It kind of reminds me of the 'Know Nothing' politics of the mid 19th Century in the United States. It wasn't that the priests and people of Hosea's day didn't 'know' what was right...they found all sorts of excuses to do anything other than the fruits of righteousness that God's law demanded. The result, as Hosea pointed out, was "...no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land...only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; break(ing) all bounds, and bloodshed follow(ing) bloodshed."

Undoubtedly the priests and people were complaining about his exaggerated statements, "We aren't all always like that..." Those protests are heard from the self-righteous today. The point Hosea was making wasn't one of degrees of hyperbole, it was one of emphatic awareness intended to bring repentance.

If we fail to recognize even a part of our personal and national guilt then we fall into the category of being 'condemned already.'

For those still wanting to protest that 'there is therefore (now) no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' I would hasten to remind them of the great caveat - 'for those who are in Christ Jesus.' That demands of us a repentance that 'brings forth deeds (in keeping with the repentance).' It also reminds us that if we 'know to do good and do it not, it is sin.'

Paul's writings to Titus are quite in keeping with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount...we are compelled to 'do good deeds in order for mankind to glorify our Father in heaven.'

It IS the responsibility of those who consider themselves to be God's people, regardless of the century or nation. 'Do good and don't grow weary.'

Did the people of Hosea's day really not know? Were they really destroyed because they didn't know? It appears that they chose to 'know' what they wanted to know. They chose their own spiritual 'reality.' Ignorance never was, still isn't, a valid excuse.

It IS written. The choice is, and always has been, one's own. Is your 'reality' lacking 'knowledge?'