The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1963-08-09
Covenant People
Lesson for August IL, 1863

words IN the Bible is "COnven
ant" It may rot be a common
word today. but it stands fol
something we all cherish. Whel
a president or other officia
elected by the people takes ths
oath of office, that is a covenant
When young couple repea
their marriage VOWS. that is (
special kind OF promise, it is {
two-way things. Sometimes {
man will say II promised my
self so and so J" but tina
is not usual. Now the point Of
the Covenant. 1T is always thu
Covenant-in the Bible is tha
religion is a two-way street. Il
is a relationship, it is a prom
Use of God to man and of man tc
God.
pivotal Promise"
Many things can be said about
the idea of Covenant in the Bibl,
and in the life of the Christian
Christians often call themselves
the Covenant People Of the New
Israeli Let us pick out three
First, the Covenant stands for
the fact that you are not suppos-
ed to slide or glide into relation
ship with God. You choose God,
He chooses YOU. Religion is not
contemplation, though there is
room in it for contemplation. Re
lgion is a commitment, a prom
Use you are not to throw lightly
to one side. Religion-by accident
is not Bible religion. Reigion-on-
purpose is more like it. Religion
is personal or not genuine. It
is personal or fake. Your par
ents can't sign for you, t h e y
can't respond to God for YOU.
They can't come to God. or
choose Him, in your place. Re-
ligion is voluntary.
Religion is for Always
The word Covenant also sug-
gests that religion of the right
kind is continuous, you can't
put in on as you might put on a
raincoat, now and then when a
storm comes up. There are
people who do just that, YOU
know: they never enter God s
house nor read Gods Word, but
they holler for help when they
are in trouble. God for them is
just a raincoat to keep life S
rains from their sensitive skins.
For other people, religion is
something for Sunday, or some
thing to take when you go visit
your grandmother, something
old-fashioned, kept like an Old
rocking chair but too weak to
bear any ones weight. On the
contrary, the Covenant-idea Of
religion suggests that our rela-
ton to God is not only personal
and undertaken by an act of our
free will, but it is continuous
1t may be out of your conscious
ness but it is always a fact.
You may not always be thinking
that you are a married person:
but fortunately you are married
whether you are aware Of it
every waking minute or not. A
Christian is just as much in a
covenant relation to God
when he is at work on the farm
or in the bank or the hospital
as ne is in church. Furthermore.
the Covenant approach to re-
hglon suggests that our relation
to God is active or passive. In
the Old Testament and the New.
Covenant always carries with the
obligation to Obedience. It leads
to doing as well as to being,
Religion, Singular and Plural
We have been talking about
Covenant as if it were all a mat
ter between the soul ard God, a
private, individual matter. Well,
it is; but it would belle the
Bible picture of Covenant if we
stopped here. There are com
parauvely few cases where God
is said to have a covenant with
some individual as with Abra-
ham. The standard picture is
God on one side and the Gov
enant People" on the other Our
relation to God is never what
1t ought to be if it is strictly
individual and no more. The
Lords Prayer sets the keynote
for the New Testament. It uses
the first person plural: Our
Father Give US this day :.
forgive us as we forgive
There is a Community of the
Covenant-which is another way
OF saying there is community
OF the committed; namely. the
church. That is, the Covenant
which each person has with God.
and the Covenant which the com
has with Him, are two
aspects Of the same thing. The
your church - any
true church however small or
large ~ is not just a conglosn-
Grafton of all sorts and conditions
OF men. though it is that; but
the important fact about the
church is what the members
nave in common; they belong to
one another, and they belong to
CoI