Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Cost of Unfaithfulness

Hosea 4:14
(14) I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

The book of Hosea is filled with this metaphor about being whores. Hosea marries a woman named Gomer who ends up being unfaithful to him and even ends up in bondservice. However, Hosea redeems her from her slavery and commits her to a life of faithfulness. This metaphor gets extended to the people in this passage.

If you are in Christ then God has done the same for you. We were playing the whore with our lives. Yet Christ redeemed us from our slavery. We are no longer slaves to sin, but to Christ. In other words, if we are in Christ then the price for unfaithfulness has already been paid.

What pains me is how often I forget this and turn back to some form of whoredom. Maybe I seek out images for my eyes that I really don't need to see. Maybe I look for satisfaction in some toy or other material thing. Maybe I think some experience is going to satisfy me. My heart is a factory for idols. My prayer is for devotion that is befitting a redeemed slave.

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