Many imagine that our Lord has no interest in our lives outside of a personal relationship with Him, as if we lived in a spiritual bubble. Hosea 9 challenges the upbeat perspective of God’s people. In today’s terms, there is something wrong and Hosea calls on people to confront their own prostitution.
Today, our prostitution runs deep, but is largely unaddressed. Where niceness is lifted up as if it were godliness, we steer clear of unpalatable truths. This leaves us with an open goal to the accusation of hypocrisy. Our prostitution has many guises. Here are a couple:
On the physical side there is considerable sexual immorality in the church. This is most widespread in the private world of internet pornography, yet physically as well in a culture where one is considered weird if one has a friend but are not going to bed together. Our Christian culture has adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” stance as if what happens behind closed doors is of no interest to our Father in heaven.
On the spiritual side we have so elevated numbers that we can end up using spirituality to gain a following. We can become more concerned with our following than with our Lord. So, we can become spiritual prostitutes, using what the Lord has given us to gain influence over other people. Even in this blog I constantly return to the fact that I write for an audience of One.
For the Bible study see – http://biblebase2adaringfaith.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/idolaters-rejected/