Loving a Cheater

How much does God love you? The answer is: a lot! But sometimes a lot can be hard to picture. To show us how faithful His love is, God gave us an analogy in the Old Testament: the story of Hosea and Gomer. God told Hosea, an Old Testament prophet, to marry a woman named Gomer. But Gomer was unfaithful and left him, causing Hosea deep hurt. When Gomer cheated on Hosea, God explained that the hurt she caused was similar to how He feels when we sin. Both the Israelite people and we as humans today have cheated on God with idolsthings and ideas we worship instead of our good Creator. Throughout the book of Hosea, God spelled out His anger and hurt toward His cheating people. But then the book takes a surprising turn. God told Hosea to take back his cheating wife and love her like God loves the Israelites. Gomer had become enslaved to her lovers, so Hosea had to buy back his own wife and bring her home again. This parallels the story of Christ, who bought us at the much higher cost of His own blood on the cross. Jesus loved us enough to take on one of the most painful deaths the Roman Empire could offer. Not only did He die to beat sin, but Jesus also overcame death through His resurrection. Even though we have all cheated on God with our sin, He still loved us enough to die for our sins (Romans 5:8). We can be bought back from our enslavement to sin by putting our trust in Jesus, the One who loved us first (1 John 4:10, 19). Naomi Zylstra Read Romans 6:23. Why is it important thatwithout Jesuswe are sinners? Why is it important that God loved us while we were still enslaved to sin? Can anything we do earn God’s love for us in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 8:38-39)? What does it mean to put your trust in Jesus? (To learn more, check out our Know Jesus page.) As Christians, how should God’s love for us motivate us to treat others (1 John 4:11)? The Lord says, Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever. Hosea 14:4 (NLT)

Read Verses:

Hosea 1:1-11; 3:1-4