Heartfelt Covenant Relationships

Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:33 NIV.

Introduction

In the with God-life, it is always a matter of the heart.

These passages concern personal relationships with other brothers and sisters in the household and in the workplace. Even our relationships are to be mutual and based on reverence for Christ.

Years tell the tale of God’s faithfulness. When we listen to Him and obey, our lives are in harmony. Without mutual respect, love, and consideration, the consequences are pain, heartache, chaos, divorce, runaway children, and unemployment.

To say that these things happen only in non-Christian homes and workplaces is to deceive ourselves.

Relationships

Who hasn’t heard a sermon on wives submitting to their own husbands, husbands loving their wives, and children obeying their parents? Even in our employee-employer relationship, there is a word to live in it rightly. In the “with God” life, we are to live every aspect of our life in reverence to Christ.

We know this to be true, and if we’re honest with ourselves, we try to follow the Scripture’s lead.

Hidden in these passages is something that is easily missed:.The friend, the wife, the husband, the child, the employer, and the employee are in a covenant relationship.

Husband and Wife Covenant

The husband is the head of the home and wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church and is Himself her Savior. The husband’s love should be active. Christ’s example of actively giving Himself for the Church is the example given to husbands. On Judgment Day, they will be accountable to the Lord, not the wife.

Does the wife submit to her husband’s love in respect, and does the husband love her as he loved himself to nourish her? Do they leave their own father and mother to become one flesh?

Children in Covenant

Children are a valuable asset to the family. God blesses us with offspring.

But their actions also hold them accountable. They are in a covenant relationship to obey their parents as unto the Lord. Why? So it will go well with them here, now and in the future. There’s no victory in the rebel’s yell.

Parents are in covenant with the Lord not to provoke their children, but to raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. The Lord holds the child and parent accountable. Do they consider the Lord their parent, and does the child understand that when he or she obeys his parents, then it too is as unto the Lord?

Covenant in the Workplace

We take responsibility for doing everything as unto the Lord, not man. This includes the workplace. Earning a promotion or a demotion is well-deserved, and the company will reward good actions.

Now, both employees and employers are in a covenant relationship. When I joined the Army, I signed my name and swore allegiance to the country. I did so as if the Lord were before me, not the recruiter.

It made all the difference in the world as I struggled through basic training, advanced individual training, and the rigors of being one of the first women in a combat unit during the Vietnam War.

This attitude was even more critical when I became a commissioned officer in leadership positions. A leader is ineffective if he or she operates under the shadow of threats and abuse. Christ looks equally upon the employer as He does the employee.

Covenant-Keeping God

Honestly, we cannot understand the importance of covenant relationships without seeing the truth behind our covenant-keeping God. God is YHWH, our Creator. He is both Sovereign and Holy. He is just and righteous—everything He does is right and good.

Knowable in covenant:

The covenant-keeping God is our Savior; an intimate relationship is only possible because He makes it so. He is knowable in Word and deed, in the transformed mind, and in the yielded soul.

He is knowable in the heart; He is knowable as the Prince of peace. His peace is beyond understanding, yet it is perfect in every way—faithful in love. He guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Far from a distant and unknowable God. He is here: as close as the breath you breathe and as near as the beating of your heart. He’s here to answer our prayers and leans in to see how we relate to others in covenant.

Once you hear God’s voice, you cannot unheard it. His word pierces the soul to bear fruit. The fruit of His tender loving care is the newness of life, which affects our relationship with others.

He calls us sons and daughters. We call Him Father. Jesus calls us friends. Is there any greater love relationship than this?

Established Covenant

God established His covenant with us — a covenant written in the blood of Christ Jesus and sealed by the Holy Spirit. We walk in a covenant relationship with Him. He honestly keeps His side of the deal, and as we wholeheartedly yield to Him, He helps us keep our end of the covenant.

In Conclusion

There is so much I could write about this covenant relationship.

Two testaments, the Old and the New, divide the Bible. This division reflects the old and new covenants. God’s chosen people disobeyed the old, so He had to establish a new one. This one is rock solid because of what He does in us to give us newness of life: redeemed, reconciled, transformed, and sanctified. The New Testament fulfills the covenant promised in the Old.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws… You will be My people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:25-28b.

So let us take all our relationships—friends, spouses, children, and employers/employees—seriously—not so much because we are accountable as because we love the Lord.

It is interesting to note that we learn about the covenant relationship just before we see the true value of spiritual warfare – putting on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20).

Being out of covenant with the Lord is dangerous, so take it seriously even in your relationships – for the Lord, your God, is with you.

"Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will. Let be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours. So be it. Amen" John Stott