It hasn’t been easy studying this book. In fact, it’s been downright gut-wrenching.
It’s not easy to come face-to-face with your sin, especially when you are a “professional Christian” (pastor).
Layered deep beneath the surface, though, is the realization that this sin tells a story of what’s going on in our hearts.
Jesus spoke about this concept by using the illustration of a tree that bears fruit. Simply put, you know that kind of tree you’re looking at, based on its fruit. Apple trees grow apples; not oranges.
Jesus would go on to say that you know people by their spiritual fruit; whether they are sowing to the spirit or to the flesh. He spoke about sheep in wolves’ clothing; someone that had “the look” down, but inside, their heart is rotten (Matthew 23:25).
If you read the Book of Hosea, you’ll definitely come to grips with how you’ve turned your back on God in practical ways. However, you can go down the wrong path easily here. This is the thrust of the message of Hosea. We can get everything right on the outside, and the inside can still be rotten.
And that’s the point: Our temptation is all too often to run to clean up our checklist. We’re more worried about the external stuff (our words/actions/etc) than we are the internal stuff (what’s going on inside our heart).
If this issue has been a complex one for you, let me attempt to simplify it:
What happens in your heart echoes in your actions (Good heart, good fruit).
Merely “cleaning up your act” is the wrong course of action. GOD IS AFTER YOUR HEART! Maybe it would help to think of your relationship with God in more…relational terms. He refers to you as His bride. That makes God your Husband. It may be odd for us guys to think of God in those terms, but the image is there. And marriages don’t thrive in purely nominal forms; there must be passionate pursuit of the other as well as a continued desire to ‘be last.’ It is in those terms that the following quote brings such clarity to what God wants for us.
“Love God warmly as your Husband. Don’t just serve Him dutifully as your Lord.”
– John Piper
This is not just about what you do and don’t do. This has everything to do with your intimacy with a God who gave up His son to buy you back, even when you were turning your back on Him. This is all about an infinitely perfect God Who passionately desires that you would passionately desire Him!
Go after Him today. The fruit is simply a natural outgrowth of your intimacy with Him.
Check out Part 6 of “The Hosea Love Story” by Irving Bible.