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?

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