Hosea 6:6 “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”
To know God is to know life. How does one go about knowing God. Well, He is alive in what I would say is a spiritual realm, unseen by us, yet real, nonetheless. I utter those last words by faith. I believe the Bible when it says that God always existed and always will exist. Does that make any sense to me ... no, honestly, it doesn’t. But I’ve come to realize that faith in God is based on what we choose to believe, and I believe what the Bible says without question. I also realized that I don’t have to understand something to believe it. When scripture says God is the same yesterday, today and forever, I take that at face value and believe it. Can I prove that it’s true? No, I cannot, but that isn’t a deal breaker, as far as I am concerned. Faith itself is defined very simply as believing that something IS even though you cannot see it and that there is no tangible evidence as proof. “Faith is the idea that you fully believe something is true even though you can’t see that thing. Sometimes that is based on other evidence, sometimes it is not.” * Therefore, we believe something by faith. Having said all this, we must believe the scriptures when they say that showing love is more important to God than offering a sacrifice. Burnt offerings mean nothing to God when compared to our behavior. We are to love others in the name of and with the love of Christ. We are told in scripture that we should love others the way Christ loves us; “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another.” (John 13:34) [1] His love was shown to us thru His crucifixion.
Everything that is involved in becoming a Christian and then living as a Christian is done by choice. One shouldn’t assume that just because someone accepts Christ they are weak willed or easily influenced. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, draws people to Himself supernaturally. Do you HAVE to listen to the call. No. It’s called having a free will and it has been allowed by God Himself. So why is this whole deal choice driven? Because God wants willing followers, not ones that feel they must for some legalistic reason. If you follow Him of your own volition, you will be more inclined to obey His statutes. Those that fall away MAY have not been redeemed to begin with. Only God truly knows that, for He can see and understand a persons heart motivation. You can sacrifice all you want, but what God desires from us is to love Him and obey Him for He alone knows what is good for us. We think we know but actually have no clue. Why is this? Because we cannot tell what will happen in the next minute, let alone a day, week, month, or year in the future. God knows all that can be known; therefore He knows what will happen to you based on your choices. In spite of what the old song tells us, life is NOT just a bowl of cherries. Life can be very hard. Knowing and following Jesus smooths out some of the rough edges. Obedience is far better than sacrifice, because obedience is what God seeks and requires from His children. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.
In His Name & for His Glory,
RL Keller
Bread of Life Ministries
* A post on social media by KaisenSheepDog from 2022 off of the site REDDIT.com.
[1] The key to understanding this and other statements about love is to know that this love (the Greek word ‘agape’) is not so much a matter of emotion as it is of doing things for the benefit of another person, that is, having an unselfish concern for another and a willingness to seek the best for another. [www.gateway.com]
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