not covenantal, but has become misdirected. Maintaining covenant priorities requires constant vigilance.

5. Communication: Our identity as a called people is strengthened by our common interests. Pray for one another. Teach and admonish one another.

6. Geography: “Doing good to all men, especially the household of faith.” Daily interaction among our fellow Christians provides abundant opportunities to love one another.