Main Theme: In stark contrast to the false gods of the ancient world, and even to the modern “gods” of today, as well, Yahweh is deeply concerned about evil, suffering, injustice, and oppression—all of which He constantly and unequivocally condemns. And, most important, He will one day eradicate them all, as well.
Study: How do these texts shed light on God’s concern for justice?
Apply: What are examples, even now, of perverted human justice? How, then, can we not cry out for God’s perfect justice to come one day?
Share: Your friend tells you when he was in Adventist middle school, the pastor’s son would bully him all the time, but the teachers would never do anything about it. When his parents talked to the teachers and even the pastor himself, they all said he was making it up. Your friend asks you were was God’s mercy and justice in all of that? What do you tell your friend?
Study: What do these passages teach about the faithfulness and righteousness of God? What do these verses teach about God?
Apply: How do you trust God’s goodness when other people cheat you and seem to get away with it? How do you trust God when others seem to be getting all the breaks but you never seem to?
Share: Your friend asks, “Why does such a good God allow for so much of the evil that is in this world?” What do you tell your friend?
Study: What do you make of these descriptions of God’s “relenting”?
Apply: How does God’s repentance and change in judgment relate in any way to restoration?
Share: Your friend asks, if God never changes then why does He relent or seem to change His mind? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Matthew 5:43-48. Have the class identify the main idea of this passage.
Study: What does this teach about God’s amazing love? How should we act toward others in light of this teaching of Jesus?
Apply:Isaiah 25:1 proclaims, “O LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth” (NKJV). How can we learn to praise God, even in bad times? In what ways can your life itself be an offering of praise to God in a way that furthers justice in your sphere of influence?
Share:Romans 2:4 says it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Is there anything from this week’s lesson you can share with someone to help them see the goodness of God this week?
Main Theme: God’s anger is always His righteous and loving response against evil and injustice. Divine wrath is righteous indignation motivated by perfect goodness and love, and it seeks the flourishing of all creation. God’s wrath is simply the appropriate response of love to evil and injustice. Accordingly, evil provokes God to passion in favor of the victims of evil and against its perpetrators. Divine wrath, then, is another expression of divine love.
Study: Compare God’s response to man’s rebellion with Jonah’s response. How do these responses differ?
Apply: Have you ever failed to show mercy or grace to someone who has wronged you? How can you best remember what God has done for you so that you become more gracious to others in response to the abundant grace God has shown you? And, how do we do this, show mercy and grace, but without giving license to sin or enabling abuse or oppression?
Share: You friend says, just like with Nineveh, God may get angry, but since He is love He never destroys. What do you tell your friend? See Why I Believe God Kills Because He is Love.
Study: What does Jesus’ reaction to the way the temple was being used tell us about God’s getting angry at evil? What does this tell us about what it might mean to be like Jesus?
Apply: How can we be careful not to seek to justify selfish anger as “righteous indignation”? Why is that so easy to do, and how can we protect ourselves from that subtle but real trap?
Share: Your friend says, People say it is a sin to be angry but the Bible says Jesus got angry. See Mark 3:5. Your friend asks, is it possible to be angry without sinning? What do you tell your friend? See Ephesians 4:26.
Study: What does this explain about the judgment that came upon Jerusalem via the Babylonians?
Apply: How does the fact that God does not want to bring judgment against anyone affect your understanding of divine anger and wrath? If God is slow to anger, should we not be more patient and longsuffering with those around us? How can we do so while also protecting and caring for the victims of wrongdoing?
Share: Your friend asks, If God allowed wicked Babylon to hurt the Jews in order to eventually save them and bring them back, then could it be that God uses our enemies to humble us? Are all our misfortunes at the hand of an enemy? Or could it actually be God trying to get us to repent? What do you tell your friend?
Study: How might these passages help us discern the difference between righteous indignation and human revenge?
Apply: In what way has Christ’s atonement upheld justice while also delivering us from wrath? Recognizing that provision had been made for you, despite your shortcomings, how much more gracious should you be to others?
Share: While wrath may be a desperate measure God in His divine love will use to bring us to repentance, Romans 2:4 says its the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. How can you share the goodness of God with someone this week who needs to be brought to repentance?
The Bible clearly teaches us not to be envious or jealous.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.Genesis 20:17
NKJV Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies.... Galatians 5:19-20 NKJV
Then why does the Bible portray God as being jealous?
You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, Exodus 20:4-5 NKJV
For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images. Psalm 78:58 NKJV
There are different kinds of jealousy. Paul spoke of a godly jealousy.
For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:2 NKJV
The jealousy that is spoken against in the Bible is when we want something that does not belong to us. If a man lusts after another man’s wife that is wrong because the woman is not his but belongs to another man. However if the husband loses his wife to another man he has godly jealousy because his wife actually belongs to him and not he other man. By the way this still does not justify a husband getting jealous every time his wife speaks cordially to another brother in church etc., but I digress. Carnal jealousy is when we want what does not belong to us. Godly jealousy is when we want what does belong to us but is taken by someone else.
God is jealous when His own people choose another god. He is both jealous and passionate because not only do we belong to Him and not the world, but He also knows the world will not love and care for us the way He does. This is why God tells us in Exodus 20:3 that we are not to have any other gods. God knows no other God will love and care for us the way He does. His passion for our welfare demands we have no other gods besides Him. Only He can love us the way we were designed to be loved. We do not belong to the world. We belong to God. See Psalm 24:1. God’s jealousy is not a carnal jealousy where we want what does not belong to us so we can use it to satisfy our lustful passions. God’s jealousy is a goldy jealousy where He does not want to lose what is rightfully His, and His passion is a godly passion for our own wellbeing.
God wants us to stay faithful to Him for our own wellbeing and not because of some carnal jealous ego. The reason we are to have no other gods before us is because God is the only God who can give us the love and wellbeing we need. He is jealous for our welfare and not for Himself.
You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.
Main Theme: there are beautiful truths to be garnered from the realization that God’s love for us is a deeply emotional love, but always with the caveat that though God’s love (emotional or otherwise) is perfect, it should not be thought of as identical to emotions as humans experience them.
Study: What do these depictions convey about the nature and depth of God’s compassion?
Apply: How have you demonstrated God’s love to a son or daughter or other family member, and how has someone in your family demonstrated God’s love to you?
Share: Your friend says that her parents were not loving. How might you be able to help your friend see the compassion of God, even though her parents were unloving?
Read in Class: Hosea 11:1-9. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this passage.
Study: How does the imagery in these verses bring to life the way God loves and cares for His people?
Apply: Anyone who has ever been a parent knows what the lesson is talking about. No other earthly love begins to compare. How does this help us understand the reality of God’s love for us, and what comfort can, and should, we draw from this understanding?
Share: Your friend says its hard to know when to “shake the dust off our feet” (See Matthew 10:14) when you are compassionately and passionately working with a stubborn and wayward soul. What do you tell your friend?
Study: How do these verses shed light on the way Christ was moved by the plight of people?
Apply: There is no greater example of God’s great compassionate love for us than Jesus Himself—who gave Himself for us in the ultimate demonstration of love. Yet, Christ is not only the perfect image of God. He is also the perfect model of humanity. How can we model our lives after the life of Christ, focusing on the felt needs of others, and, thus, not merely preaching God’s love but showing it in tangible ways?
Share: Your friend says he has been paying the electric bill for his son’s family because his son keeps wasting his money on other things. Your friend wants to be compassionate towards his grandchildren who he does not want to freeze to death, but does not want to keep enabling the son to waste money. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this passage.
Study: In what ways does this passage call us to reflect God’s compassionate and amazing love in our relationships with others?
Apply: Why is a death to self and to the selfishness and corruption of our natural hearts the only way to reveal this kind of love? What are the choices that we can make in order to be able to die this death to self?
Share: Your friend points out that while 1 Corinthians 13:4 says love does not envy or get jealous, that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2 that he has a godly jealousy. Your friend asks how do you reconcile having a godly jealousy with love never being jealous? What do you tell your friend? See Godly Passion and Jealousy.
Main Theme: By God’s grace we can be pleasing to God.
Read in Class: Luke 15:11-32. Have the class summarize this story.
Study: What does the parable of the prodigal son reveal about God’s compassion and love? What warning does it provide for those who, like the other son, remained home?
Apply: Interesting is the reaction of the other son. Why was this reaction such a human reaction, based at least in part on fairness, and so understandable, as well? What, however, does his part of the story teach us about how human concepts of fairness don’t capture the depth of the gospel or of God’s love for us?
Share: Your friend says young people will never appreciate being in the church until they have first gone out into the world and experienced sin. After all, people who have stayed in the church all their lives don’t have any amazing conversation stories to share. What do you tell your friend?
Study: How does Zephaniah 3:17 shed light on the parable of the prodigal son? What does Ephesians 5:25-28 say about the love we should display as well?
Apply: When you hear that someone who has left the church has returned, what is your first reaction? Rejoicing and celebrating or skepticism? Exactly how should we celebratee when soneone returns to the church? Throw a party like the prodigal son’s father?
Share: Your friend is very upset because her church is having a baby shower for a 15 year-old unwed mother. The 15 year-old girl is sorry and wants to come back God and raise her child in the church, but really? Why should the church reward this girl’s sinful behavior with a shower? What do you tell your friend?
Study: What do these passages tell us about God taking delight in His people?
Apply: Think about how closely tied heaven and earth must be that God, the Creator of the universe, can be so intimately involved, even emotionally, with us. What hope should this amazing idea give you, especially if you are going through a hard time?
Share: Your friend says he hears people in the church talking bad about the youth and how worldly they dress and act. Everyone seems disappointed in them. What do you tell your friend?
There is a saying, “kids who are loved at home come to school to learn. Kids who are not loved at home come to school to be loved.” Is it any different in Sabbath School? Is it also true that God’s children (ages 0-125) who know they are loved come to Sabbath school to learn, and those who don’t yet know they are loved, come to Sabbath School to be loved?
I can still remember sitting at my desk in my 4th-grade classroom at Tulsa Adventist Academy, listening to my teachers, Miss Fisher and Mrs. Krueger, lecturing us about something. I don’t really remember exactly what it was about, but we must have been struggling with our grades, because all I remember is, both teachers told us, “If you only learn one thing this year learn this. We love you!” Now we were loved at home. We were loved at church and school, but as educated as my teachers were, they knew the most important thing is not money or a degree. It’s love. Without that nothing else matters, and when you know you are loved, nothing can stop you!
For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died (2 Corinthians 5:14 Amplified Bible)
So while humanity tries harder, and reads self-help books and tries 12-step recovery programs, Paul says it is by looking at the cross and knowing we are loved that we get all our power to succeed. I remember John the Baptist telling everyone to “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John 1:29. He didn’t tell them to try harder next time. He told them to look at the Lamb. Let His love soak into you.
As legalistic humans we are always wanting to promise to try harder next time. But the answer is not promising to try harder. The answer is letting yourself be loved.
In Jeremiah God mentions how Israel had not kept the promises they had made, so He was going to make a better promise. His promise would be better because He is the the One making the promise instead of them. He is the perfect Promise-maker while we are lousy promise-makers!
“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33 NLT)
So God promises to do for us what we could never even promise to do for ourselves, much less even try harder to make happen. God is the One promising, and He is the One who is accountable to make it so. Please notice something very important though. Its in Jeremiah 31:3 NLT, several verses before He promises to write His law on our hearts.
I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.
Just like my teachers realized all the book knowledge in the world doesn’t mean a thing without love, God feels the same way. Knowing all the laws and having them memorized in your mind and knowing them all by heart doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t know how much God loves you!
Friends, there is no reason for you to promise God you are going to try harder and do better next time. He has already promised you! We don’t need to promise God what He has already promised us! What? I don’t have any work to do myself? Well yes, and I will let Jesus tell you Himself, exactly what your work is.
Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29 NLT
Our work is to believe God’s promise that He loves us with an everlasting love, and He will place the principles of His love (also known as His law) in our hearts!
This is why John never told us to try harder! Just look at the Lamb and let His love soak into your heart till your heart is saturated with His love, which is also His law. You don’t need to promise God anything. Your work is to believe the promises God has made to you!
In 2017, I don’t need too many self-help books. I don’t need to try harder. I just need to look at the Lamb in 2017 and fall in love with Jesus! His love will change me in ways I could never change myself. After all, all the self help books and promises of better performance don’t mean a thing without love!
So just how good is God at keeping His promises to love and save us? For brevity, let me share one example. You can read about it in Joshua 9-10.
The Gibeonites used deceit to trick Israel into letting them in on the covenant God had made with them. Even though Israel was not supposed to make a covenant with anyone living as close as the Gibeonites, they did. Later when the Gibeonites were under attack, they called upon Israel to save them, and even though the Gibeonites had used deceit to secure this covenant, God was so relentless in keeping His promise of love, that He caused the sun to stand still until the Gibeonites were all rescued! God fought for Israel as Israel fought for the mischievous Gibeonites. Let that soak in. The Gibeonites were in no way worthy of any of God’s blessings, but God was still so loving and faithful to His promise that He made the sun stand still until they were all rescued! Talk about a love that moves heaven and earth! And this powerful love was given to the most undeserving people! So, scientifically speaking, the greatest power in the universe is not gravity or the suctioning power of the black hole. God’s love overruled all those powers and made the solar system stand still. Imagine what this love can do in your heart!
God’s powerful promises and love are also for you and me. In Hebrews 13:5 God promises to never leave us or forsake us, but the Amplified Bible is the only English version that even begins to grasp what God is actually promising.
for He has said, “I will never under any circumstances desert you nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless, nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you- assuredly not!” Hebrews 13:5 Amp version.
If we know we are loved we can come to Sabbath School to learn, and we can learn while we are loved, but we can’t learn without love.
If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2 NLT
People talk about how hard life is because they got married and had childen so early, or did not even get married at all and had children young. Or Life is hard becuase they did not get to finish school and get thier degree. The list goes on for reasons people say their life is hard. Here is the thing though, even if you don’t marry young, even if you get your degree, life is hard. And no, I am not saying its okay to have children without getting married first. What I am saying is, no matter what route we take in life, life is hard. Some trials and tribulations we bring on ourselves, while other trials and tribulations have nothing to do with our choices. At the end of the day, either way, life is hard. The question is, what helps us carry on through the storms of life til we get to sunnier days? The answer is love.
I have always been amazed at the trials and tribulations some people survive. I have read about people who survived concentration camps in world war 2. I have read about people who were lost at sea or in a jungle for days but still survied. I have read about people who endured and survived after an abusive relationship. What I have found is the people who surived did so because they knew they were loved. This love gave them the purpose to survive. Many times we think we are in the pursuit of happines when in reality we are in the pursuit of purpose. Fact is, we can survive uhappaniness as long as we know there is a purpose. It is love that gives us purpose. Many say they survived the concentration camps because they knew someone else was depending on them for hope and meaning. People have found ways to survive lost in the elements of nature, knowing someone was longing for them and searching for them. People have survived abusive relationships so they could love and protect someone more vulnerable than themselves.
On the other hand those who gave up, did not give up because life became too hard or difficult. Again, life is hard and difficult for us all, even for those who survive. Many have given up because they did not realize how loved they were. The crux of the great controversy between Christ and Satan is love. God is love, and the biggest lie in the universe has nothing to do with which day is sacred or what happens when you die. Satan’s biggest and most dangerous lie is that you are not loved. Everything hinges on this one Truth and that is that you are loved. Satan wants nothing more than to cast a huge cloud over you, so you can’t see God’s love shining on you or feel its warmth. If he can do that then it really doesn’t matter which day is sacred or what happens when you die. If Satan can make you feel unloved then all other Bible facts are meaningless. Life has no purpose without love. Think about it, God is kove. Without love God has no purpose. If Satan can convince you that God does not love you then He has just asassinated God in your mind. By convincing you God does not love you, Satan has just accomplished his purpose of removing God from the universe. Friend, it is very important not just to you but to the whole fabric of the universe that you understand that huge cloud hanging over you making you feel unloved is nothing more than a big fat lie! Love is not only the foundation to your personal wellbeing it is the foundation of the universe.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV
If there is no love then there is nothing to have faith in or hope for. If there is no love then there is no purpose not only for you but for the entire universe. This is why babies born prematuely need to be held. Love gives purpose to survive without the baby even being counsiously aware of the fact. This is why my fourth grade teacher had to tell my class if we forgot everything else we learned that year she wanted us to remember she loved us. She knew that love was the motivation for learning. Without love knowledge has no purupose. In 1977 Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a world series game for the New York Yankees. Later he said he never felt loved in New York till he hit those three home runs. I think its rather sad he felt like you have to hit three home runs in a world series game in order to feel loved.If that is so, then a lot of us are unloved! I also find it interesting that after several championship rings and millions of dollars, he was still talking about whether people loved him or not. This just reminds me there is no purpose in the universe without love.
Well I have good news for Reggie Jackson, my fourth grade class, every baby born prematurely and for ever person in the world. You are loved!
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39 NKJV
When trials and tribulations cast a dark cloud over you, making you feel isolated and unloved, remember that dark could is nothing more than a big fat lie! You are loved. You are beyond loved. God sacrifed all He had for you. There is nothing God spared in this entire universe to make you know you are loved. Not only does this love give you purpose it gives God His true identty back. Without love not only is your life all out of whack, the entire universe is out of whack. Do you see why God’s love is so crucial to the great controversy between Christ and Satan? God is love, and God exists to shower His love on His creation. By making you feel unloved not only is Satan robbibng you of purpose, He is robbing God of His purpose! I want to make this clear. By making you feel unloved Satan is not assasinating you, He is assasinating God’s character and purpose for exisitng.
Thankfully love conquers all. Because of love we have the purpose to survive anything Satan throws our way. Because of love babies born prematurely not only can surive, but grow up to do such amazing things you would never guess they were once premature babies. Becuase of love my 4th grade class not only surived 4th grade but are barrelling into 2025 with all kinds of accomplishments and contributions that make those huge speed bumps in 4th grade look like little pebbles in the road, too small to even notice or remember. To be honest with you, I don’t even remember what we were struggling with that day our teacher had to lecture us. I can still see the look on her face and remeber there was a serious issue at the time, but for the life of me all I can remeber now is that we were loved. Whatever it was we survived, because here it is 2025 and we are not in 4th grade anymore. It’s amazing what you can survive and go on to accomplish when you know you are loved.
Remember the biggest fattest lie in the great controversy is that you are not loved. It doesn’t matter if you know what day is sacred or any other doctrine. With that one lie that you are not loved the entire frabric of the universe is thrown off kilter. There is no greater truth that needs to be preached right now than the truth that God is love. Without this one truth no other truths have purpose. Don’t let your fear of rejection keep you from showing love. Don’t let the fear of your love being unreturned keep you from showing love. Don’t let the fear of your love being unnapreciated keep you from sharing love. Keep sharing love until God has won the great controversy. God is love.
You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.
Study: What do these passages teach us about God’s desire to save everyone?
Apply: How should we show our love and respect for every human being?
Share: Your friend asks, if God’s love is unconditional then why will some people be lost?
Read in Class:Deuteronomy 7:6-9. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this passage.
Study: What do these verses teach about the relationship between God making covenants and God’s lovingkindness?
Apply: What are ways that you can constantly keep the reality of God’s love in your thoughts? Why is it important to do that?
Share: Your friend says a certain man keeps coming by the church asking for money to buy food for his family, but only uses it for his drug addiction. How can we help free people from their bondage and addictions when they won’t even help themselves? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: 1 John 4:7-20. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this passage.
Study:What does this tell us about the priority of God’s love?
Apply: Think about what you have been forgiven and what it cost you to be forgiven by Jesus. What should this tell you about forgiving others?
Share: Your friend says she can never forgive her aunt for what she did to her and her family. It is beyond forgivable. What do you tell your friend?
Study: What do these passages teach about the relationship between God’s love, our love for God, and love for others?
Apply: What specific steps can you take to love God by loving others? What could you do today and in the coming days to show people God’s love and (eventually) invite them to enjoy what it means to have the promise of eternal life?
Share: Can you think of someone in your community who needs to be shown unconditional love? How can you show them God’s love this week?
Study: What do these verses reveal about God’s steadfast love for His people, now and before the world existed?
Apply: What does the fact that God continues to bestow love on this world, despite its fallenness and evil, tell us about His love and character? How should this truth cause us to love Him in return?
Share: Your friend says since God’s love is unconditional and everlasting, everyone will be saved no matter what. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Matthew 22:1-14. Ask the class to define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What is the meaning of this parable?
Apply: What about your life reveals that you have accepted the wedding invitation and have come appropriately clothed?
Share: Your friend asks, “What does it mean that Many are called but few are chosen?” What do you tell your friend?
In Light of The Cross 