Your Church is a Covenant Community

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Mary had been a member of her church for thirty years. Recently her husband died. Having heard about mens team ministry in another church, she asked her pastor if her church could help her.

Her pastor responded that, no, they would not help her because they wanted to focus their attention and energy on youth.

When Mary told the pastor at the other church, that churchs mens ministry took her on for a few months with the hopes that doing so would shame Marys church into serving her. It worked. Mary now has a team from her own church!

Your church is a covenant community, just as Israel in Old Testament times was a covenant community. A covenant community is a group of people bound together by an agreement. For example, many subdivisions have signs that read, This is a covenant community, meaning that certain rules and regulations have been agreed to by the property owners and are enforced in that subdivision.

In both the covenant communities that God established with Israel and the church, God required the members of these communities to care for those members who were in need. God wanted the resulting lack of needy people in these communities to be a primary means of identifying them as His people.

This is how God commanded his covenant people in the Old Testament.

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near, so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. (Deuteronomy 15:7-11)

This is how John repeats the principle to the church in the New Testament.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)

Your work with your care receiver is a specific response to Gods command to care for those in your midst who are in need. As your example multiplies throughout your church body, your individual obedience becomes corporate obedience on the part of your covenant community, ultimately reaching the point where your church is able to say, There is not a needy person among us.

It is this lack of need in your midst that sets you apart as the people of God and draws unbelievers to you as they see your selfless and sacrificial lifestyle.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom

and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.

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