A culture of compassionate care (2) God’s covenant
Rev. Garrett Eriks grounds the church's practice of compassionate care in God's covenant relationship with His elect people in Jesus Christ, arguing that understanding God's covenantal love is foundational to rightly ordered Christian community. The article emphasizes that genuine ministerial care among saints must begin with understanding God's character and covenant promises rather than human-centered standards of care.
In our last article we saw that the church must have a culture of compassionate care. Saints minister to fellow saints in the service of Christ. Thus we want the church to be a place where we faithfully and lovingly care for the needs of one another. If we will understand rightly the spiritual relationships we are to have in the church, we must begin with God. This is true because our understanding of reality must always begin with God. This is what John Calvin wrote long ago, "It is certain...
Full article available on sb.rfpa.org