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Hosea 4

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1 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; for there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.

2 Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, -- they break out; and blood toucheth blood.

3 For this shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

4 Yet let no man strive, and let no man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

5 And thou shalt stumble by day; and the prophet also shall stumble with thee by night: and I will destroy thy mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; for thou hast rejected knowledge, and I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

7 As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.

8 They eat the sin of my people, and their soul longeth for their iniquity.

9 And it shall be as the people so the priest; and I will visit their ways upon them, and recompense to them their doings;

10 and they shall eat, and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: for they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.

11 Fornication, and wine, and new wine take away the heart.

12 My people ask counsel of their stock, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of whoredoms causeth [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God:

13 they sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oak and poplar and terebinth, because the shade thereof is good; therefore your daughters play the harlot and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your daughters-in-law for their committing adultery; for they themselves go aside with harlots, and they sacrifice with prostitutes: and the people that doth not understand shall come to ruin.

15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah trespass; and come ye not unto Gilgal, neither go up to Beth-aven, nor swear [As] Jehovah liveth!

16 For Israel is refractory as an untractable heifer; now will Jehovah feed them as a lamb in a wide [pasture].

17 -- Ephraim is joined to idols: leave him alone.

18 Their drink is sour; they give themselves up to whoredom; her great men passionately love [their] shame.

19 The wind hath wrapped her up in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

   

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True Christianity # 376

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376. Goodwill and faith do nothing for us when they are attached to only one part of our body (meaning our head) but are not anchored in actions. This is clear from a thousand passages in the Word, of which I will cite only the following here:

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 7:19-21)

"Those who are sown in good earth are people who hear the Word and pay attention, and bear and produce fruit. " When Jesus had said this he cried out, saying, "Those who have ears to hear must hear. " (Matthew 13:39, 43)

Jesus said, "My mother and my brothers and sisters are those who hear the Word of God and do it. " (Luke 8:21)

We know that God does not hear sinners, but if people worship God and do his will, he hears them. (John 9:31)

If you know these things, you are happy if you do them. (John 13:17)

Those who have my commandments and do them are the people who love me. I will love them and will manifest myself to them. I will come to them and make my home with them. (John 14:15-21, 23)

My Father is glorified by your bearing much fruit. (John 15:8)

Hearers of the law are not justified by God, but doers of the law are. (Romans 2:13; James 1:22)

In the day of anger and just judgment, God will repay all according to their works. (Romans 2:5-6)

It is right for us all to appear before Christ's judgment seat, so that each of us may carry away what we have done through our body in regard to those things, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

The Son of Humankind is going to come in the glory of his Father. Then he will repay all according to their deeds. (Matthew 16:27)

I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. The Spirit says that they will rest from their labors. Their works follow them. " (Revelation 14:13)

A book is opened, which is the book of life, and the dead are judged according to the things that are written in the book. All are judged according to their works. (Revelation 20:12-13)

Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give to all according to their work. (Revelation 22:12)

Jehovah, whose eyes are open to all the ways of human beings, to give to them all according to their ways and according to the fruit of their works. (Jeremiah 32:19)

I will bring judgment upon them according to their ways and will reward their works. (Hosea 4:9)

Jehovah deals with us according to our ways and according to our works. (Zechariah 1:6)

There are thousands of other passages like these.

On this basis one can clearly see that goodwill and faith are not goodwill and faith before they exist in actions. If they exist only up in the sky or in the mind above actions, they are like images of a tabernacle or a church in the air that are just strange aerial phenomena that spontaneously disappear. They are like paintings on paper that bookworms are chewing through. They are like our living on a roof with no bed rather than in a house.

From all this you can see that goodwill and faith are transient entities when they are merely mental - unless, when there is an opportunity for us to do them, they culminate in actions and become embodied in them.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.