Commentary on Hosea

I have no doubt that the book of the prophet Hosea can well be taken as an extended commentary on 1 Corinthians 13. As you read through its fourteen chapters, you will gain a clear idea of what covenantal love is.

There are at least three contextual frameworks that shed light on understanding the reality of biblical love:

The love the prophet speaks of is love framed within God's Covenant with His people. God has bound Himself to express His favor to His covenant people. The Covenant is the manifestation of His holy, just, kind, and firm character. It cannot be undone by the actions or inactions of Israel, God's Gomer.

The love the prophet speaks of is sacrificial, tenacious, and risky. Will God not suffer criticism for having loved a people who did not deserve it? But, at the same time, will He not receive praise for manifesting His character by making those who were not His people His own, by favoring those who did not deserve to be favored?

The love the prophet speaks of extends through time; it comes from ancient times because God's promise was given before the prophet's era, but it affirms its reality to the offspring of His people until the time of the Church, the new Israel of God.

National Israel was worse than Gomer. In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus is the new Hosea in search of His bride. In Hosea, Calvin helps us anticipate Christ and His ministry. "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him," the Apostle John reminds us (John 1:11).

May the Lord use this new volume of Calvin's commentaries to affirm His people in all latitudes in the security of God's Covenant and encourage us to faithfulness and service in all areas of life.