Prepared for Sabbath School class on July 25.

Photograph by William Earnhardt

Key Text: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NIV).

Read in Class: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.

Study: What scandalous situation does Paul describe in this passage, and why is it so disturbing? How does Paul tell them to deal with this situation?

Apply: What things are clearly condemned in Scripture that we, as a church, are in danger of tolerating, all in the name of “love” and “acceptance”?

Share: According to Matthew 18:15-17, share how you would counsel a friend to deal with someone living in open sin in their church. See When is it a Good Idea Not to Follow Bible Counsel?

Read in Class: 1 Corinthians 6:1-13.

Study: What is Paul trying to teach the Corinthians and us?

Apply: Think about Paul’s catalog of vices in 1 Corinthians 5:10-11 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Why does he list sexual sins along with other sins such as idolatry, thievery, greed, and extortion?

Share: Your friend says she no longer believes in the Bible because it is hate speech against homosexuals. What do you tell your friend?

Read in Class: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8.

Study: What does this passage say about the connection between sanctification and abstinence from sexual immorality?

Apply: Think about the wreckage that sexual sins have brought upon humanity. What should this tell us about how serious this issue should be for the Christian?

Share: Your close friend confides in you that it would be a lot easier to live a sexually pure life if he were married, but he is older now and tired of waiting to find someone who will marry him. What do you tell your friend? See Overcoming Sexual sin When you are Single.

Read in Class: 1 Corinthians 6:19-7:9.

Study: How does this passage shed light on how one can put into practice the commandment to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18, ESV)?

Apply: How can we, as a church, protect ourselves from the deviant views of sexuality that dominate the culture?

Share: A teenager in your family confides that he is struggling with a deviant behavior. He has talked to his parents about it, but all they do is tell him it’s wrong. They do not help him overcome. He already knows it is wrong, but can’t help himself. What do you tell your troubled teen?

Mission: Speaking of Jesus, we read in Desire of Ages, 

“Often He met those who had drifted under Satan’s control, and who had no power to break from his snare. To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted, and fallen, Jesus would speak words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood. Others He met who were fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win; for angels of God were on their side, and would give them the victory. Those whom He thus helped were convinced that here was One in whom they could trust with perfect confidence. He would not betray the secrets they poured into His sympathizing ear.” –Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Pages 91-92

Can you speak encouraging words this week to someone who is fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls?

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/4-sin-in-the-church-sabbath-school-lesson-teaching-plan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=4-sin-in-the-church-sabbath-school-lesson-teaching-plan

Daily Lesson for Sunday 19th of July 2026

Throughout Christian history, theologians, pastors, and laypeople have studied the New Testament in order to determine what the church should look like. We marvel, for instance, at the church of Acts. But we quickly lose sight of one significant element: people have problems. It seems that we can also read the New Testament to see what the Bible says about what a church should not look like. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians are a good starting point.

The expression “his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1) suggests that Paul refers to the incestuous relationship between a man and his stepmother. This situation was probably reported “by those of Chloe’s household” (1 Corinthians 1:11, NKJV). Incest was reputed as such a terrible sin that it was “not tolerated even among pagans” (1 Corinthians 5:1, ESV). And yet, it is now happening in an early Christian church? Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 show that he is in shock at the report that a church member was doing this.

Image © Providence Collection at Goodsalt.com

However, this bad situation gets worse. Paul is more stunned when realizing that, rather than feeling sorry about the situation, the Corinthians were even proud of themselves for tolerating such a sin (1 Corinthians 5:1-2, NIV). Thus, he intends to correct not only the immoral man but also the church for its apparent dissonance between faith and practice. In fact, Paul makes it clear constantly that the church’s indulgent attitude toward the incestuous man demanded a correction. But being proud of such a sexual scandal, and even boasting of it (1 Corinthians 5:2,6)! This was too much for Paul to bear. What was wrong with these people?

We don’t have an explanation for why the church in Corinth was so tolerant of the incestuous man. Perhaps he was a wealthy member from whom the church benefited? Or, maybe, because “all things are lawful” (1 Corinthians 6:12), they didn’t deem it the way that they should have. We just don’t know.

Whatever the true reasons, they became blind to a flagrant violation of the Scriptures (Leviticus 18:7-8). And they were even proud of it.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26c-04-dissonance-between-faith-and-practice/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26c-04-dissonance-between-faith-and-practice

Is this True, Somewhat True, or False: Spiritual Maturity can be gauged by how one engages with others in the church? Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 3 – Unity in Christ. It’s the fastest hour of the week! Get this week’s keyword workbook HERE.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/unity-in-christ-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=unity-in-christ-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 18th of July 2026

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study

1 Corinthians 5:1-13, 2 Corinthians 2:5-10, 1 Corinthians 6:1-13, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 7:1-9.

Memory Text:

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NIV).

Our brains are like sponges: whatever is brought to them, via our senses, stays in them. We might not be conscious of most of what comes in (we’d be unable to think clearly if we did remember everything), but it’s all there, and, to some degree, impacts what we think, feel, and do.

That’s why it’s so easy for us, even as Christians, to be impacted by all the bad things around us. The Christian church, from the start, has struggled with this problem. Where, for instance, did Sunday keeping come from? Did the church just pull it out of the air? Of course not. It came from the culture around it.

And we can see this principle unfolding here in Corinth. After an appeal against factionalism (1 Corinthians 1:1-31; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 1 Corinthians 3:1-23; 1 Corinthians 4:1-21), Paul now turns to issues related to sexual immorality, lawsuits, prostitution, marriage, and singleness (1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20; 1 Corinthians 7:1-40). The standards of the world affected them extensively. The factionalism portrayed in 1 Corinthians 1:1-31; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 1 Corinthians 3:1-23; 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 opened the door for the moral behavior denounced in the ensuing chapters. How does Paul seek to address this sin in the church, and what lessons can we take from what he wrote?

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 25.

Sunday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26c-04-sin-in-the-church/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26c-04-sin-in-the-church

Inside Story for Friday 17th of July 2026

This mission story offers an inside look at the results of a previous Thirteenth Sabbath project. In Spain, Sagunto Adventist College received part of a 2019 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering for its theology department, where Dante Herrmann studied. This quarter, your offering will again help spread the gospel in the Inter-European Division, which includes Spain.

Dante Herrmann had two dreams: to be a millionaire or a tattoo artist.

Everyone laughed when he, as a 12-year-old boy, eagerly shared his first dream. “If you want to be rich, you have to work,” they said.

“No, I can become a millionaire without working,” Dante replied.

He was a dreamer who needed a miracle for his dream to come true.

Dante himself was a miracle. His mother had tried for years to have a baby, and doctors finally had told her to give up. Then Dante was born. But he was a sickly baby, and doctors said he needed to move to a tropical climate to survive. So, his parents left their home in Germany to live in the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa.

By the age of 16, Dante wasn’t any closer to becoming a millionaire or a tattoo artist. A hyperactive teen, he followed the advice of exasperated teachers and dropped out of high school to work as a handyman. But the work was hard and the pay was poor, and he began dealing drugs, mainly cocaine. A year later, he made a pact with the devil, offering his soul for drugs, wild living, and rock ‘n’ roll. He sealed the deal with a tattoo on his hand.

For a while, Dante felt happy. He wasn’t a millionaire, but money and pleasure never seemed to end. Yet, he felt a hole in his heart. He saw that his drugs were ruining lives, and he sensed an inner voice, asking, Do you think it’s OK to get rich at the expense of others?

Then fear set in. He had trouble with the police, and he fled to Germany, where his mother had moved after leaving his father a few years earlier. Life wasn’t better in Germany, and Dante ended up back on the Canary Islands seven years later, when he was 25. He quit drugs, and a friend taught him how to be a tattoo artist. Dante was pleased to fulfill one of his childhood dreams, and he was making good money, although not enough to be wealthy.

Then he learned that he could still become a millionaire. His father, a rock music promoter and club owner, sued a major beverage company for billions of dollars in damages in a copyright infringement lawsuit. His father had trademarked a brand name that the company was using without his consent. He offered Dante 10 percent of the proceeds if he helped with the suit.

At the same time, a friend gave Dante a Bible, and he began to read it. He read, “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it” (Proverbs 10:22, NIV). He thought, If I give God my heart, He will bless me and make me rich. He decided to give his heart to Jesus.

Today, Dante is rich, but not in the way that the world calculates wealth. “When I was a tattoo artist, I wanted the hole in my heart to be filled,” said Dante, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor in Germany. “I thought I had to be a millionaire for the hole to be filled. But all I needed was Jesus.”

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26c-03-inside-story-two-dreams/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26c-03-inside-story-two-dreams