Spiritual Adultery
Hosea 1:1–11
Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom. Hosea 1:2
You may not have sunk so low as Gomer, Hosea’s wife. You may not have been so unfaithful as to deny God and seek other gods, committing spiritual adultery with them. But you have certainly flirted with other gods. You have taken the overpowering love of your great bridegroom and lover Jesus Christ with less obedience and respect than he deserves. You have been halfhearted in your love. You have given God a tip in the offering plate on Sunday mornings, and you have allowed his name to pass your lips lightly—“Oh, yes, I’m a Christian”—while actually living for yourself in this materialistic and self-serving age. You have had a chance to show what it really means and what an honor it is to be the bride of Christ. But you have disgraced that name, in small ways if not in large ones, and you know that you are scarcely the stainless, wrinkle-free, holy and blameless bride he merits (Eph. 5:27). If this is the case, learn what it means to be Christ’s bride. Learn what a horror spiritual adultery is and flee from it to Christ. Lie in his arms. Tell him of your love. Do not continue in disobedience, allowing little infidelities to become those great spiritual adulteries that bring chastisement.
If you are not a Christian, you have never known a love like this. Because you have not experienced a love like this, you may be wondering if it really exists or if it is possible for one like yourself to be loved by God in this way. If this is your case, you should know that what you feel of your own inadequacies is true of all who are brought into God’s spiritual family. We were all in fellowship with God once . . . in Adam. Since then we have gone our own way. We may be described as Scattered, Not-Pitied, Not-God’s-People. It is for people like us that Christ died. If you are touched by this story and sense that Christ died for you, then do not let thoughts of your own inadequacies or past sins hold you back. Run to him. Believe on him. Know for yourself that Christ’s love really is as this story describes it.
The apostle Peter wrote to Christians telling them, in clear reference to the story of Hosea, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).
That is the story of all who have ever been saved: Scattered! Not-Pitied! NotMy-People! But now: Planted! Pitied! The People of God!
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.