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/

Daily Lesson for Monday 6th of January 2025

The Bible often depicts God’s special love relationship with us by using family or kinship metaphors, particularly metaphors of the love between a husband and wife or of a good mother for her child. These metaphors are used particularly to depict the special relationship between God and His covenant people. This is a relationship of covenantal love, which involves not only God’s love for His people but also expectations that people will accept this love and will love Him (and one another) in return.

Image © Educational Concepts Collection at Goodsalt.com

Deuteronomy 7:9 describes a special kind of love that God has with His covenant people, a relationship that is partially dependent on whether or not they remain faithful. God’s love is not conditional, but the covenant relationship with His people is.

The word translated “lovingkindness” or “mercy” in Deuteronomy 7:9, ḥesed, itself exemplifies the covenantal aspect of divine love (and much more). The word ḥesed is often used to describe the greatness of God’s mercy, goodness, and love. Among other things, ḥesed refers to the loving-kindness, or steadfast love, for another within an existing reciprocal love relationship. It also initiates such a relationship with the expectation that the other party will show this loving-kindness in return.

God’s ḥesed shows that His loving-kindness is extremely reliable, steadfast, and enduring. Yet, at the same time, the reception of the bene­fits of ḥesed is conditional, dependent upon the willingness of His people to obey and to maintain their end of the relationship (see 2 Samuel 22:26, 1 Kings 8:23, Psalms 25:10, Psalms 32:10, 2 Chronicles 6:14).

God’s steadfast love is the basis of all love relationships, and we could never match that love. God not only freely gave us existence but also in Christ He freely gave Himself for us. “ ‘Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends’ ” (John 15:13, NKJV). No question, the greatest expression of God’s love was revealed when the Lord “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8, NKJV).

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-02-covenantal-love-2/

Daily Lesson for Sunday 5th of January 2025

Scripture is clear: God loves everyone. The most famous verse of Scripture, John 3:16, proclaims this truth: “ ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’ ” (NKJV).

Image © Phil McKay at Goodsalt.com

Some might think that they are unlovable or that God might love everyone else but not them. Yet, the Bible consistently proclaims that every single person is loved by God. There is no one whom He does not love. And because God loves everyone, He also wants everyone to be saved, as well.

The verse after John 3:16 adds: “ ‘For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved’ ” (John 3:17, NKJV). If it were up to God alone, every human being would accept His love and be saved. Yet, the Lord will not force His love on anyone. People are free to accept or reject it.

And even though some do reject it, God never stops loving them. In Jeremiah 31:3, He proclaims to His people: “ ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you’ ” (NKJV). Elsewhere, the Bible repeatedly teaches that God’s love endures forever (see, for example, Psalms 136:1-26). God’s love never runs out. It is everlasting. This is hard for us to understand because we often find it easy not to love others, don’t we?

However, if we as individuals could learn to experience the reality of that love—that is, to know for ourselves God’s love—how differently we might live and treat others.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-02-the-everlasting-love-of-god/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 4th of January 2025

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Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Peter 3:9, Deuteronomy 7:6-9, Romans 11:22, 1 John 4:7-20, John 15:12, 1 John 3:16.

Memory Text:

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him’ ” (John 14:23, NKJV).

Many have been taught that the Greek word agape refers to a love that is unique to God, while other terms for love, such as phileo, refer to different kinds of love, more deficient than agape. Some claim, too, that agape refers to unilateral love, a love that only gives but never receives, a love entirely independent of human response.

However, careful study of divine love throughout Scripture shows that these ideas, though common, are mistaken. First, the Greek term agape refers not only to God’s love but also to human love, even sometimes misdirected human love (2 Timothy 4:10). Second, throughout Scripture, many terms other than agape refer to God’s love. For example, Jesus taught, “ ‘The Father Himself loves [phileo] you, because you have loved [phileo] Me’ ” (John 16:27, NASB). Here, the Greek term phileo is used not only of human love but also of God’s love for humans. Thus, phileo does not refer to a deficient kind of love but to God’s love itself.

Scripture also teaches that God’s love is not unilateral but deeply relational, in that it makes a profound difference to God whether or not humans reflect His love back to Him and to others.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 11.

Sunday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-02-covenantal-love/

Key Thought: God freely loves everyone. His love is generous and merciful, as He voluntarily chooses to reveal His sacrificial love, even when people are unfaithful.
January 4, 2025

1. Have a volunteer read Hosea 14:1-4

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What do these verses reveal about God’s steadfast love for His people?
3.  Personal Application: In what ways does God continue to reveal or manifest His love to you? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “Why is these so much misunderstanding of God’s character? Does a misunderstanding of hell make Him out to be a God of hate instead of love? Do people’s ideas of God as love override the fact that He is a God of justice as well?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read John John 17:24, Revelation 4:11

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does this tell us about God’s love before Creation and His choice to create in the first place?
3. Personal Application: What does it tell you that God continues to bestow His love on this world despite the evil, disbelief, and rebellion? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “How do the three angel’s messages reveal God’s love to humankind? Why do the second and third angel’s messages seem so harsh?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Matthew 22:1-14

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is the meaning of this parable?
3. Personal Application: How do you know your life shows you have accepted the wedding invitation and have come appropriately clothed? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “How can God love those who don’t know Him, those who don’t want Him in their lives, and those who refuse to follow His rules and hate them.” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read John 10:17,18; Galatians 2:20

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How does it make you feel that Christ came of His own free will and initiative to overcome sin in the flesh and die the sinner’s death on our behalf so we could be saved?
3. Personal Application: What would it spiritually mean for us to lay down our lives for our friends? How much love do we have for people’s souls? 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/1-god-loves-freely-teaching-plan/