The Church - a Covenant Community

The church is a covenant community which is made up of God's hand-picked saints. God promises throughout His Word that He will be our God and we will be His people (see Genesis 17:1-8; Deuteronomy 29:12-15 for a couple of examples). We are a covenant people; a people with a common God (although He is certainly not common in the sense of "ordinary"); saints with a common salvation and destiny. This is what the church is, a worldwide communion of those who have accepted the salvation offered by Jesus Christ and accomplished by His work on the cross.

We are His saints; His holy ones; because He makes us holy. We need to act like it! Read 1 Corinthians 12:24-27. There should be no division in the body of Christ. Disagreement is fine, in brotherly love. If we all treat one another like members of the same body, indispensable to one another, we will be able to disagree without dividing. We will be less afraid of one another! Yes, we are afraid to speak the Truth to one another. We have become like the society around us - so afraid to offend that we can't help one another, won't chide one another, refuse to speak the truth in love.

Brothers and sisters, when we learn to love one another we will change the world. But it starts with us.