Characteristics of Love: Love is a Covenant
Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
Introduction: Finally, this is the 40th week of looking at characteristics of God’s kind of Love. Sometimes ago during Blissful union program, couples watched a Christian film titled “Fire Proof ” where “40 days Love walk” was recommended with daily dare task for a husband whose marriage was heading towards collapse. The “40 days Love Walk” with dare or courageous task saved the marriage. The Love walk is based on characteristics of God’s kind of Love written in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
❤️ Characteristics of God’s kind of Love in comparison to worldly or valentine’s love is what we started looking at on weekly basis after the world’s celebrations of one of the valentines day in February.
🙏 I pray that His words will not be parable unto us and our homes in Jesus name
📎 The 40th characteristic of God’s kind of Love this week is: Love is a covenant.
🛑 A covenant is an agreement between two or more people with witnesses and it is recognised by law.
▶️ Jonathan for example made covenant with David before the Lord even to the detriment of Saul, his father.
1 Samuel 23:17-18 And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth. And they two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.
▶️ God’s kind of Love among Christian couples is a covenant recognised by God, as He is a witness. It becomes an offence before God where a child of God, or the redeemed of the Lord breaks marriage covenant.
Malachi 2:13-14 (MSG) And here’s a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from GOD. Do you know why? Simple. Because GOD was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife.
🛑 Mind you, not everyone that claims to be a Christian or a child of God can be taken as such. In other words, not all Christian marriages are taken to be marriages of the redeemed of the Lord.
Hear the Master Himself from NLT version of Matt. 7:21-23
“Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. On judgment day many will tell me, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized.’
Examining Ruth’s declarations from today’s text; anyone who decides to serve Jesus Christ like Ruth who was a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel and decided to serve the God of Israel, will surely receive God’s Kindness, Mercy and Love.
Ruth 2:10-12 (NLT) Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly. “Why are you being so kind to me?” she asked. “I am only a foreigner.” “Yes, I know,” Boaz replied. “But I also know about the love and kindness you have shown your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers. May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully.”
🛑 Because God is interested in marriage institution, Laban made God who sees all things his witness between him and Jacob who married his daughters.
Genesis 31:49-50 (NLT) This place was also called Mizpah, for Laban said, “May the Lord keep watch between us to make sure that we keep this treaty when we are out of each other’s sight. I won’t know about it if you are harsh to my daughters or if you take other wives, but God will see it.
▶️ During marital disputes, most Christians forget or disregard marriage vows and covenant made with their spouses before God without considering its accompanying consequences.
🛑 Christian Marriage vows between couples starting with the groom goes like this;
😍 I, Olumide Ogunro, take you, Olabisi Jegede, as my wife today, to have and to hold in all circumstances. I will love and nurse you according to the will of God till death do us part.
While the Bride also pledges;
😍 I, Olabisi Jegede, do accept you, Olumide Ogunro, as my husband today, to have and to hold in all circumstances. I will love you, nurse and obey you according to the will of God till death do us part.
❓Do we think the vows and covenant made before God is for fun? Not at all.
🛑 Because God’s kind of Love is a covenant, it becomes a sin to break marriage covenant witnessed by God. Sin separates Christians from God and attracts works of darkness that bring sorrow.
Malachi 2:13-14 (NLT) Here is another thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings, and he doesn’t accept them with pleasure. You cry out, “Why has the Lord abandoned us?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made to each other on your wedding day when you were young. But you have been disloyal to her, though she remained your faithful companion, the wife of your marriage vows.
❓What practical steps are we to take as we walk in love this week?
▶️ Write out a renewal of your vows and place them in your home. Perhaps, if appropriate, you could make arrangements to formally renew your wedding vows before a minister and with family present. Make it a living testament to the value of marriage in God’s eyes and the high honor of being one with your mate.
✍ Finally brethren, one of the major factor that causes breaking of marriage covenant is adulterous eyes. This makes spouses to be irrelevant at home and avenues for the devil to operate without hindrance. David will be glad to share the beginning of what brought trouble to his home when he beheld another man’s wife.
2 Samuel 11:2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:28 (NLT)
But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Using today’s parlance, are you still crushing after someone? Make a covenant with your eyes before God.
Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust upon a young woman.
Resultant effect of breaking a marriage covenant witnessed by God is grievous. Let us daily examine God’s kind of Love we have studied for the past 40 weeks with determination to walk and die in His Love no matter what it takes.
🎶 It pays to serve Jesus, I speak from my heart,
He’ll always be with us, if we do our part
There’s naught in this wide world can pleasure afford;
There’s peace and contentment in serving the Lord.
CHORUS
I love Him far better than in days of yore
I’ll serve Him more truly than ever before,
I’ll do as He bids me, whatever the cost,
I’ll be a true soldier, I’ll die at my post.
✋ Maranatha.
