The Covenant Path
Christofferson, the Covenant Path
Obedience can be good. Independence can be good. But there is a tension between them.
They both have bad versions–unthinking conformity, prideful rebellion–and it should interest you that Satan appears to aim for both. The conformist rebel is one of the defining archetypes of our age.
Covenants reconcile the tension between obedience and independence.
Covenant comes from the old latin word convenire, to meet or to join. The covenant path is the path of the meeting of minds. It is the path of union.
In a covenant you and the Father commit to shared goals and you promise to follow them, but He gives you a great deal of flexibility how. Independence within a framework of obedience.
A covenant is a voluntary agreement to obey based on the conclusion that your most important aims will be furthered that way. Independence leading to obedience.
In the covenant God grants you more power and role. Obedience leading to independence.
Taken by themselves, independence and obedience are both approaching life through the prism of will and power. Covenants take us to the prism of relationship and love. Covenants are about belonging.
For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
Bookslinger
September 29, 2021
“… to obey based on the conclusion that your most important aims will be furthered that way.”
This is highly important.
As I understand history and religion, most modern religious instruction has been delivered under the “because God says so” premise or paradigm, and under the paradigm of cultural tradition. Which gives the independent-minded student/catechumen the impression that God is arbitrary and enjoys seeing people suffer.
Somewhat rare is the Christian teacher who explains that commandments are for our _highest good_. And not just for pie-in-the-sky, but also for short, intermediate and long term highest-good during mortality.
But even with that explanation, the idea of commandments as tests/hoops to jump through, mere tricks to please an arbitrary god for a future doggie-treat, can persist.
It takes some of the gospel principles brought back through the Restoration to make sense that commandments are not mere performances, not mere hoops, not at all arbitrary, but needful things to learn, skills to acquire, and
conditions of being, that unlock not just a future heaven, but unlock Heaven-on-Earth.
They are for our highest and maximum long-term good. And it is a struggle to keep that constantly foremost in my mind.
Marilyn
October 12, 2021
This helped several things to fall into place in my mind. I think it’s beautiful.
G.
October 13, 2021
I am thrilled.