Thursday, February 14, 2019

Covenant Love

Ephesians 5:28-30 28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of His body.

Throughout the Bible we read of God’s covenant love for us. This is how He relates to us - through covenants. Here, Paul is comparing the marriage between a husband and wife to the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church.  Specifically to husbands, He says that we are to love our wives with a sacrificial love, just as Christ sacrificed Himself for the church.  This echoes a theme throughout scriptures of how God loves us, a covenant love.  In other scripture passages, such as Malachi, marriage is also referred to as a covenant. If you look at the whole of scripture you begin to see that love is not just a feeling, or an obsession, or even a contract.  Love, especially between a man and a wife, is a covenant.

What do I mean when I say that? Well when you go back to the original language of the New Testament, ancient Greek, you see two terms used to describe an agreement. Suntheke is a contract. This is where each person gives something and each person receives something. If person A doesn’t live up to his end of the deal then person B can leave the agreement. However, the Bible almost exclusively uses the word diatheke, or covenant, which is an agreement where someone gives something to another person and expects nothing in return.

Now that doesn’t mean covenants are always unconditional. Remember God told Israel, if you keep my commands you will have this. However, the key difference is that those commands were given for their good. It is not that God needed them to keep His commands or even expected them to. He did not go into the covenant in order to get something out of it, He went into the covenant in order to give into it.

When we view marriage through the lens of the Gospel we will begin to correctly see it as a covenant love.  It is a love we pour into.  It is not a love that ignores fault or tolerates evil. It is a love that forgives, confronts with humility, and perseveres.  Husbands love your wives just as Christ loves His church.  That is not a light command.  That is a powerful directive. Husbands love your wives so that your marriage is a direct witness to the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

God's covenant love for us is unfailing and eternal.  It is not blind, it is honest, it is patient.  Is that how you see your love for your spouse?  Are you building a covenant with them that will last or simply writing a contract to be torn up when it has outlived it's usefulness.

Are you building a relationship with your loved one based on God's love for you?

To discover more, visit Oak Grove Baptist Church.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Be Careful What You Let In


Romans 6:12-14 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.
One of our small group lessons had a great illustration on the growth of sin. Have you ever heard of Kudzu? Have you ever tried to cut and clear land covered by Kudzu and keep it from coming back? It is not easy, is it?  Kudzu is known as the vine that ate the south, it is a nuisance, but it didn’t start out that way.

In the 1930s, the US government brought this vine in from Asia and paid farmers to plant kudzu to protect against soil erosion. But what started as a good thing grew out of control. The warm summers and mild winters caused it to flourish until by 2010, it had taken over seven million acres across the Southeast.  Likewise there are so many things that seem harmless, fun, or even helpful that do slow unseen damage to our lives. Before we know it, we have surrendered control to them and we start fighting for them against God in our life. (1)

Your life is a weapon of righteousness. By that I mean the way you live, the way you talk, the way you act is a weapon that is meant to show God’s grace, love and honor. It is meant to cut through the lies of this world with love and humility so that others see the mercy and grace of God. That is the last thing the devil wants the world to see. The devil would love to disarm any part of your testimony, to get a toehold in one part of your life so that he can try to tear down the rest of it.

Be careful what you let in.

In Romans 6, Paul shows us that sin is an invader and our mortal bodies are the battleground on which it is fighting.  We have a choice to make.  Do we let our Creator, the Rightful King who loves us and died for us rein in our lives or do we let this invader, sin, reign instead?  Paul helps us see that sin is not just an isolated thing we do, it is an active, growing power. 

You know I’ve never seen Kudzu grow. I have seen where it has grown and overtaken, but I’ve never watched the vines spread. It just seems like it is this size one day, manageable, but I wake up a few days later and it had grown to something so big I might as well not even try to fight it. Sin is the same way. It may look still and unmoving but it is not. It is growing and devouring.

The goal of sin is to wreck your life by attempting to dethrone God in your life.  It then can turn you into a weapon against those you love.  Sin must be in control and it must destroy.  Our job is to not let sin rule even one part of our life, to not let him even get a toehold. If sin does enter in we must be honest enough to go before God and ask Him to clear it out - we can not do it on our own.   We must strive to live a life that is used as a weapon of good - loving, helping others, and not a life under control of the one who only wants to destroy and kill.

Living under grace is pure freedom but it is not freedom from responsibilities. We must not only consider how our actions, addictions, and choices affect us, but how they affect others. Are your actions glorifying Christ or are they pointing your friends and family to seek answers in the world instead of in Christ?

What are you doing with this new life in Christ this morning? Who will be controlling you today?

To discover more, visit Oak Grove Baptist Church.

1. Bible Studies For Life https://blog.lifeway.com/biblestudiesforlife/extra-ideas-for-adults-engaging-culture-in-an-ever-changing-world-session-4/