Contract vs. Covenant

God never works in contracts with us. He always works by covenant. Contracts are kept by continual evaluation and re-evaluation of the terms. We're always scrutinizing ourselves, others and even God to make sure everyone is living up to their end of the deal. If they're not, then we have to either tweak the contract or even tear it up and walk away because it's no good anymore if you're not getting what you want out of it. There is no love in a contract, though there might be some friendly formality that approximates it. There is only living up to the agreed terms.

Though there are stipulations in a covenant, they are not there to be lived up to; they are there to establish a relationship of love in a way that would not normally occur otherwise. No one scrutinizes the stipulations of the covenant to see if everybody is doing his/her part. The stipulations are supposed to be written on our hearts, not on paper. No one is faithful to a spouse because we're being obedient to the vow we made on our wedding day; we're faithful because we love our spouses. No one posts a list of the vows we made on our wedding day so we can check them off to see if we're doing all the right things or if our spouse is keeping them all. They point is that they be kept instinctively in love, not by obligation.

In the same way God is faithful because he loves us. Our faithfulness to God is supposed to be the same, not born out of obligation or worse yet, out of fear. This is not a contract. This is a love covenant written on warm, pliable flesh with our God who is determined to love us no matter what it costs him.

Tear up the contract and accept the covenant.