Hosea 8: How do you know you love God?

He called himself ‘my own kind of Christian’.  John loved to go to church.  He really enjoyed the music.  His best friends were Christians.  He took great comfort from praying.  He even had amazing encounters with God where he felt that God had given him words to share with other people. 

But there was another side to John’s life.  He did things that he wouldn’t have wanted his pastor to know about.  In fact, if you saw the way he behaved at the weekend you would never have known that he loved Jesus.  One thing he hated was when anyone would challenge his behaviour.  ‘Mind your own business’.  ‘It’s my life to live my way’.  ‘Don’t judge me’.

Then he died.  And Jesus judged him.  He said to Jesus, ‘Lord, Lord.’  Jesus said to him, ‘I never knew you.  Away from me you evildoer’.  He hadn’t taken seriously the warning of Jesus that ‘not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”’ (Matthew 7:21).

At the core of Christianity is love for God

What is wrong with the people that people that Hosea is addressing?  Their fundamental problem is that they don’t love God!

‘Put the trumpet to your lips …’ (8:1a).  God tells Hosea to sound the trumpet to warn the people of Israel that judgement is coming.  An eagle is hanging over them waiting to swoop on its prey.  In their case this eagle is the Assyrian army which God is going to let invade their nation and carry people into exile.  They have sown to the wind and they are about to reap the whirlwind (13).  They gave their hearts to the Baals, a fertility cult that promised a good harvest, but they are about to reap a harvest of judgment.  The truth was that they did not love God (4:1b). 

These people may have been surprised that God was not pleased with them.  They think that they know God.  ‘Israel cries out to me, “Our God, we acknowledge you …”’ (2a).  ‘They offer sacrifices as gifts to me’ but ‘the LORD is not pleased with them’ (13).  They think that they are in relationship with God, but they aren’t. 

They would have enjoyed gathering for praise services, as long as they didn’t think about what they are singing.  They are not being transformed by God.

 If you love God, you will listen to his word

Because they don’t love God they don’t listen to his word.  ‘I wrote to them many things of my law, but they regarded them as something foreign’ (12).  God has spoken to us, he has shown us how to live, he has diagnosed our problem and he has pointed us to the solution, but people don’t listen.  They think it is something foreign—something not for them.

There is a danger for all of us that we begin to forget God and ignore his word.   How do you respond to the commands of Scripture?  Jesus says, ‘be merciful’ (Luke 6:36), are you?  Is your home a fortress to keep people away, or do you show hospitality to one another without grumbling (1 Peter 4:9)?  Do you know that God told Israel to love immigrants (Deuteronomy 10:19), or are you borderline racist?  Are you seeking to love your enemies (Matthew 5:44)?  Are you making efforts to flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18)?  Do you contribute to the needs of God’s people (Romans 12:13)?  Do you ask God to help you forgive as you have been forgiven?  Are you pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfast and gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11)?

If you take God’s word seriously you will see that we are not as we ought to be.  Indeed, the apostle John tells us that if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).  But those who have been born again grieve when they do evil and make it their ambition to grow more like Jesus.  The Christian is someone who is afraid to sin because he does not want to break the heart of his heavenly Father.  The Christian is someone who longs to be holy because he loves to bring the Father pleasure.  Is that you?  What measures are you taking to be holy?

Their refusal to love God and listen to his word is shown that they sought leaders that God had not given them (4).  At this stage in their history there was a serios of bloody coups.  They didn’t want God to be their king.  That’s why they ignored his word.

Those who love God seek to put him above all else.

The person who loves God listens to his word and they also seek to put God before everything else.  With their silver and gold, they made idols for their own destruction (4).  An idol is anything that is more important to you than God.  An idol is anything you serve before you serve God.  Finish this sentence,   We might not be tempted to worship before a golden calf, but we may worship, money, popularity or success.  Notice that these idols bring about destruction.  Put other things, even good things, before God and it will hurt you.  Put your family before God, and you will demand of them what they can’t deliver.  You will resent you children when they can’t perform.  Put love before God, and you will hurt the one you love, you demand that they make you feel whole, and you will drive them away.

However, God is not like an idol.  Putting him first will bless and enrich your life.  If you want to love people better, love him more than them.  His love will make you more loving.  If you want your spouse to love you more, tell them to love God more than you.

Conclusion

So, you come to me and tell me that you are own type of Christian.  You do things your way.  You make up your own rules.  You live life as you please.  You might claim that I am being judgemental, but I have to warn you.  If you refuse to listen to God’s word, don’t want to change and make Jesus in your own image then it may mean that you don’t know God.

But if you come to me and tell me that you are frustrated that you are not what you want to be, I may be encouraged.  The Christian struggles with sin, but they want to become more like Jesus.  The Christian knows the pull of idols, but they want to put Jesus first.  The Christian knows that their love for Jesus is weak, and they want to love Jesus more.

So, if the refusal to listen to God’s word and serve Christ as our king is a love problem, then how do we grow in love for God?  Look to the cross.  This is how we know what love is: Christ died for us (1 John 3:16).  Pray that the Holy Spirit would magnify this love (Ephesians 3:16-21).  They we will find that we want to obey God’s commands and obey the one who loves us without measure.