Covenant love expressed through loyal obedience
Our relationship with Yehovah is not a casual agreement. It is a covenant, and Scripture consistently describes that covenant using marital language.
Yehovah is presented as a husband to His people. Israel is called His bride. Messiah is the bridegroom. The assembly is described as being betrothed to Him.
Within a marriage, faithfulness is expressed through loyalty, trust, and honoring the agreement that binds the two together.
In the covenant, Torah functions the same way.
Yehovah’s instructions are not arbitrary rules. They are the terms of covenant faithfulness. They describe what loyalty looks like in daily life.
To walk in His ways is to remain faithful.
To abandon His ways is to break covenant trust.
This is why Scripture repeatedly calls disobedience adultery:
Idolatry is called adultery.
Chasing other gods is called adultery.
Rejecting His instruction is called unfaithfulness.
Not because the people stopped believing Yehovah existed, but because they violated the covenant relationship they had entered into.
Adultery is not a lack of knowledge. It is a breach of trust.
A married person does not commit adultery because they forgot they were married. They commit adultery because they violate the agreement they willingly entered.
Likewise, covenant unfaithfulness is not accidental ignorance. It is choosing against the relationship.
In a covenant relationship, love is not measured by words but by faithfulness.
Obedience is not an attempt to earn relationship. It is how relationship is honored.
Love without faithfulness is empty.
Faithfulness without love is impossible.
They exist together or not at all.
Y’eshua does not replace the covenant. He restores it.
He bears the penalty of covenant breaking so the relationship can be restored, not dissolved. His sacrifice does not erase the covenant terms. It repairs the breach caused by unfaithfulness.
Through Him, we are brought back into right standing so that we can once again live faithfully within the covenant.
The Spirit then writes the covenant instruction on the heart, enabling faithfulness from the inside rather than external compulsion.
Fear is removed because the relationship is intact.
The one walking faithfully is not anticipating judgment, just as a faithful spouse does not fear being exposed.
Judgment is reserved for covenant breakers, not covenant keepers.
And obedience, in this context, is simply marital faithfulness to the One we have pledged ourselves to.