Love Hurts

Hosea 1:2-10

God’s Reckless Compassion

Love Hurts: God is Faithful We’re Unfaithful

Hosea 1:2–10 | Psalm 85 | Colossians 2:6–15 | Luke 11:1–13

Love = Pain

Lovers only know the pain.

There’s a kind of pain that only lovers know—the ache of faithfulness in the face of betrayal. It’s the kind of hurt that comes not from an enemy, but from the one you’ve opened your heart to.

A friend who abandons us, a partner who turns cold, a child who won’t return our calls.

Hosea knows the feeling.

And if you’ve ever wondered if God feels anything like that toward us… the book of Hosea says yes. Absolutely yes.

In today’s reading:, Hosea is asked to do something scandalous—outrageous, even offensive:

Hosea 1:2 NIV84

2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.”

Divine love played out in the most painful metaphor imaginable. Hosea’s broken marriage mirrors God’s broken heart.

But if we dare to stay with this hard story —if we don’t turn away in discomfort — we will find something astonishing:

God’s love is not soft,

it is stubborn.

It hurts, but it heals.

It doesn’t break, but it always bends toward restoration.

The Scandal of God’s Love

Hosea is one of those strange prophets who become the message. Instead of just the message bringer.

Hosea 1:3 NRSV

3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Gomer is chosen to represent a people who chase after other gods, and Hosea—painfully, faithfully — keeps faithful. Keeps caring for her.

It is most uncomfortable for us.

It is not our picture of Biblical marriage that we would love to talk about.

It is like something from a soap opera.

This is a prophetic act that tells the truth about the pain of God’s divine love.

And it is something we can identify with.

God does not turn away when we turn away.

We can identify with Hosea.

With the pain - with the drama.

We know the feeling of heart break and in Hosea’s torment we realise that God loves us in a way that we don’t expect.

God is not some unmoved and removed abstract concept.

God is relational and invested in his love for us.

God loves - through our betrayal.

This is a story of God’s love - it is not about men, about women - or about marriage. It is about God’s faithfulness.

It is about God’s heartbreak.

God’s pain in loving us - is real.

Listen to the names that Hosea gives his children.

Jezreel (Bloodshed)

A plain between the mountains of Samaria an dGalilee - a prominent battle arena. A symbol of gratuitous violence - violence which had most recently been committed by Jehu.

Jezreel (Bloodshed)

Lu-Ruhamma (Not Pitied)

The word Ruhammah - indicating compassion, is a word for womb - it is about the way a mother loves a child. Lo Ruhammah means no love, no compassion, no tenderness.

Jezreel (Bloodshed)

Lu-Ruhamma (Not Pitied)

Lo-Ammi (v.9) (Not My People.)

These devestating names help us to understand the anguish of relationship with God in the household of God.

But - But here’s the turn.

Hosea 1 ends not in condemnation, but in compassion and hope - a hint of promise:

Hosea 1:10 NRSV

10 Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”

Even after betrayal, there is hope. Even after judgment, there is mercy. God’s love, like Hosea’s, aches but refuses to let go.

Naming Ourselves

Names carry identity, destiny, memory.

When Hosea names his children “No Mercy” and “Not My People,” he is giving voice to how Israel’s choices have ruptured their covenant with God. But God is not done naming. God has another name to speak:

“Children of the Living God.”

We live into names that we carry that do not come from God. We carry names like:

Unworthy.

Shameful.

Too far gone.

Forgotten.

Not mine.

But this hopeful verse reminds us - God gets the final word over your life. And the word God speaks over us—even after our worst—is still beloved.

Like Hosea - the Psalmist can also be dramatic - Psalm 85:

Psalm 85:5–7 NRSV

5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? 6 Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

Psalms speak so honestly of our human condition - a feeling of unworthiness / abandonment.

A cry to God - revive us - make us alive again.

And the confident hope…

Show us your steadfast love.

A cry - not of perfection - not pretending that all is fine and we’re all fine - but a cry that says - Revive us, show us your love - we know we are a mess.

God gets our mess.

Feeling far away, Pray Anyway

Lo-Ammi (v.9) (Not My People.)

Let’s be honest. Sometimes we feel like Lo-Ammi: not my people. We feel distant from God. Our failures feel final. Our love feels too small.

The gospel from Luke for today teaches us how to live as God’s children - even when we don’t feel like it.

Jesus tells a rather strange story in Luke 11 - imagine you needed bread to feed a stranger. At night. You’d go knocking on the neighbours doors.

The Kids are sleeping, Go away!

But if you keep on knocking - the neighbour gets up and gives you the food.

Keep knocking.

Or:

Luke 11:9 NRSV

9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

Notice the persistence. This isn’t instant. It’s relational. Prayer is not a vending machine—it’s a way of holding on to God’s heart, even when it’s wounded.

Jesus goes further:

Luke 11:13 NRSV

13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Even when we feel unworthy—even when we feel like “Not my people”—Jesus teaches us to call God Father. He teaches us to keep asking, to keep returning, to keep coming home.

Returning to God’s Love, Not Earning God’s Love

In Colossians 2:6-7 Paul writes:

Colossians 2:6–7 NRSV

6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Paul doesn’t say: “Make yourself worthy,” or “Fix yourself first.” No, he says: You’ve already received Christ—now continue.

Spiritual maturity is not about perfection—it’s about return.

It is about receiving this faithful - steadfast - reviving love - and letting that love give you life.

Colossians 2:13–14 NRSV

13 …he forgave us all our trespasses, 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

God knows your history—and still chooses restoration.

Just as Hosea did not stop loving Gomer, and just as God did not stop calling Israel “my people,” so too God does not stop calling you to come home.

God does not stop reminding us - you will be called children of the living God.

Hosea 1:10 NRSV

10 …in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”

Prayer as Return

So what do we do with this? How do we live into Hosea’s hard, beautiful message?

Let me offer a simple practice: See your prayer life not as performance—but as return.

We sometimes believe we need to “get it right” before we come to God. Hosea says the opposite: Come to God because you’ve gotten it wrong. Come messy. Come confused. Come broken.

God already knows. God already aches. And God already loves you.

Prayer is not about getting God's attention. Prayer is about remembering that God has never stopped paying attention to you.

You don’t have to be perfect to be loved. You don’t have to be faithful to be called back. You don’t have to have the right words to pray.

You just need to knock. And knock again. And knock again.

Love Doesn’t Let Go

The story of Hosea is not an easy one. But it is holy. Because it tells the truth about divine love: Love that hurts. Love that stays. Love that transforms names like “Not my people” into “Children of the Living God.”

Today, if you feel far from God—remember Hosea.

If you feel like your sin has changed your name—remember the reversal.

If you feel like prayer is hard, useless, or awkward—remember Jesus says, “Keep knocking.”

And when you wonder if God still loves you, remember this:

Love hurts. And God has chosen to love us anyway.