Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife

3 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.^(A) Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.^(B)”

² So I bought her for fifteen shekels^[a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek^[b] of barley. ³ Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”

⁴ For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince,^(C) without sacrifice^(D) or sacred stones,^(E) without ephod^(F) or household gods.^{(G) 5} Afterward the Israelites will return and seek^(H) the Lord their God and David their king.^(I) They will come trembling^(J) to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.^(K)

The Charge Against Israel

On Denying the Incarnation

4 Dear friends,^(A) do not believe every spirit,^(B) but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.^{(C) 2} This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh^(D) is from God,^{(E) 3} but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^(F) which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.^(G)

⁴ You, dear children,^(H) are from God and have overcome them,^(I) because the one who is in you^(J) is greater than the one who is in the world.^{(K) 5} They are from the world^(L) and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.^(M) This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth^(N) and the spirit of falsehood.^(O)

God’s Love and Ours

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another,^(P) for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God^(Q) and knows God.^{(R) 8} Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.^{(S) 9} This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son^(T) into the world that we might live through him.^{(U) 10} This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^(V) and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.^{(W) 11} Dear friends,^(X) since God so loved us,^(Y) we also ought to love one another.^{(Z) 12} No one has ever seen God;^(AA) but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.^(AB)

¹³ This is how we know^(AC) that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.^{(AD) 14} And we have seen and testify^(AE) that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.^{(AF) 15} If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,^(AG) God lives in them and they in God.^{(AH) 16} And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love.^(AI) Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.^{(AJ) 17} This is how love is made complete^(AK) among us so that we will have confidence^(AL) on the day of judgment:^(AM) In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,^(AN) because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.^{(AO) 20} Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister^(AP) is a liar.^(AQ) For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen,^(AR) cannot love God, whom they have not seen.^{(AS) 21} And he has given us this command:^(AT) Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.^(AU)