Let Us Return Unto The LORD

              Reading Hosea 6:1-3 quoted below, I began to ponder the use of the phrase, “Come, and let us return unto the LORD.”  My first thought was that I would write about the backsliding Church member who has just quit Church, or the Church member who has slipped into sin and can find no comfort in The Lord’s House.  My second thoughts were:  “how do I segregate those two?”

              In the case of the Christian who has turned cold, and feels sitting with those hypocrites was just too much:  This person is the same person who asks me, “Who made you my judge,” or quotes to me Matthew 7:1,  “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”   (Yet, not only has he judged the one who he used to sit beside, he has also judged me.  It must be a thought of a hypocrite that they are not to be seen with another hypocrite.)

              Secondly, the “Christian” who has backslidden into sin to the point his sin no longer allows him to attend Church:   His sin is what is keeping him away from God.  Sin has become more of a god than God can be in his life.  He cannot sit “with other sinners” and “hear” the words of needed repentance, and will complain of being judged.

              These are two scenarios of people out of God’s will.  Hosea pleads God’s Word, and that we return unto Him.   Jesus pleads with us:

John 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

              So many in the scenarios described above claim Jesus as their personal Saviour, yet they refuse to keep His commandments.  So, how do I segregate between these?  (To differentiate between the two scenarios is not possible.)  The notion that I love Jesus, and then fail to follow His commandments is a sin, a sin just as the backslider who turns away into sin.  They are both the same in God’s eyes.

Hebrews 10:23-25  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)  (24)  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:  (25)  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

              If we are “Christians by Faith” and faith only, we are not to fail to be with the brethren.  Failing (in either scenario) to seek worship with the brethren is sin.  We as a people tend to segregate various sins and place more importance on one versus another.  God sees sin as sin, and with Him, there are no gradients of sin.

              So, where are you within your walk with God?  Is your life steeped in sin?  Are you “afraid” to join the other hypocrites in Church?  In either case, you are NOT following our Lord Jesus.  If you love Him, go to your knees and repent of your sin.  

              Even a faithful Christian has a need to repent often.  Repentance requires that we humble ourselves before God, through His Son Jesus, and ask for forgiveness, and repent (attempt never to do that sin again.)  So do it, walk away from your sin, and “let us return unto the LORD.”                                                               

Bro. John R. E Chastain

Hosea 6:1-3  Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.  (2)  After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.  (3)  Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.