A Covenantal Relationship

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

- Ruth 1:16-17

Forty-one years and two months ago, Pam and I stood at the wedding altar and made our vows to one another, entering into the covenant of marriage. Our pastor had asked us what passage we wanted him to teach from. He offered 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter) and Ephesians 5:21-25 on wives submitting to their husbands (I liked that until he reminded me that husbands are commanded to die for their wives), but in the end we chose Ruth 1:16-17.

No, it is not about a relationship between a husband and a wife (it is actually about a mother and daughter-in-law), but it is about covenantal love, the type of love that commits to one another for life. That is exactly what we wanted and what we were committing to.

Not only is that covenant still an essential part of our marriage relationship, but Pam and I continue to use it in every wedding we do. We ask each spouse to commit to one another after God’s Holy Ordinance in the estate of matrimony. We continue by asking (me to the groom and Pam to the bride), “Do you promise from this day forward that you shall be her husband and she shall be your wife. Where she goes, you will go. Where she stays, you will stay. Her family will be your family and her God will be your God. Do you pledge yourself to this as long as you both shall live?”

We can count on trials in every relationship, including marriage, but as Pastor Jared explained, “In the midst of crisis, consumerism causes us to be fickle and flaky, while a covenant causes us to deepen our faithfulness.”

May we be a people of covenant, operating with a supernatural heart formed by God in each of us.

Pastor Ken

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