Daily Lesson for Sunday 23rd of March 2025

God’s law does not consist of abstract principles; instead, God’s law is an expression of relationship. This can be seen explicitly in the Ten Commandments. The basic principles of the Ten Commandments were in place already in the Garden of Eden, the principles of love that were to govern the relationship between God and people and between people themselves.

The Ten Commandments

When the Ten Commandments proclaimed in Exodus 20:1-26  were afterward written in stone, they were given to Israel in the context of the covenant relationship. The commandments were written down after the Lord already had delivered the people from Egypt, and the commandments were based on God’s love and on His promises to the nation (see Exodus 6:7-8 and Leviticus 26:12). One can see in the two divisions of the Ten Commandments that they are aimed at the flourishing of a human relationship with God and of relationships with one another.

The first four commandments deal with people’s relationships with God, and the last six with people’s relationships among themselves. Our relationship both to God and to other people must be regulated by the principles of God’s law.

These two parts of the law correspond directly to what Jesus identified as the two greatest commandments—“ ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” ’ ” (Matthew 22:37, NKJV; compare with Deuteronomy 6:5) and “ ‘ “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” ’ ” (Matthew 22:39, NKJV; compare with Leviticus 19:18).

The first four commandments are the ways in which we are to love God with all of our being, and the last six are ways we are to love one another as ourselves. Jesus makes it explicit that these two great love commandments are integrally related to the law. “ ‘On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets’ ” (Matthew 22:40, NKJV).

The entirety of God’s law, then, is grounded in God’s love. God’s love and law are inseparable. We often hear people say, We don’t need to keep the law, we just need to love God and to love others. Why does that idea not make sense?

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-13-the-law-of-love/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 22nd of March 2025

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 6:1-3; Romans 7:7-12; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Matthew 23:23-24; James 2:1-9.

Memory Text:

“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8, NKJV).

While they were dealing with a problematic member, someone on the church board said to the pastor, “We can’t make decisions based on compassion.” We can’t? The pastor wondered what this person’s understanding of God and of God’s law must have been. Compassion certainly needs to be central in how we deal with people, especially erring ones. Compassion is part and parcel of love, and as Romans 13:8 tells us, to love one’s neighbor is to fulfill the law.

If love is indeed the fulfillment of the law, then we should be careful not to think of law in a way that is separate from love or to think of love in a way that is disconnected from law. In Scripture, love and law go together. The divine Lawgiver is love, and accordingly, God’s law is the law of love. It is, as Ellen G. White put it, the transcript of God’s character. (See Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 305.)

God’s law is not a set of abstract principles but commands and instructions intended for our flourishing. God’s law is, in its totality, an expression of love as God Himself expresses it.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, March 29.

Sunday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-13-love-is-the-fulfillment-of-the-law/