Covenant is...

"Marriage is not a place to "stand up for your rights." Marriage is a decision to serve the other..." 1 Cor 7:4

A bit of waffle today!

In this chapter Paul is talking about whether to be married or single but I found this verse, or part thereof, interesting because it says something about covenant and made me think a bit about Salvation Army Soldiership too. There is so much in the scriptures about covenant, about serving one another in more than a superficial way, and it seems to me that we don't grasp the concept too well these days, or we choose not to grasp the concept because it doesn't fit with what we want.

I suppose it isn't a new problem and the fact that Paul had to address some of the issues, such as in 1 Cor 7, bears out that point. So much of our life revolves around commitments with one another - the marriage covenant, the soldier's covenant and the new covenant between Jesus and us.

There are many theories around as to why soldiership is not embraced by young people growing up in the Salvation Army these days. For some the idea is that it's a bit pointless. What difference does it make? Some years ago now a group of us from our church got together to draft some recommendations to our church leadership team about making our music groups 'open groups'. Traditionally, a person has needed to be a uniform wearing Salvationist to be a part of music group. We were opening up the groups as part of the change from the 'believing before belonging' to 'belonging before believing' concept. Some people would have seen it as dumbing down soldiership. But to me it was about raising the bar. When we think about it, it is quite ridiculous that the only time most of us Salvos wear uniform now is to attend church. It's hard to dumb down soldiership more than making it just a right of entry into a music group where uniform is worn one day a week inside of our church building. Somehow, soldiers needed to understand again a higher calling and the higher expectation of soldiers when discipling new members and building friendships with new members of our music groups who weren't yet Christians. It was, in my opinion anyway, a way of lifting the bar, not lowering of it.

Along the way it has had other consequences too as people choose to no longer wear uniform and, maybe take a step in the other direction. That's a subject for another 20 page blog though!

One reason given for not taking the step of commitment for soldiership would be that 'I don't have to be a soldier or wear uniform to be a Christian'. Similarly, many today say, 'I don't need to be married to have a successful relationship'. Both are true to an extent but my view on both is that there are times when it is important to demonstrate how important something is to us. The marriage commitment is a public showing of commitment by two people to each other. They say that they are so committed to each other that they publicly make vows that for the rest of their lives, in the good times and bad, they will stick with each other. And for a Christian it would be a commitment made in God's presence as well as in front of family and friends. They don't have to make those public vows but if you are really committed to your partner, why wouldn't you?

Salvation Army soldiership is something similar. We don't have to do it. But why wouldn't we? If we truly want to serve God why would we shy away from making a public declaration in front of friends, family and God? Certain things are important enough to make our declaration of commitment public.

So, my relationship with Jesus is not about standing up for my rights . It is a decision to serve him as He served me by going to the cross on my behalf. It is a decision to serve each other.

God, help me to remember, understand and value my relationship with you through my life as a believer and soldier of the Salvation Army.