Overall Question: What part does love play in the Christian life?
Memory Text: 1 Corinthians 13:13 CEV “For now there are faith, hope, and love. But of these three, the greatest is love.”
Sunday – Love, the Fabric of Life
Matthew 22:37-39 ESV “37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV “1 ¶ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
1 John 3:14 ESV “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
Monday – The Old Testament God, a God of Love
God’s love in creation – Genesis 1:26-31 KJ21 “26 ¶ And God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." 29 ¶ And God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat"; and it was so. 31 ¶ And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Genesis 2:21-25 KJ21 “21 ¶ And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 22 And the rib which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
Providing a solution for the sin problem - Genesis 3:15 KJ21 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel."”
Genesis 22:8 KJ21 “And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering." So they went both of them together.”
Isaiah 53 KJ21 “1 ¶ Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. 4 ¶ Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people was He stricken. 9 And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. 10 ¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He hath poured out His soul unto death. And He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
The Gift of the Sabbath – Exodus 31:12-17 NRSV “12 ¶ The LORD said to Moses: 13 You yourself are to speak to the Israelites: "You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the sabbath, because it is holy for you; everyone who profanes it shall be put to death; whoever does any work on it shall be cut off from among the people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the Israelites shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."”
The Continuous Gift of Prophecy – Amos 3:7 NRSV “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.”
Tuesday – The New Testament God, a God of Love
God’s Gift of His Son – John 3:16 Moffatt NT “For God loved the world so dearly that he gave up his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life, instead of perishing.”
The Son’s Giving of Himself – Philippines 2:5-8 Holman “5 Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. 7 Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, 8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.”
The Gift of the Holy Spirit – John 14:16-18 Holman “16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you. 18 ¶ I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.”
Acts 2:1-4 God’s Word to the Nations “1 ¶ When Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Passover, came, all the believers were together in one place. 2 Suddenly, a sound like a violently blowing wind came from the sky and filled the whole house where they were staying. 3 Tongues that looked like fire appeared to them. The tongues arranged themselves so that one came to rest on each believer. 4 All the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.”
The Availability of Spiritual Gifts – Ephesians 4:11-13 CEV “11 Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, 12 so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong. 13 This will continue until we are united by our faith and by our understanding of the Son of God. Then we will be mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him.”
The Certainty of Salvation – 1 John 3:1-3 CEV “1 ¶ Think how much the Father loves us. He loves us so much that he lets us be called his children, as we truly are. But since the people of this world did not know who Christ is, they don’t know who we are. 2 My dear friends, we are already God’s children, though what we will be hasn’t yet been seen. But we do know that when Christ returns, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is. 3 This hope makes us keep ourselves holy, just as Christ is holy.”
An Eternal Future in an Environment of Love – 2 Peter 3:13 ESV “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
Wednesday – A Response of Love
Deuteronomy 6:5-6 MKJV “5 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart.”
Matthew 22:37-40 MKJV “37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second [is] like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 5:44 20th Century NT “I, however, say to you—Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,”
Matthew 25:31-46 20th Century NT “31 ¶ When the Son of Man has come in his glory and all the angels with him, then he ‘will take his seat on his throne of glory’; 32 And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people—just as a shepherd separates sheep from goats— 33 Placing the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, enter upon possession of the Kingdom prepared for you ever since the beginning of the world. 35 For, when I was hungry, you gave me food; when I was thirsty, you gave me drink; when I was a stranger, you took me to your homes; 36 When I was naked, you clothed me; when I fell ill, you visited me; and when I was in prison, you came to me.’ 37 Then the Righteous will answer ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you? Or thirsty, and give you a drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger, and take you to our homes? Or naked, and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill, or in prison, and come to you?’ 40 And the King will reply ‘I tell you, as often as you did it to one of these my Brothers, however lowly, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those on his left ‘Go from my presence, accursed, into the ‘aeonian fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels.’ 42 For, when I was hungry, you gave me no food; when I was thirsty, you gave me no drink; 43 When I was a stranger, you did not take me to your homes; when I was naked, you did not clothe me; and, when I was ill and in prison, you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they, in their turn, will answer ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or ill, or in prison, and did not supply your wants?’ 45 And then he will reply ‘I tell you, as often as you failed to do it to one of these, however lowly, you failed to do it to me.’ 46 And these last will go away ‘into aeonian punishment,’ but the righteous ‘into aeonian life.’"”
1 Peter 1:22 20th Century NT “Now that, by your obedience to the Truth, you have purified your lives, so that there is growing up among you a genuine brotherly affection, love one another earnestly with all your hearts;”
Thursday – Love Personified
Luke 17:12-19 NLT “12 As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, 13 crying out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" 14 He looked at them and said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, their leprosy disappeared. 15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, "Praise God, I’m healed!" 16 He fell face down on the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, "Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? 18 Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?" 19 And Jesus said to the man, "Stand up and go. Your faith has made you well."”
John 13:1-17 CEV “1 ¶ It was before Passover, and Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and to return to the Father. He had always loved his followers in this world, and he loved them to the very end. 2 Even before the evening meal started, the devil had made Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, decide to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that he had come from God and would go back to God. He also knew that the Father had given him complete power. 4 So during the meal Jesus got up, removed his outer garment, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 He put some water into a large bowl. Then he began washing his disciples’ feet and drying them with the towel he was wearing. 6 But when he came to Simon Peter, that disciple asked, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" 7 Jesus answered, "You don’t really know what I am doing, but later you will understand." 8 "You will never wash my feet!" Peter replied. "If I don’t wash you," Jesus told him, "you don’t really belong to me." 9 Peter said, "Lord, don’t wash just my feet. Wash my hands and my head." 10 Jesus answered, "People who have bathed and are clean all over need to wash just their feet. And you, my disciples, are clean, except for one of you." 11 Jesus knew who would betray him. That is why he said, "except for one of you." 12 After Jesus had washed his disciples’ feet and had put his outer garment back on, he sat down again. Then he said: Do you understand what I have done? 13 You call me your teacher and Lord, and you should, because that is who I am. 14 And if your Lord and teacher has washed your feet, you should do the same for each other. 15 I have set the example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you. 16 I tell you for certain that servants are not greater than their master, and messengers are not greater than the one who sent them. 17 You know these things, and God will bless you, if you do them.”
John 19:25-27 BBE “25 Now by the side of the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 So when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple who was dear to him, he said to his mother, Mother, there is your son! 27 Then he said to the disciple, There is your mother! And from that hour the disciple took her to his house.”
2 Corinthians 5:14 Weymouth “For the love of Christ overmasters us, the conclusion at which we have arrived being this—that One having died for all, His death was their death,”
Philippines 2:2 Weymouth “united by mutual love, with harmony of feeling giving your minds to one and the same object.”
Friday – Further Study
Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 12 – “Jesus did not suppress one word of truth, but He uttered it always in love. He exercised the greatest tact and thoughtful, kind attention in His intercourse with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness. He spoke the truth, but always in love. He denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity; but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved, which refused to receive Him, the way, the truth, and the life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them with pitying tenderness. His life was one of self-denial and thoughtful care for others. Every soul was precious in His eyes.”
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James Brenneman
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