Living God's Covenant

Three key features of Covenant living

Chapter two of the Joint Implementation Commission's interim report In the Spirit of the Covenant explores the Biblical roots of what 'covenant' entails in a Christian context. Three key features emerge with remarkable consistency.

A covenant relationship is about:

A gracious giving and a grateful receiving

This relationship flows both ways and goes beyond anything that might be contractual. It is a giving which is liberating, not patronising; it is a receiving which is love-enhancing, not servile.


A purpose which lies beyond the covenant relationship
God's higher purpose is the unity of all things in Christ - "things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1.10). The unity of Christ's Church by itself is not enough.
A constancy and a mutual cherishing
which goes beyond the specifics of what covenant partners actually do together

Such a relationship is utterly costly and utterly rewarding. "See how these Christians love one another." (as was so often said about the earliest Church) "Love one another as I have loved you." (John 15.12)

At its heart, a covenant relationship...

"will be eucharistic (i.e. founded on gratitude) - because it will seek to be an expression of the Holy Communion in which Christ calls us to share - the Holy Communion of three persons in one God, the Trinity - the Holy Communion that we are called to experience as a holy people as well as in bread and wine." ('In the Spirit of the Covenant' - paragraph 2.8.5)