For I Desired Mercy, And Not Sacrifice

Dear class,

Apologies for the long break. Hope you have been keeping up the readings on your own!

Today's readings are taken from Hosea 5-8 and Matthew 18:21-35

The passage in Hosea continues to highlight the spiritual adultery of the Israelite nation and the impending judgment.

One of the central concepts is found in Hos 6:6 - For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
This was the exact passage that Jesus quoted in Mat 9:13 and 12:7.

In the original context, the word "mercy" seems to imply the idea of "piety", specifically toward God. And when we bring to mind the rebuke of Samuel to Saul in 1Sa 15:22, the meaning becomes all the more evident. Obedience to God is our primary objective. Only with that, can we perfectly perform what God has instructed us.
But the manner that Jesus quoted of it suggests an acceptable specific use under the umbrella concept - that of showing compassion toward others. That was the primary motivation of God towards man - love. It was because of love that God sent His Son Jesus to die for us (Jhn 3:16), because of love that the Church is established that we make be part of the body of Christ (1Co 12:12ff) , because of love that God willed for us to walk in Christ's footsteps, to be ultimately acceptable to Him (1Pe 2:21). And thus, as rendering perfect obedience as Christ did (Phi 2:5-8), we need to show compassion toward one another, yea indeed toward our "enemies" and focus on doing what's truly right before God.

However, we need to be very careful not to take God's Words out of context by nullifying acts of worship/service. Some use these verses to justify poor attendance to church services and bible study and even slammed strict observance of other worship activities as legalistic and anti-love! Of course, there is no doubt that one can go through the motions of being the "Christian" perfectly, yet have no heart in it. This is precisely where the Israelite nation was headed down to. But you see the problem was not with the sacrifice but with the attitude of the people.
The fact of the matter is, sacrifice is commanded of God (c.f. Rom 12:1; Heb 13:15, etc). The question here is not it's existence, but the motivation behind it. In an analogous way, we can see obedience and sacrifice like the proverbial horse and cart. Both are important as a manner of transport, but the only workable way is to put the horse before the cart. To do otherwise would render the system useless. Perfect sacrifice can only come out of perfect obedience. The latter is the only way that our sacrifice can be truly acceptable before God. To put our focus on sacrifice, without due regard to obedience would be like as the proverbial "putting the cart before the horse".

Let us continue to render perfect obedience to God, as patterned for us by our Lord Jesus Christ that we can present the holy, perfect and acceptable sacrifice.

The Lord bless our day ahead.

in Him
Paul


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But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ~ Hebrews 3:13

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. ~ James 2:17
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? ~ James 2:20
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. ~James 2:24
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. ~ James 2:26