Key Thought: God’s love is profoundly relational. This loving relationship with God cannot exist without human response to His loving benevolence.
January 11, 2025

1. Have a volunteer read 2 Peter 3:9, I Timothy 2:4, Ezekiel 33:11.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What does this teach us about God’s desire to save everyone?
3. Personal Application: How can we unconditionally show our love and respect for every human being? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “Some people are beyond saving. They are paedophiles, mass murderers, hateful, rude, selfish, and prideful people who have no care or concern for others and may actually torment or kill those who follow God. Does Jesus actually love these despicable characters as well? Am I supposed to love them even though I hate their evil attitudes and sins?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 7:6=9..

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does this teach about the relationship between God’s loving kindness and His covenants?
3. Personal Application: How does our relationship with God change how we behave and act with people from our family, work, and neighborhood? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “I want to help people who really need help, but those who have wasted their time, money, and energy in drugs, alcohol, gambling, and debauchery don’t get any sympathy from me. If they are starving, I’ll feed them. If they are dying, I’ll save them. But I refuse to enable them or make them feel good about their stupidity.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read I John 4:7-20.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does this tell us about the priority of God’s love?
3. Personal Application: Think about what you have done and been forgiven for. What should this tell you about forgiving others? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “I can never forgive my uncle for what he did to my family. It is beyond forgivable. I can’t let go of my utter loathing for him and his actions.” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read John 15:12, I John 3:16, I John 4:7-12.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What do these verses teach us about God’s love, our love for Him, and our love for others?
3. Personal Application: What can you do to show your love for God to show His love for others? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared. ”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/2-covenanted-love-teaching-plan/

Daily Lesson for Tuesday 7th of January 2025

God calls and invites every person into an intimate love relationship with Him (see Matthew 22:1-14). Responding appropriately to this call involves obeying God’s command to love God and to love others (see Matthew 22:37-39). Whether one enjoys the benefits of this relationship with God depends on whether one freely decides to accept or reject His love.

Image © Phil McKay Goodsalt.com

In these and other texts, enjoying the benefits of a love relationship with God is repeatedly depicted as conditional upon the human response to His love. Yet, we should not make the mistake of thinking that God ever actually stops loving anyone. As we have seen, God’s love is everlasting. And, although Hosea 9:15 includes God saying of His people, “ ‘I will love them no more,’ ” it is important to remember that later in the same book God declares of His people, “ ‘I will love them freely’ ” (Hosea 14:4, NKJV). Hosea 9:15 cannot mean that God entirely ceases to love His people. It must refer, instead, to the conditionality of some particular aspect or benefit of a love relationship with God. And how we respond to His love is crucial for this relationship to continue.

“ ‘He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him’ ” (John 14:21, NKJV). Likewise, Jesus proclaims to His disciples, “ ‘The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father’ ” (John 16:27, NASB).

These and other texts teach that maintaining the benefits of a saving relationship with God depends upon whether we will accept God’s love (which involves willingness to be vehicles of that love, as well). Again, this does not mean that God’s love ever ceases. Rather, just as we cannot stop the sun from shining but can cut ourselves off from the rays of the sun, we cannot do anything to stop God’s everlasting love, but we can finally reject a relationship with God and, thus, cut ourselves off from what it offers, especially the promise of eternal life.

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-02-conditional-relationship/