Hosea and Marriage

This post is written by Luke Thomson who works with me at Norwest

Implications for Marriage from Hosea 1-3
Hosea chapters 1-3 form a pivotal point in the Bible for our understanding of marriage. The story of Hosea & Gomer help us to bridge the gap in our understanding between the institution of marriage in Genesis, and the New Testament understanding of marriage. Here, I will very briefly explain some of these important links. (There is much more to say on this topic to do it justice. I highly recommend Christopher Ash’s book “Married for God”)

Genesis
The account in Genesis 2 of Adam and Eve establishes a foundation for how we understand marriage in the Bible. After all, it’s the very first marriage. In creating Eve, God says in verse 18 “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Eve is to help Adam in his task in caring for and ruling over God’s creation (1:28, 2:15). We are told at the end of Genesis 2 in verse 24 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh”. We see in this chapter, some of the basic elements of marriage – it is an exclusive relationship, with the intended aim of serving God in fulfilling his purposes.

Ephesians
Skip over to the New Testament. Ephesians 5:22-33 has a lot to say about marriage, but one significant theme runs through it: the marriage between a husband and wife is to be based on the love Christ has for the church. The whole passage intertwines these two images – marriage and church – in such a way that it’s easy to lose focus on which Paul is talking about in any one particular sentence. In his mind, so linked are the ideas of marriage and of God’s relationship with his people that he can jump back and forth between the two images.
In verse 31, Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 – which we know to be about marriage between a husband and wife. But then in the very next verse Paul says “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” In other words, Paul sees the very creation and institution of marriage as talking about God and his people. Marriage is to be a display of God’s covenant of grace with his people. Paul calls it a ‘profound mystery’ because this has always been the purpose of marriage, but only in Jesus do we see the full purpose of marriage displayed clearly.

Hosea
Hosea fits in between these two significant passages we have looked at on marriage. Chapters 1-3 have shown us that God called Hosea in a marriage relationship that would reflect God’s relationship with his people. The idea is best captured in 3:1, where God tells Hosea to love his wife once more, even though she has been unfaithful. God says “Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods”. The purpose of Hosea’s marriage is to help Israel (and us!) understand God’s covenant relationship with his people. Hosea’s marriage points us towards, and helps us understand what Jesus has done.

Marriage
The ultimate goal of any marriage is to display what God’s relationship to his people is like. Marriage is fundamentally more about God than it is about us. Marriage was created in the pattern of God’s relationship with his people, and its purpose is to display the pattern from which it came. Our marriages best serve God by pointing towards Jesus and his relationship with God’s people. Hosea is an amazing picture of this reality.

How might this look in practice?
• We should strive to make our marriages an example of God’s love for his people, knowing that we will be imperfect reflections because of our own sin.

• Husbands must see themselves as the spiritual leaders of their homes. They are to diligently lead their wife and children in knowing God and helping them to live out their faith. It will mean sacrificing other desires and opportunities for the sake of their family’s godliness. This is the most important task that husbands are called to.

• Wives should gently encourage their husbands in their role, and help them to lead the family.

• Marriage is for making disciples of Christ… whether that be your own children, the children of others, or even other adults.

• Marriage provides many opportunities to show forgiveness and grace. As we experience the challenges of marriage, we ought to remind one another of how great it is to be forgiven and graciously rescued by God.

• Our language of marriage should be positive. Marriage is a wonderful gift that helps us understand God’s love, not a burdening restriction of our freedom. Whilst being honest in its challenges, we must uphold the positive value of this gift that God has provided.

• We must be careful not to make marriage the goal of life. Marriage does not ‘complete’ a person as their ‘other half’ (thereby rending the unmarried ‘incomplete’). A life of singleness is equally as valid and complete.

Denominations

Today I preached on the 'Wider Body' in our series on church. We looked at Eph 4:1-6 to see that we have a deep unity with other Christian believers all around the world. One of the implications was what to do with denominations? I skipped over this and said pretty much nothing, so as per Craig's request - here are some thoughts. (I was helpfully served by 3 Briefing articles by John Woodhouse on this topic)

So here goes....................
What was missing from the above list in Eph 4:1-6? It says nothing about denominations. So what does that mean for denominations?

Aren’t we united by the fact we are all Anglicans?
The answer is a yes and no!

Firstly, a denomination can promote unity
A denomination is an association of some churches and does not include all churches.

Unity can be promoted by allowing a certain freedom of conscience in relation to matters that do not go against the unity of the Spirit. So things like:

• What we think of the saving work of Jesus and his resurrection


• Who we think God is and how he reveals himself to us

These things are matters of the utmost seriousness to us. We could not in good conscience have fellowship with people who denied these core things and there are churches around here that deny some of the central truths.

But those who did hold fast to the gospel core truths we would have freedom to allow them to express it their own way. And so we would have fellow believers who don’t believe in infant baptism but yet we are still united with them.

Unity can also be promoted through cooperation especially in the pooling of resources for a common task. Places that provide a link for fellowship between churches feed this cooperative spirit. I think of organisations like Anglicare or CMS.

Secondly, denominations can hinder unity
Denominations do not tell us who has been called to part of the body. To belong to the church does not equal belonging to your local Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian or Uniting church.
None of these are 'the' church. Denominations can bring dangerous false assurance. Belonging to the body is about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unity is also denied in Anglicanism when people love being Anglican more than they love God’s church. So much so they hang on to Anglicanism when there may be reason to break from it. Thankfully we are not in this situation in Sydney but for other people in the world it is a live issue.

There is heaps more to be said and as I am just about to head off on 3 weeks holidays I have rushed over stuff. I will blog in more depth about some of these things when I get back if there is interest, but if you want to keep reading then go to those articles mentioned above.

Do we really love sin?

The Question:

"We love sin" - isn't it also just put down to the fact that we are sinful beings? I think we sometimes do it unwillingly just because we are sinful, rather than loving it...

I think both sides of the coin on this one are true, what do I mean? John Stott has some very helpful words to say from his commentary on Ephesians, he is commentating on 2:1 'And you he made alive, when you were dead through trespasses and sins in which you once walked'.

The death to which Paul refers is not a figure of speech, as in the parable of the Prodigal Son, 'This my son was dead'; it is a factual statement of everybody's spiritual condition outside Christ. And it is traced to their trespasses and sins. These two words seem to have been carefully chosen to give a comprehensive account of human evil. A 'trespass' is a false step, involving either crossing a know boundary or a deviation from the right path. A 'sin', however, means rather a missing of the mark, a falling short of a standard. Together the two words cover the positive and negative, or active and passive, aspects of human wrongdoing, that is to say, our sins of commision and of omission. Before God we are both rebels and failures (p71).

I only presented half the picture of sin, the half that crosses the known boundary. This type of sin is what I was talking about when I said, 'we love sin'. And I will stand by my words of us loving this type of sin in some way. If we really truly hated it we wouldn't do it, just like if you really truly hate brussell sprouts you don't eat them. It is what Ephesians 2:3 talks about when it says 'Gratifying the desires of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts'. Sometimes it is hard to look in the mirror and see ourselves for who we are as sinners and deserving of God's wrath. But don't forget the great BUT of v4-6!

But, there is the other side as Stott points out the one of being a failure which is more our falling short of God's standards, and this is the more passive aspect of our sin.

Both aspects of sin need to be held together to get a complete picture of our humanity.