In Hosea 4:6, God spoke to the prophet Hosea about His unfaithful adulterous people of Israel and the consequences of their unfaithfulness and adultery for His people and the land. Fai mai le Atua, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Although God spoke these words to His people in the Old Covenant, we see the same thing happening with God’s people today. E toatele Kerisiano, who despite their Bible knowledge have left the truth of God and have become unfaithful and because of that are destroyed. How are God’s people perish for lack of knowledge? What can the church do to prevent God’s people from being destroyed?
There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; ioe, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother (Hosea 4:1-5)
God’s people had become unfaithful to God and committed adultery with the pagan nations. They didn’t stay faithful to God and His law and did not separate themselves from the pagan cultures, but they compromised and allowed and embraced the pagan cultures in their land and participated in their rituals and practices, whereby God’s people had committed idolatry and adultery with the pagan nations.
Because God’s people had committed adultery with the pagan nations, who served strange gods, there was no truth in the land anymore, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God.
By swearing and lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery, they broke out and bloodshed followed bloodshed (Faitau foi: The bloodshed and lawlessness in the vineyard).
Because of the (unrighteous) works of the inhabitants of the land, the land was burdened by sin.
The land mourned and everyone that dwelled in the land would languish with the beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and even the fishes of the sea would be taken away.
And no one did something about it! Everything was allowed, no one repented and no one was disciplined, faasa'oina, and chastened by the law, which represents the will of God and His Kingdom.
Everyone remained silent and continued their wicked works, which showed their love for themselves and the devil and their rejection and hatred toward God.
The inhabitants of the land didn’t regret their actions and their way of living and refused to return to God and repent and remove the sins from their midst, whereby they and their land would be saved and restored (healed).
And so God’s people brought evil upon themselves and were destroyed by lack of knowledge (Faitau foi: The mischief people bring upon themselves)
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: therefore will I change their glory into shame (Hosea 4:6-7)
God’s people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. God’s people had not considered the knowledge of God as the truth and didn’t walk in the knowledge of God, but God’s people had rejected God’s knowledge and walked according to their own knowledge, insights, and will in selfish love.
Because God’s people had not yielded to God and the law, but had rejected the knowledge of God, whereby they had rejected God, God would also reject His people (Faitau foi: Na teena e le Atua mai le tele o lotu).
The people would no longer be a priest to God, since the people didn’t live according to the law and didn’t walk in His commandments, but had forgotten the law of their God. O lea la, God would forget their children (atalii).
The more sons would be born in the land, the more they would sin against the Lord, since they did not walk in His will. O lea la, God would change their glory into shame.
Many churches have become unfaithful and have committed adultery
But don’t we see the same thing happening around us? When we look at the state of God’s people and look at the state of the Church; o le Tino o Keriso, don’t we see the same things taking place in the Church?
The fear of the Lord is gone, faithfulness is hard to find, the love for God is waxed cold, the knowledge of God and His Word is gone, the commandments are rejected, the truth of God has been turned into lies, and the sin, like for example, ifo i tupua, lē mamā faalefeusuaiga, fornication, living together unmarried, adultery (divorce), lying, stealing, killing (abortion, euthanasia, suicide, ma isi.) abounds and is tolerated and approved (Faitau foi: New age in the church? ma What is false love?).
That all these things happen in the world is obvious, since the ungodly (o le wicked) have rejected God’s Word and don’t want anything to do with God. Therefore they live in darkness, in sin, and do those things, which are an abomination to God (Faitau foi: What is the abomination of desolation?).
They don’t know Jesus Christ and don’t serve God, but they serve their flesh by obeying their carnal will, lust, ma manaoga.
And as the end approaches and wicked increase, sin will increase and as a result, the bloodshed shall come over the earth, and the earth and all there is within shall languish.
But Christians shouldn’t live like the world, since they don’t belong to the world and the ruler of darkness, but through regeneration in Jesus Christ, they belong to God the Father. And yet, we see the same things happening in many churches.
Many churches are destroyed for lack of knowledge
We see the same things that are happening in the world happening in many churches. Just like, these things happened in the land of God’s people, only due to lack of knowledge.
Many Christians, including many leaders of the church, have a lack of knowledge, which means they have a lack of God’s knowledge and therefore they have a lack of spiritual insight and are not familiar with His will.
They don’t have the Spirit of God and don’t discern the spirits, but they have the spirit of the world, whereby they do the same works, have the same lifestyle, and bear the same fruit as the world.
They have not separated themselves from the world and are not faithful to God, but they are worldlike and have rejected the words of God and His knowledge and His will and exchanged them for the carnal knowledge and words of man, which derive from the carnal mind that is controlled by the ruler of the world, and satisfy the will of the carnal man (Faitau foi: Do the Bible and science go together?).
They have not submitted themselves to God and are not led by what the Word of God says, but they are led by what the world says, and by what their feelings, lagona, and human intellect say, and because of that they don’t walk in the Truth but in lies.
And so God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Due to the fact that they don’t listen to God and are not willing to yield to Jesus Christ; the Word and do His will and keep His commandments and don’t want to remove the sins from their lives and from their midsts, but reject His words and commandments, God has rejected them and has given them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, and delights in sin and approve of sin and supports those who habitually live in sin, whereby sin and iniquity shall increase instead of decrease (Faitau foi: What is a reprobate mind?).
Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand
Let the church not make the same mistake as God’s people in the Old Covenant. Let the church not deny Jesus Christ and reject Him by rejecting the words of God and His commandments. But let the church return to God and His Word and let the Word of God be the highest authorty in the church.
It’s not about what the world says, it’s not about what your feelings and your emotions say, it’s not about your opinion, it’s not about your findings and what you want, but it’s all about what God says in His Word! (Faitau foi: Not my opinion, but Your opinion).
Jesus Christ is the Head of His Church and every local church that refuses to submit to the Head and don’t obey His words and don’t keep His commandments, don’t belong to Jesus Christ.
O lea la, repent and remove the sins from your life and renew your mind with the Word of God, so that you will get to know the will of God and walk in His will.
Let the Word be the highest authority in your life and become a doer of the Word, so that you will not be destroyed for lack of knowledge, but shall stand.
‘Ia fai ma masima o le lalolagi’
